The Mechanics of a Blue Sky

This a piece I started writing on piano, then decided to expand to include soprano sax and flute. Originally, I was only going to have one or the other of the woodwinds, but I thought that they might compliment each other nicely...and I think I managed to do that fairly well (at least I hope so!). The title comes from the feeling I get of the piece always moving forward almost like a machine, but with a much softer grace and elegance--almost like floating, but with a constant feeling of foward momentum (no matter how subtle or strong). I've also had some ideas to expand this piece, making this the fourth movement in a four-movement quartet (adding percussion to the mix), where each movement represents one of the four elements (in the order of water, fire, earth, and air [air being this piece]).

What's really interesting is that this piece originally started out as being quarter note=192, but in this performance, the performers never really got it up to speed (oh, the headaches of trying to organize a senior composition recital!), and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised at preferring the piece at this slower tempo. Meter was still an issue...the 5/8 bars still feel more like 3/4 bars in this performance, but alas--it's still a decent recording, and was still the audience's favorite at my senior recital. Enjoy:

The Mechanics of a Blue Sky

I liked this work so much ! The harmonies and melodies were exellent. It reminded me of Pat Metheny, his "A map of the world" album. are you familiar with his work ? If not, you should have a listen, because after listening to this work, Im sure that you will enjoy it.

I didnt particularly like the same patern that you used in the piano. It gets a bit too much after some time. It sounds a bit like rock piano. But if thats the effect you are after, than its fine. But still, you could have done a bit more variation on piano.

Exelent work.

[EDIT: Your Signature is hypnotic !!!!]

Pianoman, hey yet again!

okay, I'm reviewing yet another of your pieces...you're apparently my composer of the hour, haha.

This is hands down my favorite of yours that I have heard. It still incorporates that flowing style you grasp very well, but has much more dimension and variation. I also thought it was very clean, which was nice. Not that all music has to be clean, I just liked it in this case.

The title comes from the feeling I get of the piece always moving forward almost like a machine, but with a much softer grace and elegance--almost like floating, but with a constant feeling of foward momentum (no matter how subtle or strong).

Yes, that came across very well.

I've also had some ideas to expand this piece, making this the fourth movement in a four-movement quartet (adding percussion to the mix), where each movement represents one of the four elements (in the order of water, fire, earth, and air [air being this piece]).

You should run with this idea, it could work really well and add even more dimension to the piece. I would have guessed that this one would be air!

Beautiful! I am reminded of the music of Oregon in the Paul McCandless (sp?) years, or perhaps the Paul Winter Consort. I love the folk/jazz parallelisms in the changes - with many major 7th chords. I can see how it could be served by a faster tempo but your instrumentalists did a fine job of interpreting it. I was particularly pleased to note that the where the flute kind of disappeared in the Finale rendering, it was crystal clear in the live recording, a testament to your intuition and orchestrational skills.

Congratulations - I know how nice it is to have a live recording of one's work - You should be very proud of this peice.