Mike's Music Notes

Archives from 2008

- Fall 2008 - Canada's Hockey Anthem Challenge

"It's Hockey Night!" was my entry to this competition, which ran back in the summer of '08. You can listen to the piece by clicking on the "play" bar below.

The challenge was 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 prize for the winning entry was $100,000 and as a result about 15,000 entries were received!

The contest is now closed and the contest web site has been shut down so you can no longer hear the finalists or winning entries. Suffice to say that mine wasn't among them.

- Summer 2008 - Spiritus Vitae (The Spirit of Life)

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 on the "play" bar below 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 :-)

- Winter 2008 - Northland IV

Northland is an ongoing project that I started in 2001. The objective is a complete set of orchestral portraits of Canada's varied landscapes.

This latest addition is my recollections of the sheer grandeur of Canada's mountainous regions, including the spectacular peaks of the Rockies and the picture-postcard beauty of the Laurentians

Northland IV has been in the works for quite some time ... hopefully it's worth the wait!

You can enjoy the piece by clicking the "play" bar below.

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