Interchanging Idioms

Inspired by the Anthem Rock bands of the 70's and 80's – groups like Yes, Kansas, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Anthem Rock has hard driving beats with intricate melodic lines and layers of different sounds – all features of the classical music I gravitate toward. This is not a pastiche of any particular song or band, but rather a homage to the artistry of these musicians. Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones has three movements. As word play, colloquialisms, and double entendré are common for song and album titles in the rock world, I indulge in the same practice. "Taken for Granite" - 1st Movement "Salt of the Earth" - 2nd Movement "Clean Slate" - 3rd Movement Even the title of the entire piece is a play on words "Skimming Rocks & Skipping Stones" In geological terms there are three types of rock      Igneous      Sedimentary      Metamorphic Granite is igneous, salt is se...

I wouldn't call myself a control freak, but I think maybe everyone who knows me probably would Garry Boyle has been working on the first track of my Symphony No. 2 Birds of a Feather due out Friday, July 6th. While we've been in communication about a number of aspects for the recording, he's in Edinburgh (Scotland) and I'm in Southern California. He's also been extremely busy with paying gigs so communications have been kept to a minimum. I've been pacing the floor a lot. It's 6am on Wednesday the 4th of July, a holiday in the US, so I should be nicely tucked in my bed enjoying extra time with my wife --and yet, here I am typing on my blog, feeling utterly useless. There are plenty of things for me to be doing. I need to get images from the score for the videos coming out. I need to finish the score for Promethea a project for miniOperas There are several other composition projects that need attention I have a webpage to provide the initial design ...

Flute Toys : A challenging new work for flautist Rachel Perez Tetreault The music is just in the opening stages, but it's looking very promising. The opening movement provides lots of opportunity to showcase the talents of Ms Tetreault, including flourishes, flutter and double tonguing and leaps like only a flute can do. The theme is tender, almost childlike, but anything but simple. The 2nd movement (not yet ready for public viewing) will be soft and cuddly, like a stuffed animal. The 3rd movement will be on the extreme side (and probably very short) indicative of a spinning top. I hope there will be 2-3 more "toys" included in this collection with a final "toy box" to round out the piece - a collection of all the themes melded together. While I'm working on the piece as a flute and piano work, ultimately the music will be scored for orchestra. However, having both versions gives the performer options as it isn't always possible to have an ...

Being compared to Aaron Copland makes this composer feel pretty good! Robert McNeil wrote a review of a recent concert at the Lamont School of Music in his blog OpusColorado . The Lamont Symphony Orchestra featured a variety of new works by composers at the school, including one by yours truly -- Trumpet Concerto 3rd movement . "This is truly a fine composition. This is another work where I would like to examine the score, because it seemed to me that intentionally or unintentionally, Mr. Michael made use of what theory students have learned to tag as “white key diatonicism.” This is the style of composition personified by the American composer Aaron Copland, and as I have said before in very oversimplified terms, white key diatonicism is where key signatures and enharmonic equivalence are taken as points of departure for a study of the diatonic-chromatic relationship. In other words, key relationships do not follow established rules of traditional harmony. But I m...

When is language offensive and if Theatre and Opera are to push the bounds, to make us think when (if ever) is censorship appropriate? When writing "Gee, Officer Krupke" for West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim attempted to be the first Broadway lyricist to say the word "fuck." “I realized, once I thought of the title, that the song would afford me the opportunity of being the first lyricist to use a serious four-letter obscenity in a Broadway musical … [but] such language had never been heard in a musical, and here was my chance to make my mark by having a loud choral 'Fuck you!' as the punchline of a song …. All was well until we played it for the producers … I was in despair until Lenny came up with ‘Krup You!’, which may be the best lyric line in the show … ” For those that don't know, I recently ran into the same sort of censorship. Last Winter I wrote a short opera entitled "DINKs." The subject matter is the day in the life of a you...

Way back in May of 2008 , I remarked on the first night of rehearsal with the Edinburgh Symphony . Well, last night I was treated (if that's the right word) to yet another rehearsal of my music (as conductor) with the Boulder Symphony Orchestra . Interesting how similar and yet very different these rehearsals were. I learned from that first rehearsal to write in reminder accidentals. My string writing in Exchanging Glances is much stronger than when I first wrote "You Can't Catch Rabbit's With Drums." Phrases, bow marking and use of divisi is much better. However, my music is more rhythmically intense now. "Rabbit's" is pretty strong rhythmically, but Exchanging Glances is quite a bit more difficult. The way the rhythms shift within the meter is more subtle and thus much more difficult to handle both as a conductor and as a performer. It was the musicians first glance at the music last night and they did extremely well handling all ...

How do you think you'd fare? Would it be a picture you'd want to show other people? or something you'd hide away, relishing in the moment you were there with the "beautiful people" but not something you want anyone else to see. Consider how you would feel at the moment the camera clicks and you'll have some idea what it is like as a composer to share a concert with Mozart, Haydn AND Beethoven. Last night the Boulder Symphony Orchestra performed the US Premier of the 3rd movement of Symphony No. 1, a little piece entitled "You Can't Catch Rabbits With Drums." It was sandwiched in between Mozart's Symphony No.32 and Haydn's Symphony No. 90. The second half of the concert was Beethoven's First. Albeit the other three works were classical era pieces and mine is definitely a 21st century composition - complete with a rocking percussion line, it's still a bit daunting to be placed among such illustrious company. John Adams rec...

I just finished String Quartet No 2, Quattro Canzoni Degli Umori (four tunes of the humors) . Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to say it's finished as there is still some cleanup and notational issues to deal with. Still, for the most part, it's finished, done, complete and nearly ready for performance. Which is a good thing since I hope to have it in my recital coming up on October 12th. The piece is only 15 mins in length and packed with intensity. Program notes and a midi realization of the music is available at the above link.

It's been a long time coming, but after much harassing by readers, fans and family my composers website is up and running (albeit parts are still under construction). ChipMichael.com There are samples of some of the music with ways to download portions of the scores and even order full copies. Of course, for those interested in performance of any of my material can contact me directly at my email . Of course, you can always contact through this blog as well. Eventually, Interchanging Idioms will move to the website to allow me a chance to provide more features. One step at a time.

I wrote some music for a BBC Film contest several years ago. Although I didn't win it was fun writing the music and I think the video turned out all right.

This is a funny world. As a composer I am constantly trying to get my stuff played. Beyond that I am trying to get the music published so other musicians who don't know me will want to play it. In a way I am also trying to make a living, so by publishing the music get some money in return. But music publishing isn't the only form of publication in the music business. There is also the written word in journals, magazines and other various publications that print articles about music. I'd never thought of myself as one of those musicians (read: musicologist) because I'm a composer, not a writer. However, as part of the educational process composers do occasionally write papers about other composers and their works. You could say I am a writer as I have this blog. But lots of other composers have blogs, John Adams , Philip Glass , Nico Muhly and Greg Sandow to name just a few of the thousands writing the occasional comment about music. They also have thei...

It's been a hectic 8 or 9 weeks this quarter in Graduate studies, but I still find time to compose. The last couple of weeks I've finally gotten around to putting this little piece together and it turned out all right (even thought the link below is a midi realization, hopefully you can get an idea as to what it might sound like). The idea has been mulling around in my head since last November when I had the chance to work with a fellow student and excellent horn player. I wanted to write something that wasn't a horn concerto and still allow the horn to have some moments, but as a solo instrument and as a section. In the end, all the brass gets a good workout (even the trombones which should make my father happy). It probably still needs a little fine tuning to really be ready for prime time, but it needs to settle for a bit before I continue to muck with it. Feel free to comment... Cantilenas

If you don't know the music of Eric Whitacre you're missing out on one of the bright stars in the classical music world and probably the greatest US choral composer is history. And he's young, so there's still time for LOTS more music. However, the point of this post to two fold: 1) Apologize for not posting much this month 2) Comment about a recent performance of Eric's music The month of February has been beyond busy (and its not over yet). My graduate studies have taken on a whole new level of activity and so, unfortunately, my posting has suffered. I've also missed a dozen or more really great concerts in the Denver area this month. So, while I am very much enjoying the learning - the lack of getting to concerts and telling you all about them as been painful!!! March should be much better. As for performing the choral music of Eric Whitacre... This was a real treat. I hadn't heard of him prior to coming to Denver University. I ...

I am very please to say last night's concert of my music went VERY well. Here are a few of the pieces from it: Bamboo Suite Caitlin Conklin – Oboe, Danielle Smoot - English Horn, Adam Lusk - Bassoon Bamboo Suite is a piece written for a trio of double reeds. In four movements, the piece covers a great deal of territory concerning 20th century music. The opening, First Sprouts - Simplicity, explores interval based music. The piece is written taking a root note with notes one semi-tone up, two semi-tones up and 5 semi-tones up. A pitch class of four notes was chosen to cross beyond the three instruments – require more than one note per player to complete the set. Scherzo – The Great Grass, takes the motive of the first movement and plays with the rhythm obscuring the pulse again and again in a playful manner. The Choral – Delicate Blossoms explores the tonal color of the various instruments utilizing alternate fingerings as well. Finale – Versatility is a “neo-romantic...

Interchanging Idioms had over 61,000 visitors in 2009 27 CD's reviewed, 60 concert reviews and over 850 posts We here at Interchanging Idioms would like to thank our readers, subscribers and friends helping to make this one of the top Classical Music blogs on the internet today. This is just a hobby for us, but obviously one you are enjoying... so we will endeavor to keep up the pace through 2010. If you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments, please let us know. Happy New Year     - from all of us at Interchanging Idioms

My sincere apologies for all my loyal readers who have been wondering what's up with the last week - and a serious lack of anything new. I am currently studying for my Masters in Music Composition at Denver University and this week (Nov 16-23) is the final week of the quarter. So, everything is due NOW and there was a lot of it. Add to this a number of concerts, recitals and other events to attend and I've been a bit distracted. The week isn't over, but I am finished with most of the work so I should be able to get back to regular posts and updates as to what's happening in the classical music world. I've been reading my inbox and there are only 50 or so messages. Hopefully that will be caught up by the end of the weekend. On a side note, I do have a concert of my music coming January 28th. For those of you in Denver look for updates on this blog. If you're not in Denver at that time I'll try and post a few highlight mp3's here in the week o...

I was requested to write something for the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and limited to two minutes - something they could sight read and yet still be an effective 2 minute piece. I submitted two proposals, Breathing and Materia Prima . They opted for Breathing as it has more regular rhythms. Materia Prima has a 13/8 time signature and is probably a bit much to expect a University orchestra, even a good one, to sound good on their first reading. Breathing was the one selected. I am still writing on the Materia Prima , because I really like the idea and the intense rhythms - but I'll probably lengthen it to 7 or 8 minutes. After a couple weeks work here is a realization of Breathing (not yet seen by the orchestra). This should give you a rough idea as to what I hope they might sound like - if I've put all the dots in the right places. The concept for the music is the four stages of Buddhist meditation,      Shamatha – mental clarity    ...

For the past few months I've been providing links to the various artist's sites when they are mentioned in articles I'm posting. I'm not terribly consistent in providing links for every one, but I try to include any I can find. It amazes me how many artists, performing at the professional level, do not have a personal website, a MySpace page or biographical information dedicated to their career. Many artists are listed with their agency (IMGArtists does a nice job of create a bio page for all the artist they represent), but this isn't quite the same as a personal webpage. I know I, too, am lacking a website, but since my career is just beginning, I'm not sure how many people would be looking for my presence on the web. A website is really only good if people are trying to find you. It doesn't really promote you like a newspaper or magazine article does (as a website doesn't go into peoples homes; people have to go looking for it). Still, if you're ...

There have been a number of requests to hear the symphony so I've put together this player of the entire work. Warning: it's 55 minutes in length. So, unless you're got some time to listen to the entire thing you might want to just listen to the 3rd movement (what most consider my best movement in the symphony) - although I tend to favor the 4th movement. This symphony, along with other compositions of mine, are available on MySpace.com/Chip_Michael Figuratively Speaking is an orchestral metaphor met-a-phor ( m t-fôr ,-fr) n. one thing conceived as representing another; a symbol Metaphor (from the Greek: μεταφορά - metaphora) is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]." More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Thus, the first subject can be ...

Every now and then I come across a website, blog or other such internet site that really strikes a chord ( - yes, we are taking music websites...). Well, My Piano Friends is one such website. It is fun, interesting, entertaining, informative and generally all-around a good read. Amanda (the blog author) isn't as active a blog poster as I am (she has only five posts so far this year) but what she has is well worth the trip - and I'm not just saying this because her last article is a circular post back to my blog! If you get the chance, watch the video of Gabriela Montero ; it's amazing. Some of Amanda's posts are also from the heart. " Do You Market Yourself Like Rapunzel? " where she wonders if, in trying not to prostitute herself, she ends up waiting for the prince to come recognize her artistic ability. I'm no knight in shinning armor and even if I was, I doubt my recognizing her artistic ability or her charming blog would really do anything ...