Music: 30 Second Composer on John Adams

I stumbled across a blog called Mixed Meters with a fascinating premise. Its author, David Ocker, trained as a composer, found himself angry at his inability to get his compositions heard, despite some success getting pieces published. When he began to hate music itself, he quit for ten years.

Then the internet and a lap top computer made a difference. Sitting in his local Starbuck's, he composes music every week. He sets a couple of rules for himself: Each piece is thirty seconds long, and its title must be something he observed at Starbucks.

Now hundreds of people (well, maybe it's dozens) have downloaded his pieces. I left a comment at his blog, and he replied,

It boggles my mind how much fun 'm having writing music these days ... - I'm not worried about quality and I sort of enjoy trying to provoke or confuse the listeners. Each piece I post seems to get listened to about 2 or 3 dozen times - but no one ever says anything to me about them - people must be too confused.

What drew me to the blog was a connection to composer John Adams, to whom Ocker has a personal connection. Here's some of what he writes about Adams and NIXON IN CHINA:

Hey, I was in Houston at the premier of Nixon too. I've never quite come to terms with the third act - but that may be because the first two acts are simply wonderful - and Alice's libretto has always seemed deep and filled with unlimited allusions. I often find myself quoting lines.

Remember, as John's copyist, I spend a lot of time dissecting the librettos in strange ways - mostly syllable by syllable - but even now I'm impressed by the words in Nixon - one of my long delayed projects is the computerized full orchestra score to Nixon - so all the scores and parts are sitting on a shelf a few feet from my head. But I'm really working on A Flowering Tree - the opera premiering this fall...

I like the music to Nixon too. It would have been nice if more of the simple harmonies alternating rhythmically had survived into his current dramatic works. Not as a stylistic mainstay but as a foil to the newer ideas.

Music: 30 Second Composer on John Adams | Music