Category: University of Edinburgh

  • elsewhere, with Mike Svoboda

    elsewhere, with Mike Svoboda

    elsewhere by Edwards/Hayes/Michalakos/Parker/Svoboda Back in May 2012, while Mike Svobodo was visiting Edinburgh to do some workshops with University of Edinburgh postgraduate students, some locals, including myself, did a free-improvisastion concert with him. We recorded it and finally got around to mixing and mastering it before releasing it on bandcamp in 2017. It’s a single-track…

  • three back-to-back edimpro releases

    three back-to-back edimpro releases

    forest by edimpro alison by edimpro heated by edimpro Just before leaving the UK in September 2017, amongst packing boxes and the fifteen other circles of hell that accompany an international move, I managed to clear the decks of several mixes which had been lying semi-dormant on a hard drive, awaiting my attention. The result…

  • Is tonality dead?

    Is tonality dead?

    “That autopilot mentality … – and ditto the Classic BRITS’ smorgasbord of stale musical leftovers – freeload off the hard fought-for expressive truths of others, reducing to nought those dark, sometimes unknowable, contradictions that give composers of integrity a reason to get up in the morning. Tonality is asset stripped; removed from the context of…

  • What constitutes success?

    What constitutes success?

    Self-mastery is the supreme victory–– much more to be valued than winning control over others. It is a victory that no other being whatsoever can distort or take away. The Dhammapada (attr. to Siddhārtha Gautama aka Buddha) What constitutes success in music and musical composition? High profile popular artists like Robin Thicke are considered runaway…

  • The voice in modern composition

    The voice in modern composition

    There are natural limitations of the human voice which present us with challenges. Amongst these are the difficulty of pitching by ear—as opposed to most instruments’ fingering or key systems—and the concomitant difficulty of realising fast moving lines. There are also the demands and constraints of the specifically Western classical vocal technique, which to at…

  • film music composition feedback

    film music composition feedback

    Some facebook posts and resultant comment threads are worth saving. This one, prompted by having to grade some film music composition, is, in my opinion one of those, mainly because of the intelligent and insightful contributions of my facebook friends, which include both old students and composer/musician colleagues alike: A really old chestnut that’s liable to…

  • Is there a common practice in modern composition today?

    Is there a common practice in modern composition today?

    If we look back to the compositional world surrounding Bach and Handel, or Mozart and Haydn, most people will see more stylistic commonalities than divergences. Is this merely due to historic distance, i.e., that the passage of time makes us less sensitive to difference and more likely to aurally homogenise widely varying styles? Or was…

  • Music Theory MOOC

    Music Theory MOOC

    This course, from the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music (recently ranked first in the UK), is suitable for those who have never studied music academically. It will introduce you to the theory of Western music, providing you with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly.…

  • edimpro on BBC Jazz on 3 from the Edinburgh Festival

    edimpro on BBC Jazz on 3 from the Edinburgh Festival

    On August 18th 2014, edimpro—the free improvisation group I started at the University of Edinburgh in 2009—played at an Edinburgh Festival live broadcast concert for the BBC’s Jazz on 3 programme. The lineup was Jack Weir (electric guitar), Lauren Hayes (piano and electronics), Karin Schistek (keyboard), Pete Furniss (bass clarinet), and myself (tenor sax and…

  • lapslap recording sessions, september 2010

    lapslap recording sessions, september 2010

    lapslap are Michael Edwards (saxophones, laptop), Martin Parker (horns, laptop), and Karin Schistek (piano, Nord synthesiser). We recorded free improvisations in the Reid Hall from the 8th to the 12th of September 2010. This was to be our fourth album on Leo Records. On September 11th, the American percussionist and 9/11 survivor Fritz Welch visited…

  • 5.0 mastering with the TC System 6000

    5.0 mastering with the TC System 6000

    To get to know the various dynamics, EQ, and reverb effects on the TC System 6000 I tried a mastering session with the 5.0 mix files of my piece 24/7: freedom fried for viola d’amore and computer.  This was recorded in September 2006 at ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, by Garth Knox.  It was (is?) to be…