Sam Crain
Music of Sam Crain
Electronic and chamber works using some unusual instrumentations(incl 1 for contrabassoon & tape), this music is by turns intense, lyrical, bizarre, humorous. A sonic journey for ears and spirit.
Music of Sam Crain
During the course of one's musical life, one will usually wear a variety of hats, if for no other reason than just to see how they look and fit. I've been a guitarist, bassist and keyboardist in a wide variety of groups & settings for the most part, but also a composer of classical music. Studied at Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore MD, where I was a composition major. Most of my stuff was written in the 70's and 80's, but I still turn something out every now and then, as is evidenced here with 'synthmusic no 3' which was written this year.
The music you'll hear here is often uncompromisingly modern, sometimes intense and hard-edged, but always expressive. You'll hear music for saxophone quartet(satb), 3 classical guitars, contrabassoon and tape, and woodwind quartet: flute, oboe, clarinet & bassoon, as well as several electronic compositions. Hope you enjoy your excursion into Music of Sam Crain.
Thanks to the various folks who've bought this CD here on CD Baby, including in Switzerland ,Taiwan, Greece, Australia, England, Canada ,Denmark and Germany.
LAST CD SOLD: 04/22/08
Hope you'll check out Music of Sam Crain Vol 2, also available here at CD Baby.
Featured musicians:
no loitering- Herman Meyer, Tom Warren, Nat Gunod, guitars
Tonescape no 2- Hali Fieldman, flute; Shelton Shugar, oboe; Marc Barron-clarinet; Shirley Plummer-bassoon
Alter-ego- Adam Burford, contrabassoon
Festival of Fluids and Solids- The University of Illinois Saxophone Quartet
Festival of Fluids and Solids was written in 1980, for saxophonist/clarinetist Marc Barron, a classmate at Peabody. Marc plays on 'Tonescape no 2' in this CD, and was very helpful to me as far as a modern clarinet piece I'd written. The title comes from a story in National Lampoon by Chris Miller, wherein an extraterrestial Woodstock is described as a 'festival of fluids and temperatures'.
Musically, it's an arch form and ends much as it begins, going through a variety of changes in between. 'Festival' at times has a Charles Ives touch in that various familiar themes are quoted at one point in the piece.
Godzilla was written in 1989 for my stepson Todd Williams who was 8 at the time. Once you get past the forest of sounds in the beginning, it's probably the most normal(i.e. tonal) thing on here, with an actual- somewhat poignant- Godzilla theme..
no loitering dates back to '79. The title comes from a cartoon of the same name by B. Kliban, wherein people(or, a person)pass through a room from infancy to old age, with a sign on the wall marked 'no loitering'.
It's a sort of perpetuum mobile thing, with a minimalist repetitive leaning as well. My bebop guitar roots kinda show here too. The players called it ' bug music', for what that's worth, after an old Flintstones episode...
synthmusic no 1 was written in '84, Roland Juno 106 synth(then pretty state-of-the-art analog)onto a Teac 4-track cassette recorder. It's a sort of excursion in itself. You can feel the changes in terrain, so to speak, in the piece.
Tonescape no 2 dates to '78, of a series of 3 'tonescape' pieces. The first was for piano, the third for brass trio: trumpet, trombone, French horn. Modern, energetic kinda thing, with some nice colors in there.
synthmusic no 3 was written just this year, and explores different sounds and textures. You may hear a 'chorus' in there somehow at various points.
The Bogeyman Song(or is it boogeyman?)goes back to '90 or so. Has an 'I'm-gonna-get-ya' feeling to it, but still nice and lyrical.
Alter-ego goes back to '79, and was written for contrabassoonist Adam Burford, also a classmate at Peabody. He gave me pretty simple guidelines as far as what he wanted: 'anything but farts', so I tried to oblige here by exploring the lyrical side of the instrument. The tape sounds are of course Adam as well, with chorus added.
synthmusic no 2 was written pretty much along with synthmusic no 1, back in '84. It also has the feeling of an excursion, only this time a vertical one. Halfway into the piece you'll have the feeling you're leaving the ground, destination unknown. Bon voyage!
Avant Garde: Atonal