Mike's Music Notes
(on current and recently completed projects)

Canada's Hockey Anthem Challenge

The music you're hearing is "It's Hockey Night!", my entry to this competition (if you're not hearing it ... sometimes there's a delay because I'm linking directly to the competition site ... or you've got sound turned off).

The challenge is sponsored by the CBC - Canada's national broadcaster - to find new signature music for their long-running and top-rated TV show "Hockey Night in Canada (that's ice hockey of course ... ).

The winning entry nets the creator(s) $100,000, and bragging rights for being the theme for CBC broadcasts of Canada's national sport!

Click here if you'd like to visit my Challenge entry page, where you can see what I had in mind when I wrote the piece and also comment on and rate it.

Just click on the "play" bar directly below if you'd like to hear "It's Hockey Night" again.

Spiritus Vitae (The Spirit of Lfe)

Scored for orchestra and SATB choir, I created this piece for the "Score this Movie" contest sponsored by East West Sounds.

Click on the picture to watch the movie with music, or click here to listen to the soundtrack alone.

The animated movie, by Zennor Alexander, portrays in allegorical form the circularity of life.

The music follows the appearance of life from the void (crescendo on cluster violins sliding upwards); striving for growth and survival (agitated ascending phrases alternating between the various sections of the orchestra); a mating dance (a touch of danse macabre in the orchestra); birth of new life (crescendo accented by the brass section); and back into the void to start over (refrain of "vitae" from the choir).

If you were wondering, it didn't win the contest ... c'est la vie :-)

Meanwhile, back at the studio, work continues on some new concert pieces ...

Niagara Suite

Living in the Niagara region of Canada, I've taken many a meandering drive along the Niagara Parkway, taking in the sights and sounds of the Niagara River and environs, as it wends its way from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.

The majesty of the river, and of course Niagara Falls, make this a memorable journey. But if you stop along the way you will also find numerous markers of past events - particularly those of the War of 1812 - that fill you with a sense of our history.

It was a combination of these factors that inspired me to start writing the "Niagara Suite", which takes this journey in music that strives to give a sense of place (both of geography and time) rather than literal "sounds like" depictions.

The piece has a single movement and is scored for wind ensemble - 2 each of Flute, Oboe, B-flat Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn, plus a Bass clarinet - a chamber orchestra that retains the intimacy of personal reflections, yet is strong enough to convey the power of the landscape.

The piece is nearing completion, but some remaining ideas have yet to discover the right notes. Here are two excerpts:

• Beginning (inspired by a sunrise over Lake Erie)
• On the River (with some echoes of 1812)

Northland V

The fifth in this series of orchestral portraits of Canada's varied landscapes will focus on the maritime regions of the country. Still in the early stages of writing, but it will have a distinctly nautical air about it (and wants to be rather traditionally so it appears ... we'll see!).

As a starting point I'm using some sketches I wrote years ago that seem to fit with the overall scheme. Good planning, eh?

Piano Preludes

Three more are underway, in various stages of development and not yet ready to bear the light of public scrutiny.

I might just as easily have called these pieces "bagatelles" because they reflect the sheer fun I find in learning to play piano at an advanced age (and in my wonderful grand piano which I've nicknamed "The Goddess").

That's all for now, folks ...