My name is Michael and welcome to my portfolio website and blog. Here I document my adventures in cinematic music creation and more.
Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Internet & Social Media
Well, that is still open for debate, but I think the simple answer is yes, and if not right now, then it has the potential to do so very soon. But let’s delve a little further shall we?
Hi, 2021, I’ve not written here for a while, but that may just begin to change! They say start or end with a quote and this one may seem out of place, but bear with me, all will make sense in the end… I’ve got a new iPad which I primarily bought for controlling Pro Tools for my music and audio projects, but it’s also been a welcome catalyst for getting me back into the healthy practice of note-taking, journaling and writing again; something I hope to continue practising diligently. I also want to publish my content somewhere that’s mine and with minimal risk of what is increasingly becoming a concern of mine, and that is censorship... Relentless censorship. Well, where else better than my website, after all, that’s what personal websites used to be for before the centralised world of platforms such as Facebook.
Firstly, stop attempting to change the way I think! Secondly, no! I don’t want to boost my post. This is a defining statement as I would say the second part of this was one of the strongest points of frustration for me when it came to being on Facebook, the first part, well we will get onto that later.
Communication! We hear that word so often and it really is the most important element of the human condition, yet sometimes we are so utterly useless at it.
For years the written blog was the "big" thing with everyone having an online blog published via Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger... The list goes on and on. I always loved the idea of it, but was basically not all that great at keeping up with it and couldn't really organise my thoughts on certain subjects all that well by simply typing. I mean given this is my first post this year, I'd be inclined to say I still suck at it!
So it occurred to me, why not do this via video? I love words, I really do, but I can ponce around for hours trying to get the terminology right and I'm always trying to find images to back what I'm saying as I don't always feel I can get my point across well enough in words. If you are recording a video, It can (and I'm not saying always), be much easier to get your point across and reach folks in a more multi-dimensional form of communication; I mean if speech is said to only count for around seven percent of our interaction with others, then surely words are open to all sorts of odd interpretation, especially if like me you don't feel all that great about some things you write…
How much should you give away? How much do you expose yourself? Should you open yourself up for criticism? Should you hide your art away?
Music, and any art come to think of it, is an incredibly personal thing. There is a reason people won’t show you that paining they have been working on for the past two months, why that poem just never seems finished, and why film composers can be late on their deadlines ;).
It’s all about exposure! It’s fairly human to talk your way around things, get yourself out of sticky situations, and let’s be fair, talk utter bullshit at times; but when you play a piece of music to someone, or unveil you latest painting, suddenly you are naked, open to criticism and in many cases, at your most vulnerable as both an artist and as a person.
I’ve listened to loads of music from various fellow composers and what I find interesting (although never comment), is just how much that specific piece, written at that specific time is actually saying about the person, it’s very personal…
It was during the interval of a Ligeti Qaurtet concert in Brighton earlier this year where I was amazed to watch a short introductory trailer for a movement known as the "Post War Orchestra" screening in the venue...
I may be posing this a little late as it went out on TED Talks over a year ago, but I really think it is something worth sharing. The Internet is such a powerful tool and can be used in a really creative way as composer Eric Whitacre shows in this video. It proves that music really is a global language!
TED Explains: “In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, “Sleep,” with a video choir of 2,052.
The full piece premieres April 7 (yes, on YouTube!).” Watch the video here!
