{"id":1702,"date":"2013-09-23T15:17:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T19:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2013-09-23T15:27:30","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T19:27:30","slug":"canon-for-a-rainy-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1702","title":{"rendered":"Canon for a Rainy Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s my latest work of music.&#160; It\u2019s a canon for 2 clarinets and an English horn, with a piano playing the chords:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g2XPsHLqyXc?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A PDF score can be found here: <a href=\"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/music2\/CanonForARainyDay-2.pdf\">Canon for a Rainy Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The canon kind of came out of nowhere.&#160; I was trying to write one last month, but it just wasn\u2019t working, so I scrapped it.&#160; Then I sort of arbitrarily decided to write one with a chord progression of I-IV-I-V-IV-iii-IV-V.&#160; I ended up changing the first V chord to a iii, so in the end the chord progression became I-IV-I-iii-IV-iii-IV-V.&#160; I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good that first I-IV shift can sound with the right melody.&#160; They\u2019re major chords, yet with the appropriate style, there\u2019s something a bit wistful about it, almost nostalgic.&#160; And of course the iii chord only adds to that feeling.<\/p>\n<p>The themes introduced by the first clarinet, then passed to the English horn, then to the second clarinet, contrasting and complimenting each other as they are passed along.&#160; I was originally writing the canon for piano and violins, but I wanted something with a lower range than the violin and I knew clarinets would really compliment the piano.&#160; (Plus, sampled solo strings don\u2019t sound that great in Garritan Personal Orchestra, at least not without a good amount of tweaking, so I don\u2019t work with them much anymore.&#160; I love its woodwinds, though.)&#160; I also wanted an oboe, but its range does not go low enough, so I went with an English horn instead.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I am very pleased with how the canon came out.&#160; It was pouring rain outside as I wrote it, and the canon sounded rather wistful anyway, so the name \u201cCanon for a Rainy Day\u201d seemed appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I was very tired while I was writing this, so the calm lullaby quality of the piece was constantly beckoning me to fall asleep at my desk.&#160; I was able to resist, but when I\u2019m composing when I\u2019m that tired, I\u2019m unable to think straight and it makes the composing process very strange and dream-like.<\/p>\n<p>Also, my pizza went cold while I was obsessed with writing this, so I know what it\u2019s like to sacrifice something for my art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s my latest work of music.&#160; It\u2019s a canon for 2 clarinets and an English horn, with a piano playing the chords: A PDF score can be found here: Canon for a Rainy Day. The canon kind of came out of nowhere.&#160; I was trying to write one last month, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[23],"tags":[672],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-rs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}