Tags

album, conceptual, mass, music, requiem

My second album, Requiem, will be released on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and many other sites on February 13. 

The album is a secular conceptualist setting of the Mass.  It consists of seven movements: 

– Kyrie
– Gloria
– Credo
– Sanctus
– Benedictus
– Agnus Dei
– Dona Nobis

The Kyrie movemebt can be heard here.

The work is dedicated to my father and grandfather.

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Tags

launch, music, Necessary Evil

My new  experimental album of experimental music, Necessary Evil, is now available via iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, and other services.  I hope you enjoy it!

 

Available here at Amazon.  

 

Please be aware that there’s another guy out there with the same name as me who has published dance mixes.  Those were made by somebody else, not me.  

 

Carillon’s Dream

Tags

abstract, bass guitar, carillon, electronic, guitar, music

Carillon’s Dream, an original composition performed by Mark Snyder.

Solstice

Tags

abstract, music, soundscape

Solstice, composed and performed by Mark Snyder.

Sonnet 18

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Al Filreis, bass guitar, Mark Herron, ModPo, music, poetry, Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18 (demo) by William Shakespeare, adapted and arranged by Mark Herron and Mark Snyder. Performed by Mark Snyder.

A rough sketch, quickly done to get the basic form of the song down.

Armed Forces Salute

Tags

Armed Forces Salute, double bass, Lee County Community Orchestra, music

Armed Forces Salute, arr. Lowden, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass in the back, far stage left, with sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Mozart- Symphony No. 25 in G minor. I. Allegro con brio

Tags

double bass, Lee County Community Orchestra, Mozart, music, Symphony No. 25

Mozart- Symphony No. 25 in G minor.  I.  Allegro con brio, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass in the back, far stage left, with sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Gershwin- Rhapsody In Blue

Tags

double bass, George Gershwin, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, Rhapsody In Blue

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass far stage left, in the back, with the sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Dvorak- Symphony No. 9 (“New World”). IV. Allegro con fuoco

Tags

double bass, Dvorak, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, New World Symphony, Symphony 9

Dvorak- Symphony No. 9 (“New World”).  IV.  Allegro con fuoco, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass far stage left, behind the curtain, with the sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Blogging The Wall:“Young Lust”

Tags

Al Filreis, disco, Kelly Writers House, misogyny, music, parody, Pink Floyd, The Wall

Note: Some readers may find the contents of this post offensive or disturbing.

I am just a new boy

A stranger in this town

Where are all the good times?

Who’s going to show this stranger around?

Oooh, I need a dirty woman

Oooh, I need a dirty girl

Will some woman in this desert land

Make me feel like a real man?

Take this rock and roll refugee

Oooh,  baby, set me free

Oooh, I need a dirty woman

Oooh, I need a dirty girl

Musically, the song is a disco song (a parody or caricature of disco, actually). It begins with a pentatonic riff in E on lead guitar, repeated four times before the lyrics band joins in. The verses follow the same pattern, each phrase ending with two beats of A5 power chords. The chorus consists of a continued disco beat in A, ending each phrase in E (mirroring the verses). After two repetitions of the verse-chorus structure, the structure continues to repeat with a guitar solo replacing the vocals. As the song fades out, we hear Pink calling his wife, a man answering and hanging up, and an operator telling Pink she doesn’t understand what’s happening.

Each verse uses a different rhyme scheme (X-A-X-A in the first verse, A-B-A-B in the second). There’s no significant internal rhyme. Each verse line contains four beats, consistent with the higher-frequency song’s disco form.

As mentioned above, the song is a parody or caricature of the raw sexuality found in the disco music that was at the top of the charts at the time. For example, compare this song with “More, More, More” by the Andrea True Connection or “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band – neither or which were parodies. All three songs are direct expressions of sexual libido, but the Pink Floyd version is exaggerated and not in keeping with their usual style. It is so well done, however, that it may not immediately be recognized as parody.

Pink is now firmly entrenched behind his Wall, with only a few metaphorical empty spaces. Yet here we see an expression of sexual desire- but a disconnected one. Pink is not interested in real human connection. He feels inadequate, not a “real man,” and daydreams of finding a “dirty woman” (in rebellion against his mother, who wouldn’t “let anyone dirty get through”). The lyrics are misogynistic and objectifying of women, simply because Pink (as he becomes increasingly isolated and disturbed) isn’t interested in human contact- he’s grasping at straws after discovering that hiding behind his wall has only made things harder, not easier- he is isolated and safe from being hurt by others, but his isolation has only intensified his self-loathing. I note as well that he says he “needs a dirty woman,” but he is caught in the quandary that he cannot reach out to others, so his “need” will remain unmet, and his self-loathing will continue to worsen.