new composition influenced by looping and some ramblings

[kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com]

Hi,

I'd like to share my latest composition with you entitled "The Sad  
Little Ghost".

http://kevinkissinger.com/sadlittleghost.shtml

This is the first non-looping work I've composed for nearly a year  
however I think my work with live looping has influenced my non-looped  
work in a few ways, namely:

1) the orchestral tracks are minimal and utilize repetition -- similar  
to looped material

2) the lead (theremin) part is economical -- eschewing "fireworks" and  
focusing on expressive sustained notes.

I am grateful to the folks on the LD list for MANY ideas that have  
become part of my musical vocabularly.  A few recent examples:

. in my organ improvisations I am much more inclined to play in a  
"looped" style... while I am not looping via hardware I often build a  
motive and then just keep it going in my left (or right) hand and then  
weave melodies around it with my spare hand or feet.  (I don't know if  
the church I play at is ready for hardware looping... however I may  
try it sometime  **grins** )

. last Sunday, at the end of one improv, I played a single note melody  
alone on a plantive stop... this was an idea suggested on the LD list.  
  And, why not?  With loop devices we can turn one-note-a-time  
instruments into ensembles.  Why not do the opposite and play a  
polyphonic instrument as if it is a mono instrument?

Folks commented that my set at the Y2K7 Loopfest sounded "orchestral"  
-- and I think that my interest in ensemble texture influenced that.   
I have found over the last year that my looped and non-looped work  
influence each other.

The Y2K7 Loopfest was like a massive recharge to my musical batteries.  
  It was a chance to just sit back and soak up music from everyone.  I  
think the word "unique" is overused in the music biz however each set  
WAS unique and each was high-quality.

In particular, one of the challenges with looped music and with music  
in general is to create effective endings.  To see the different  
approaches to this aspect of looping was enlightening, to say the  
least.   Incidentally, the ending to "The Sad Little Ghost" just flew  
into my DAW ... no struggle.

Forgive my rambling here.  Though it has been a week since the  
loopfest, I am still on a real "high" from it and look forward to  
creating a lot of new looped and non-looped music as a result.

-- Kevin