<![CDATA[Michael James Oberhauser - A Composer's Blog]]>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:43:13 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Somewhat productive...]]>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:34:58 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2012/02/somewhat-productive.htmlWell, I'm trying to stick to my New Year's resolutions. I'm having some success, some of the time. Vauge? A little.

I'm throwing all of my effort right now at a new Fallen Angels opera - Temptation. This one deals with Satan tempting Jesus in the desert, only is set in current-day corporate America. The temptation isn't quite what you're expecting, either.

In the other Fallen Angels operas, the "good guy" in the Biblical story becomes the villain in my story - and they usually end up being kind of a jerk. In Temptation, Jesus (or, Joshua in my story) is definitely the antagonist. I had intended to make Joshua just as much of a jerk as Eli, Josephine, and Adam, but he's not, for the most part. The libretto for Temptation is mostly done (more edits will happen as more friends of mine give me suggestions,) and I've started some work on the music, too.

I had some time to kill this week before meeting a friend for dinner, so I found a coffee shop and sat down to write some music without a keyboard or Finale telling me what it sounded like right away. I do this every once in a while - it's a good exercise to get your brain to hear the music you write. I wrote the trio from Temptation, trying my best to imagine what it would sound like. A day or two later I put that into Finale and was mortified. It sounded really difficult and way too dissonant for what I was going for. I decided to keep it, though. Another day or two later I came back, fiddled with the tempo, added dynamics, etc. I didn't change a note, and it already sounds so much better - it sounds like music now. Much closer to what I heard in my head. Dynamics are important!

I'm also sitting on some potentially exciting news, but I don't want to say anything about it yet - don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched! I hope I'm not jinxing it just by saying this. ]]><![CDATA[Resolutions]]>Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:50:32 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2012/01/resolutions.htmlThe theme of my resolutions this year: No excuses.

I will create more. Since that in itself is a pretty awful resolution, here's how I'm going to quantify it:
-I will spend at least 10 minutes at least every other day writing music, searching for/writing text, or doing other work that pertains to advancing my career.
-I will not listen to music, check my email, get on Facebook, get on Twitter, or anything else like that unless I have already done this work. Eating dinner first is fine, and I can listen to music while I'm eating, but none of those websites will be on.
-If I need to, I will turn on my old desktop before I change out of my work clothes to entice me to work right away. (This is one time when it would be nice to have Finale on my laptop...)

I will take better care of myself. I still don't know exactly how I'm going to measure this one. Once I figure that out, I'll work on sticking to it.

I might have more resolutions on the way as I think of them. 2012 might be the year of rolling resolutions. Always, though: no excuses. ]]><![CDATA[Applications, and New Plans]]>Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:06:30 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/12/applications-and-new-plans.htmlSo, it's been forever since I wrote in this.

A lot has been going on:

 - After the recital, I finished Lilith, I orchestrated it, then put together a recording session for both Lilith and The Name on the Door. I have great new recordings of each that are up on the specific pages for those pieces. Check them out: Lilith . The Name on the Door

I applied for doctoral programs again. They were due December 1. With work on those and the start of holiday season, I've been pretty busy. The applications are in... and I've already received two rejections. Bummer. But whatever, I have two more. Fingers crossed.

Other big news: I paid the application fee for a spot in the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival. Guess that means I have to finish the application now... by January 6. I'm submitting Lilith, The Name on the Door, and... one other mini-opera from Fallen Angels, which hasn't been written yet. Yep. I still have a lot of work to do. Always. ]]><![CDATA[Post-recital]]>Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:10:53 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/07/post-recital.htmlI am so happy with how New Inspirations went on Thursday evening. Everyone performed beautifully, we had a nice turnout in the audience, and the recordings turned out well.

I took Friday off and didn't do much of anything - it was much needed. Then, today, I've been in musician mode all day: I took part in the Duo Fujin competition: at 9:00am we were given a prompt, and we had until 9:00pm to compose and email in a new composition for flute and alto saxophone. I won't talk about my composition much until we hear the results some time in the next few months.

When I wasn't composing, I was creating all of the mp3s of the recital. My pieces are now on the website: Heaven-Haven: A Nun Takes the Veil, and Love is Not the Last Room. Give them a listen!

I still have a lot of work to do to finish redoing the rest of the website: I have to move all the recordings from the Samples page and put them on their own pages, finish writing program notes for each piece, and add pdfs of the scores. It'll take me a while, but I'll get there.

I have other news of an exciting new project of mine, but I don't want to say anything until I get it worked out a bit more. Ooh, suspense! ]]><![CDATA[365 Project, String Quartet No. 1, Lilith, and website overhaul]]>Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:25:11 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/07/365-project-string-quartet-no-1-lilith-and-website-overhaul.html365 Project - that's been done since the Summer Solstice. Have I talked about that yet? I can't remember. Well, either way, it's done, and I'm actually pretty proud of it. I showed it to my good friend Rameen, and he said "Hey, you should make this a string quartet!" I thought, "No, Rameen, you're crazy." But then I thought about it some more. Then I actually liked the idea.

String Quartet No. 1 - Yep. It's done now. The 365 Project has been arranged for string quartet, thus making it my String Quartet No. 1. This flew by so quickly - it practically arranged itself. I really like how it sounds, and am dying to get it performed. Any string quartets out there looking for new music?

Lilith - I've started work on the new opera. Lilith's introduction/arietta thing is done. I was wrestling with the baritone aria for a long time yesterday, and I thought about it all day today. I think I have something workable now, though I'm not completely sold on it yet. For one thing, it's very simple. It actually is in a completely different vein than Lilith's arietty immediately before it. I don't know how much of a problem that might be.

Website overhaul - I'm completely re-doing how you hear samples of my work. When I'm done, you'll be able to go to my Compositions page and click on any piece from there. This will bring you to a new page, where you can read lots of information on it, including program notes. There you'll also be able to hear a sample of, or in some cases all of, the piece. I'll even put downloadable pdfs of just about everything up there. All for YOU, my friends. All for you. ]]><![CDATA[New Inspirations]]>Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:47:38 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/06/new-inspirations.htmlI've been talking about this for a while, so I think it's time I finally get to writing it:
Picture
Come hear:
Kathleen Jagielski, soprano
Mariana Pino, soprano
Erica Haman, mezzo-soprano
Katherine Sanford, mezzo-soprano
Terrance Johns, tenor
Rameen Chaharbaghi, baritone
Michael Oberhauser, baritone

and

Kayme Henkel, piano

perform the following pieces:
Too Solemn for Day (2005)                                                         Michael Oberhauser (1985 - )

Fêtes galantes, serie I, L80 (1891)                                            Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
     En sourdine
     Fantoches
     Clair de lune
Fêtes galantes, serie II, L104 (1904)
     Les ingénus
     Le faune
     Colloque sentimental

Siete canciones populares española (1914)                                Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946)
     1. El pano moruno
     3. Asturiana
     6. Nana
     7. Polo

Heaven-Haven: A Nun Takes the Veil (2007)                                            Michael Oberhauser

Four Songs (1937)                                                                     Samuel Barber (1910 - 1891)
     1. Nun Takes the Veil
     3. Sure on this Shining Night

Bachianas Brasilieras no. 5 (1938)                                          Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 - 1959)
     I. Aria (Cantilena)
     II. Dança (Martelo)

Passing By (1981)                                                                       John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010)
She is All So Slight (1964)
My Little Pretty One (1952)

Orange Afternoon Lover (2006)                                                              Lori Laitman (1955 - )
     I. Against Still Life
     II. I was reading a scientific article
     III. I am sitting

Love is Not the Last Room (2011)                                                            Michael Oberhauser
     1. Introduction
     2. On Pilgrimage
     7. An Empty Crib
     9. Chloris and Fanny
     10. When I Would Muse in Boyhood
     11. To One Away
     18. Near the Wall of a House



This will be a FREE recital. It will last about 90 minutes.

Thursday, July 28, 7:30pm

Calvary Baptist Church
755 8th St. NW
Washington, DC
The church is right by the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro station on the Red and Green lines. There is also a parking garage right next to the church, but the garage is NOT free. Street parking in the area is limited.

DIRECTIONS TO THE CHAPEL:

The church consists of two buildings; a big red building on the corner of H and 8th, and a white building next to that on 8th street. Next to that white building, also on 8th street, is the aforementioned parking garage. The quickest way to the chapel is to take the garage's elevator to floor G2. As you leave the elevator, the chapel will be on your left, but to enter the chapel, you'll have to walk down the hall, make a left at the fork, and then go into the left door.
]]><![CDATA[Something I thought about today]]>Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:05:52 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/06/something-i-thought-about-today.htmlI was thinking today about where my time goes, and how that's changed over the years...

Grade school: 
Getting better at everything: 50%
Having fun: 50%

High School:
Getting better at everything: 50%
Figuring out what I enjoy: 20%
Figuring out what I'm good at: 15%
Having fun: 15%

College:
Getting better at everything: 10% (liberal arts school)
Figuring out what I enjoy: 10%
Figuring out what I'm good at: 30%
Getting better at what I enjoy: 20%
Getting better at what I'm good at: 20%
Having fun: 10%

Grad School:
Getting better at what I enjoy: 10%
Getting better at what I'm good at: 70%
Working on places I need improvement: 10%
Having fun: 10%

The real world:
Making money: 50%
Trying to make money out of what I enjoy and what I'm good at: 40%
Having fun: 10%

My soul-searching, self-finding, and self-improvement pretty much stopped after I got out of school. Right now I feel like I'm mostly coasting on everything I've learned up to this point, and spending most of my time just trying to get by. I feel like I haven't grown nearly as fast these past two years as I did any year before. I need to find a way to fit some self-growth in my life. ]]><![CDATA[What is opera?]]>Mon, 30 May 2011 19:06:57 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/05/what-is-opera.htmlTwo posts in one day? That's MADNESS!

Anyway, I recently ran across this blog post, and it brought up some questions in my mind:

Here's the post

That'll open in a new window, so keep it open to reference back and forth :)

Issue #1: "Operas are usually performed in an opera house or concert hall with a live orchestra." This is the norm, but what if it's not? What about accompaniment just by a piano, in, say, an art gallery or outdoor ampitheater?


Issue #2: Amplification. Again, what the blog post brings up is the norm, but what if I want my opera to be accompanied by electric guitar or electric violin, or by computer generated sounds? Also, what about musicals like The Fantasticks? That'd be just plain odd if it were amplified. (unless it were in a large space, but why would you do that show in a large space?)

Issue #3: "Operatic voices tend to focus sound from the throat." That seems to go contrary to most of what I've been taught about singing. My teachers have always told me to get my throat out of the way and get the sound more in my head. Vocal pedagogy friends, help me out here.

Issue #4: "In musical theatre, you could usually remove all the songs and still have the story make sense, as the dialogue would outline what is happening in the story." What about Into the Woods? Les Miserables? Phantom of the Opera? The Last Five Years? Spoken dialogue-led musicals are still the norm, but less and less so as time goes on.

Issue #5: "Opera can have dialogue, however 'in opera the dialogue is sung; in musicals the dialogue is spoken' (@frindley)." What about Singspielen? Die Zauberflöte? Carmen? There is plenty of spoken dialogue in plenty of operas.

I know these are just guidelines, but I think they need to be re-evaluated. I'd propose:
1.) Operas tend to not use amplification, while musicals tend to.
2.) The style of singing between the two artforms tend to be different - but there is a spectrum to this with a lot of grey area between.

Those two are almost intact from how Opera Australia presented them.  I would actually throw out their #3 entirely, about spoken vs. sung text. I would add my own point, though:

3.) The style of composition between the two artforms tends to be different. Again, there is a spectrum here, from, say, ABBA's Mamma Mia! to perhaps something like Schönberg's Erwartung. There's a lot of grey area in the middle of this one, too, where it becomes difficult to classify such pieces as A Little Night Music, Candide, and Die Fledermaus. 

Those are just a few of my thoughts... what are yours?

As I was finishing this post, I ran across my friend Steve Spotswood's article about the definition of theatre: http://www.stephenspotswood.com/?p=134 ]]><![CDATA[So much going on. So. Much.]]>Mon, 30 May 2011 13:18:46 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/05/so-much-going-on-so-much.htmlTo help myself keep track, here's what I need to talk about:-Words and Music Concert
-Twitter
-Necromancer's Dance
-ALT's CLDP
-Of Montreal concert
-Don Pasquale
-Words and Music Concert
-Upcoming recital

I have 20 minutes to write a lot of stuff, so I might not get it all in this post. (Deep breath...) Ok, go!

I'm in Twitter now. I've discovered it really is a great way to interact with some other people who are passionate about new music and opera. I'm finding lots of interesting articles and links to new music that I'm sharing on there, so follow me: @moberhau

Necromancer's Dance is finished! That's what I ended up naming my orchestra piece. I don't really know what to do with it now, though. Should I just start throwing it at orchestras? Perhaps with baskets of fresh baked cookies?

I applied for American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program. I really, really want this - but it's out of my hands now. Wish me luck! If I get this, it means I'm moving to NYC!

This doesn't really apply to new classical music, but - if you ever get the chance, go see Of Montreal in concert. They put on a ridiculously entertaining show. Fun music, and lots of random people in costumes.

A disappointment, then: Don Pasquale at the Washington National Opera. I wasn't expecting it to be the best thing ever - in my opinion, it's one of the worst operas that's in the traditional canon - but I was expecting to at least be amused, entertained, and impressed by the talent. I wasn't any of those. There were a few good moments here or there, but mostly everything was ho-hum at best. What a disappointment.

Not a disappointment at all, though: Words and Music's concert yesterday, The American Composer I. Great works, all by living American composers: Laitman, Rorem, Chipulo, Johns, and Frazin. Johns and Frazin were there - I already knew Terrance Johns, tenor extraordinaire and a really excellent composer, and it was wonderful to meet Howard Frazin. The usual four singers and pianist that make up Words and Music were diminished slightly - the bartone's wife had just had a child, and the tenor (Terry) was really sick. The soprano and mezzo took on most of the concert, with Terry joining in for the ensemble pieces. They also had a terrific clarinettist there, Brian David Jones, who played on the Rorem and two Frazin pieces. All really great stuff - but now I have to run! Memorial Day festivities, and not enough time to write about the most exciting part (for me): the upcoming Songs recital! Look for a post about this soon. ]]><![CDATA[Jealous.]]>Sun, 24 Apr 2011 17:05:14 -0800http://www.michaeljamesoberhauser.com/1/post/2011/04/jealous.htmlSo, I recently stumbled across the music of Christopher Cerrone. Check out his music - it's really nice. I especially like his opera Invisible Cities.

Cerrone was listed as one of NPR's top 100 composers under 40. He's making a pretty great name for himself.

Only thing? He's only a year older than me. I'm... a little jealous. Who knows, though- maybe this year will be my big break and I'll be somewhat famous soon.

Hah. Maybe wishful thinking, but... fingers crossed. ]]>