While my sisters and I were curating the contents of our parents’ estate, I found and collected a group of compositions and arrangements that my mother, Margaret Morgensen Owen wrote. Notable about this is —I never knew that she composed ANYTHING. We always knew her arranging skills, which she routinely employed during the years that our family performed anywhere that would listen to us.
I knew that I would re-turn my attention to them, someday. Because of still raw emotions, I had not been able to visit these pieces UNTIL this year. The song “Christmas Bells,” pictured below, is one of the pieces that I referenced above. I hadn’t noticed until I was looking at the picture that the lyrics are by her accomplished mother —artist, poet, author AND suffragette, Emma Breck Morgensen.
My Christmas project for 2024 has been to arrange, perform and record her composition. This is the first project on which I have used and recorded Yamaha’s “Vocaloid” singing synthesizer. The female voice that I chose was one of approximately a dozen voices available. A multitude of adjustments are available for continuous control of many aspects of each singer’s sound —similar to all other synthesizers. I have only begun experiment with it, and hopefully to use it for many more projects —ones that I would not have been able to do without a readily available vocalist.
Because Mother typed the lyrics to “The Christmas Bells” on her (old) manual Underwood typewriter, and not on her newer (script-font) electric Smith-Corona —indicates that this piece was written before the mid 1960’s. Obviously because her name says “Owen,” it was after 1950, her wedding anniversary.
My manner of working on a project like this one —involves playing individual parts a multitude of times, exploring parts until I find ones that are tolerable for me to me to record. I have been doing that for the past month —experimenting with piano, bass, and string parts —finally ditching my plan to add B3 organ —so that I might finish not later than today.
This is the first CMMM video that I have hosted at my Creative Minds’ Music’s domain. Till now I have posted my videos on YouTube, which also I did with this one. However, after having difficulties making this square-not-rectangular video display properly (to be stored with my other videos, and not in the “Shorts” section because of the fact that is both brief in duration, and not rectangular) here, this is an experiment —self-hosting a video on CMMM for the first time. Please let me know if you experience any difficulty viewing or hearing the video.
I barely finished in time for its Christmas debut. I hope that you enjoy my work.
Merry Christmas, 2024 from Stan Owen, Jr. & Creative Minds’ Music.
The first movement, marked “Assez modéré,” features a playful and whimsical melody. Its simplicity is characteristic of Poulenc’s ability to create engaging music with a minimal number of notes.
The second movement, “Très modéré,” offers an introspective contrast. Its flowing lines and chromatic harmonic shifts create a sense of calm reflection.
The final movement, “Alerte,” brings the suite to a spirited conclusion. With its quick tempo and vitality, this movement captures the essence of “Perpetual Motion.”
I cannot help but be amused when I recognize that I thought my piano-teacher, Mrs. Jones was “elderly” when she taught me this piece in my tenth-grade (10th) grade year of high-school. Now, I am four years older than when she was my teacher.
I first performed “Mouvements Perpétuels” in our annual spring-recital in Mrs. Jones’ living room which was dominated by two massive and ancient, mahogany-black concert-grand Steinway pianos. With the pianos, that looked something like big caskets —along with her students and their parents, there was quite a crowd. As I remember, she had more than one recital each spring, with one featuring the more elementary students and the other with her advanced students like me.
Composed in 1918 when Poulenc was just 19 years old, “Mouvements Perpétuels” is a suite of three short movements for solo piano. The suite was premiered in December 1918 by Poulenc’s teacher, the renowned pianist Ricardo Viñes, and was dedicated to the artist Victor Hugo.
After returning to Paris from serving in the French Army during WWI, Poulenc associated with a number of other well known musicians and artists who were active in Paris at the time. This included Satie who was a musical mentor. I have previously recorded and written about Satie’s “Gymnopédies.”
This is my first audio-video recording project that features a four (4) video-camera setup. All four videos were recorded in HD (1920×1080) resolution and then edited using Blender 3D’s video-sequencer. Two of the videos are “portrait” aspect and two are in “landscape” aspect. Two cameras were iPhones (10 and 12), one is a Sony RX100 M7 “point-and-shoot,” and the fourth is an AKASO Brave4 action-camera that I originally purchased as a bike-camera.
I puzzled how to arrange four HD videos into a shared viewing space. This particular arrangement of the four videos was one of five or six that I sketched out on paper as an exercise. I am pleased with the result.
It was fun and rewarding to return to this piece after many (60+) years. This time, I was able to approach it with more than a half-century of additional musical understanding and experience. At the time I learned it, many of the passages were discordant to my ears. Now, I accept what I hear as “normal” from years of listening. Additionally, some of the more expansive hand stretches present in the notation —are made easier by having larger and older hands now.
For several months I have been preparing to record by “playing” this piece more than “practicing” it —while I decided what to write about its title. The French word “nègre” is “negro” in English, and can be considered both offensive and outdated in modern contexts. Additionally, the title has kindled significant social commentary that has led to discussions about the appropriateness of the title. I eventually asked for ChatGBT’s help composing a disclaimer about the title of Cyril Scott’s Op. 58, No. 5 composition, “Dance Nègre.”
“The title of Cyril Scott's 'Dance Nègre' reflects the historical period in which it was composed, a time when language and societal norms differed significantly from today's standards. It is presented in its original form to preserve the integrity of the historical work and does not endorse any outdated or insensitive views. We acknowledge the progress in our understanding and respect for all cultures and communities."
Cyril Scott‘s “Dance Nègre” Op. 58, No. 5, like many compositions from the early 20th century (published 1908) was influenced by a naive fascination with non-Western cultures. This “dance” was composed during a time when there was a surge of interest in African and African-American culture(s) among European composers and audiences. The title is indicative of the period in which it was composed. Many such pieces, likely including this one were based on Western interpretations and stereotypes of non-Western music, rather than on authentic musical traditions.
I first played this composition during my early high-school years when Mrs. Katherine Jones was still my piano teacher. I will eventually share more of my memories about Mrs. Jones.
This is the first time that I have recorded myself in my studio using both video and audio simultaneously. And, though I have previously used multiple cameras for video productions, this was the first time that I post-processed them to synchronize and display multiple videos at the same time.
I made editing “cuts” between “takes” in the video that observant viewers will notice are not present in the audio track. The explanation is that even though the resultant video was assembled from separate “takes,” by using additional “secret MIDI sauce,” I was able to create/record a continuous piano audio performance from its realtime-recorded MIDI —then, to re-synchronize existing segmented video-tracks to the now continuous audio performance, using visual cues and by being able to align the “waveforms” of the new audio and of the audio paired with/to each video-track.
The stool that I am sitting on in the video is the “Motion Stool” made by Uplift Desks for their “sit-stand” desks. It is adjustable from chair height to being tall enough to provide support when standing. I have several in each of my studios. In the video you may notice that though being very stable, the stool leans and rocks while I am playing to facilitate reaching each end of the keyboard.
You will notice a wireless computer-numeric-keypad on the top-right of the synthesizer-keyboard I am playing. You will see me reach for the keypad multiple times during my performance. I am turning the “pages” of the musical score (PDF file) on the video-monitor in front of me —out of sight of camera views. Reaching is distracting, and disrupts the music’s “flow.” In the future I plan to find a way to use foot-pedals or such, instead…
My performance of this piece differs significantly from most that you will encounter. One notable recording was made from a performer’s piano-roll performance, and the resultant recorded playback tempo is not a reliable indication of the composer’s intent. Partly because of my emotion and also because of the fact that 1908 was still very much still in the “Romantic” period of musical-history, I have disregarded the published editors’ recommendations regarding several aspects of the piece —its presto tempo, and have not played it “very” fast or “as fast as possible” as prescribed. Additionally, I have modified dynamics from those noted in the published manuscript. Overall, “very soft” editors’ markings were played more loudly, partly because of my choice and also for the realities of “contemporary” listening. I previously mentioned “disturbances in the force” (and flow) when I turn music-pages using the numeric-keypad. Live and learn. “Memorize,” you say… Right…
I wish I could share this performance and video with Mrs. Jones.
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