Musings . . . Stephen Hopkins

Cyberspace: the virtual frontier

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:05:08 -0500

I'm really a "Mr. Natural" sort of guy, but it would seem we're living half our lives now online. I've got a day job that I love. But, you know, don't we all want more? I've been contemplating the distinction between a desire for recognition and a desire for fame, and I wonder whether it's just a question of degree.

Forty years or so ago, Andy Warhol made his famous proclamation: "In the future everyone will be famous . . . but only for 15 minutes."

I think every culture needs its heroes and celebrities. I don't think we're that different. What's interesting about ours, though, is how many of us long to be famous, to be so good at something that we're that special.

What I feel now is a need for community. I think we all need recognition. Virtual communities are gathering to fill the void many of us experience when we walk down the streets of our own towns and there's no one there to recognize us.

So . . . "this song goes out to the one I love . . ."

May we all find community here and there.

Moving forward, looking back

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:09:10 -0500

The seasons change with the motions of the heavens, and we're here in that time of transition between winter and spring. On such a cold, rainy day as today, the vision of a warm oasis has its appeal.

And so I launch into the third and final section of Meditations in Blue, with "Oasis Cafe." Here's a piece that didn't come to me in a dream, but, curiously, the title did. Enjoy! SH

Oasis Cafe

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Solstice

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:51:51 -0500

Six years and six days ago, on Christmas morning 2001, I awakened from a dream having just heard a choir singing a wordless progression of descending notes and harmonies that sounded glorious to my ears. I jotted down the descending melodic line, and spent the next several days recreating the harmonies that I had heard.

A month or so later, I had developed it into a piece for the jazz ensemble I directed at North Florida Community College. This was my last semester there before moving north. The band did it justice! It helped the improvisations that the D minor pentatonic scale fit over the entire piece--which was not immediately obvious because of all the harmonic shifts between B-flat and B-natural, and E-flat and E-natural.

I remember during one rehearsal in particular, one of the band members asked, "So, what key is this piece in, anyway?" I paused to consider the question. "I don't know," I said. "I'm not sure. I'll have to give it some thought." Well, I gave it some thought and concluded that D is the most likely tonic pitch, but the piece is "modal" in such a way as to make any assertion or perception of tonic understated. The chord progression is really much more a chord succession. It turns around in such a way that it's not progressing anywhere. That is, metaphorically, it seems to be "standing still," which is what "solstice" means.

Several years later, I turned "Solstice" into a solo piano piece. And here it is, Track 9 on Meditations in Blue, the conclusion of Part II. Enjoy! SH

Solstice

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The pleasures of this life

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:36:52 -0500

Ah, pleasure! Debussy eventually declared it was his sole guiding aesthetic, and it's hard to argue with the results. Indeed, why do we listen to music other than to derive pleasure from the experience? (Schoenberg, on the other hand, would have a few things to say about truth--and that's not always pretty.)

So, I had this dream, oh, seven or eight years ago . . . I heard a woman's voice singing, "I want to pleasure you still." Let me tell you, I woke up and wrote that down! And then I found the entire tune, built it around that opening line. And here it is, "Pleasure," track 8 on Meditations in Blue. SH

Pleasure

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Windfall

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:09:08 -0500

I've been waiting a good long while for the weather to change back to fall--not that I've minded the glorious summery weather we've been experiencing until just a couple of days ago. But this next track from Meditations in Blue, "Windfall," is suggestive of a windy, overcast fall day. I went with the one-word title (rather than "Wind Fall") because the piece was something of a windfall for me. Several ideas I had--three, actually--just fell together one day. And it wasn't until much later that I realized there were really only two different ideas.

Here's track 7 from Meditations in Blue:

Windfall

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Meditations in Blue, Part I

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:03:02 -0500

What glorious fall weather! Autumn is the harvest season--crisp, invigorating days. It's also a season tinged with longing and regret for the passing of summer. Sweet, beautiful sadness mingles with joy.

And so, here (below) is track 3 of Meditations in Blue, "Autumn River." This is probably the simplest of the pieces, yet I think it's one of the most beautiful. My wife Lisa says it's one of her all-time favorites. When we were in Madison, Florida, I had the pleasure of performing this piece on a magnificent Steinway grand piano, accompanying three beautiful, young ballet dancers on point.

Now the first six tracks are available in the various entries of this blog, which together constitute Part I of Meditations in Blue. Here's the recommended order:

1. Second Spring
2. Cheshire Blues
3. Autumn River
4. Ian Grove Blues
5. Gethsemane
6. Midnight (Too Beautiful for Words)

Autumn River

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Cheshire grins

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:40:46 -0500

Every once in a good while, I feel like the cat who ate the canary. The Cheshire grin is, I suppose, unexplainable. Sometimes it just happens, and it feels good. Here's a piece I wrote at the piano after moving to State College. It's a 14-bar blues (!), but I think you'd have to be paying attention to even notice it's not the standard 12 bars. I had this catchy little thing in my head that turned into one of the archetypes--almost a cliche--of blues, while at the same time allowing me to expand my melodic and harmonic jazz vocabulary. In the end, it turns out to be a "languid but sassy legato."

Here's track 2 from Meditations in Blue, "Cheshire Blues."

Cheshire Blues

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A second spring in autumn

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:38:56 -0500

A dozen years ago I somehow wound up as Vice President for Governmental Policy for the Florida Chamber of Commerce in Tallahassee, Florida. I was making more money than I may ever see again, lobbying the legislative and executive branches of state government, wearing starched shirts and suits, rubbing elbows with the players in the halls of power; but I was dying inside. After some soul searching--what some might describe as a mid-life occupational crisis--I knew I had to return to music.

A year later I was hired as Music Director of North Florida Community College. I was teaching music again, and I was composing for two ensembles that I directed. Returning to music after five years of working out-of-field was wonderfully energizing! One of the pieces I composed for the NFCC jazz ensemble was "Second Spring." The title speaks to me of a sort of rebirth that I think we can experience in middle age when we reconnect with those things--the ideals, the passions--that motivated us when we were young.

Here's the piano version of "Second Spring." It's the opening track on Meditations in Blue. I think you'll hear that it's a pretty buoyant, outgoing piece. I hope you like it!

Second Spring

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Times and seasons

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:43:20 -0500

Titles of works can help guide our listenings. I've noticed that a few of my pieces have titles relating to the time of day (or night) or to a season. Here's track 6 from Meditations in Blue, "Midnight," subtitled, "Too Beautiful for Words." It's a romantic piece that I hope is suggestive of a deep and enduring love. SH

Midnight

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An aesthetic of meditation

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:49:08 -0500

Most of us, I think, like lots of different types and styles of music. I, too, compose different types and styles of music for different expressive purposes. But I find myself returning time and again to music that possesses a meditative quality of some sort.

Here's another piece from Meditations in Blue, Gethsemane. It's a more intense, serious piece than Ian Grove Blues, and on the album follows it as track 5. This piece has also attracted the attention of several other performers. SH

Gethsemane

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Meditations in Blue

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:51:15 -0500

Here's a piece for piano that came to me in a dream, called Ian Grove Blues. It's part of a piano album entitled Meditations in Blue. I recorded the album in Esber Recital Hall on the evening of March 9, 2006. Remarkably, all fourteen tracks are un-edited complete takes. (I mean, this really is remarkable for me!)

I intend to post the entire album here for downloading, but figure I'll take it one track at a time. This is track 4 from the album. A colleague has suggested that it shares a certain affinity with the music of Eric Satie. I hope you enjoy it. SH

Ian Grove Blues

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The summer of '07

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:34:13 -0500

I love summer! Especially, since my wife Lisa and I moved back to the northeast five years ago from Florida. The weather has been pretty outstanding this spring and summer in central PA. I enjoyed teaching a class for six weeks, and now I have some time to compose. I just finished a piece, Elegy, for strings, in memory of my father.

How remarkable is it that we can channel sadness into beauty! Music has seemingly magical qualities, with such a variety of styles and purposes. Ah, the question of aesthetics in music--it's one I ponder almost daily. More soon . . .