My Webworks
Music composed for personal and friends' websites
As the page states, this is music used to underscore different websites I've made in the past, primarily picture sites. Of course, my web design skills don't quite match up to my composing skills... ;P
If you want to jump directly to the new stuff, go here.
Music from Hye 2003
Hye is a Bible School / Gathering I attend during the summer. As the first picture site I created (having recently gotten my first digital camera - MWA HA HAAAA!!! ;), I decided to try a little experiment. Basically, the first page would start with a riff. As each page went by, an extra element would be added. By the end, a full song would be made.
Layer 1 - The bass line and simple percussion.
Layer 2 - A high electric piano added.
Layer 3 - Another piano riff.
Layer 4 - A little string piece.
And finally...
A Pleasant Time Away
The combination of riffs becomes the first verse, now with a flute melody. And there's more as well.
Not exactly a classic, but it worked. <;)
Music from Detroit 2003
This was from a fall Bible Study Weekend. Here I used the same concept as Hye 2003, building the tune page-by page.
Part 1 - The bass line.
Part 2 - Pecussion added.
Part 3 - The Piano comes in.
And finally...
Chasing Leaves
This "lite jazz" track eventually was submitted as a forest theme for Terrasskasi. The name comes from the idea that the October gatherings are in the fall.
2004 and Early 2005 Music
The music for the Hye 2004 and Ohio 2004 websites primarily came from the Flurb and Terrasskasi projects. With two exceptions:
Website KJ, version 1
One of my friend's daughters, Jaymie, had wanted a website, something that didn't happen until 2005. But that year, I came up with two pieces of music just as ideas. This one was just a simple dancey track.
Website KJ, version 2
The second idea was a bit moodier. I was aiming for the music Akira Yamaoka writes for Silent Hill. Actual music, mind you...not the REALLY SCARY sound collages he makes for those games. :)
As well, Jaymie and her friend named Amy turned 13, and I made a birthday page for them. That music came from older game projects, plus "Darkwater East" from Flurb.
Drama Queen JME - Jaymie's Website
Finally, this came to pass. But since I had already used the previous Jaymie tracks, I had to start over. Well, rats... ;)
Look Out!
Jaymie is introduced to the world with a loud, thumping rock-&-roll track. :)
Boppy
For the "about me" page, I threw together this goofy little track. Sounds like a game show, doesn't it? ;)
Peppy
Happy, easy-going music for the picture page.
Electrical
Alright, I'll confess that this music for the links page didn't quite work. Too buzzy and boring. Sorry... <:S
Chillin'
Music for the guestbook, and it certainly lives up to the name. Although, I think I was playing too much Mario Golf at the time when I wrote this... ;P
Hye 2005
Rather than recycle, I came up with new material for this picture site.
Settle In
The music for the title page is a simple piano piece with string backing. Here you hear some melody pieces that will show up later. (Let's call them the "mischief riffs"...you'll see why.) Knowing I'd need an intro, I wrote during the Hye week.
As a bonus, here's a "groove" version that I wrote as part of a music demo. However, it's not looped.
Sneaking Bashfully
Really goofy music, this is. Bizarre piano, bouncing woodwinds, cheerful clarinets. It actually sounds like the old style I used to write in.
What was fun was when I was playing this tune, one of the youngsters actually started "sneaking bashfully" to the music! :D
Hurst Piano Rag
Actually, if this tune has a real name, I don't know it. What I can tell you is that Amy and her brother Aaron were playing on the piano, again and again and AGAIN...so naturally it got stuck in my head. :P
So when I MIDIfied it, I put some strings in the background, and wrote a flute and clarinet interlude to provide more substance.
Tabernacle Breeze
"The Tabernacle" is what we call the main gazebo at the campgrounds. And on a particularly toasty July day, a breeze would be MOST WELCOME. :)
I actually wrote this while I was in Canada. Gentle piano into, and the the harp leads into a glorious (IMHO) orchestra section.
Little Schemers
As I was taking pictures, I would either capture the children at play or give them the camera to take their own photos. The result was a couple of "KiDz PaGeZ" on the picture site. As such, music that was more upbeat was called for.
I also wrote this one in Canada. The backing track was easy to come up with, but the main melody took some time. Finally, I tried flying in one of the "mischief riffs", and it worked!
Into Mischief
Of all the music that made it onto the Hye 2005 page, this was the first one I wrote. I actually began putting it together at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in late May, while waiting for my older sister to arrive. As such, it is the source of the "mischief riffs". :)
Alas, though...by writing this, I was showing my extreme fanboyish obsession for Masashi Hamauzu's SaGa Frontier II soundtrack just a BIT TOO MUCH... (If you go to that SF2 page, just listen to "Todfeind"... <:)
Waterfall Oasis
The vacation included a trip to a park called Krause Springs. And so for those pictures, I made this semi-tribal, semi-tropical saxophone piece. And, of course, one final encore of the "mischief riffs". ;P
January 2006
Baptism
Jaymie, along with another girl named Casey, decided to take the important step of being baptized. The music I put behind the pictures is a gentle little theme.
I wish I had though of this when Amy was baptized in 2004... :(
Amy and Jaymie- The 14th Age
It's February 2006, and Amy and Jaymie are turning 14!!! Let's celebrate!!! :D
Since I start the website with a little "history lesson", I did the "progressive intro" thing that I did for the 2003 websites.
BI1 - First, a little bass and drums...
BI2 - Add in a little strings...
BI3 - ...and some MORE...
And finally...
Birthday Intro
Pretty much just what it is...a happy little snippet to start things off. It's not ENTIRELY based on "Happy Birthday", but it succeeds in giving the website a GRAND and EPIC opening. :)
Thirsty for Action
A sucessor to "Into Mischief" in style. Just a happy, dancey, retro song that would be right at home in some cartoonish action game. :)
Gonna Getcha!
A little different style here. When I wrote it, I was thinking "detective story in a smoky downtown, late at night". And that's pretty much what I ended up with.
Happy Birthday...Hamauzu Style!!!
Didn't I say I was a fanboy of this guy? ;)
This is the traditional birthday song done in the upbeat fashion, with a bit of SF2's "Roman" thrown in for good measure. I put it together in April 2005.
Canada 2006
One Sunday Afternoon
This track was for a very small picture website for some church friends up in Canada. Since there were only four pictures, it's only a very short and sweet theme.
But then I received MORE pictures...
A Snippet of Spring
...so I wrote a little cheerful ditty for that as well. :)
Spring 2006
Alright, here's where things get a little confusing...
Race Day
When some friends of mine joined a 5K race at a festival, I took pictures of the event. This was my original music for the page, but for some reason I wasn't happy with it at the time...
Whistlin'
...so I wrote this instead, a nice little country number. Cindy, one of my racing friends, loved it. :)
A few weeks later, Jaymie and her friend showed up at another festival dressed as cowgirls. (Long story...she' rather not get into it. ;) More pictures, another page...and I used "Race Day".
...just a bit backwards, isn't it? ;P
Beyond the 8th
This music was scored for a small picture page celebrating Amy's 8th grade graduation.
NEW stuff follows here!
Simple Country Livin'
A tune for the second half of the Amy page. Not one of my finer moments... <:\
Hye 2006's music was AGAIN scored mainly of leftovers... <;P
Winter 2007
More pictures of/from friends in Canada! :D
In Farewell
This was the first tune I composed in 2007. I think I was saying farewell to 2006, but was surprised at how somber the finished result was.
Not long after this, a dear old friend in Canada passed away. Seeing the pictures of his coffin drawn through the snow by sleigh in Richard, I knew the music would be a perfect fit.
...and I didn't give this tune any stereo settings whatsoever. Oops. ;S
Fond Memory
The second page of pictures was for a Sunday School presentation. So I took "In Farewell" and gave it an upbeat accoustic guitar presentation.
...and that intro I pilfered for one of the Hye 2007 songs. :P
February 2007
...and now Amy and Jaymie were 15... o_O
New track, called "Junya's Groove", named after Junya Nakano, a composer I admire for his rhythmic ambience.
And in the progressive style of last year's site...
It gradually built up...
Piece By piece...
Adding something new to the mix...
Until...
It reached its final form. :)
Poem 22 (loop edition)
In the late 1990s, I wrote some MIDIs to go behind some poetry pages for this one man. This is a loopable edition of one of the tracks. One of my favorites, it came to me while I was dozing on the bus (this was before I had gotten my car). Kinda sad, though...
Block of Urban
I wrote this little shuffling and snappy piece in New Hampshire during a 2006 Bible Study Weekend in October. It is a close cousin to "Commerce and Comraderie" from Terrasskasi.
Happy Birthday...BIG BAND STYLE!!!
In my effort to make the classic birthday song at least mildly interesting ;), I gave it a full brassy style. Nice and Jazzy. Happy 15th, girls! :D
Ike
One piece of music for a quick page I made for Sarah's latest cat...when he was a kitten :)
Weirdly Jazzy
Yep, certainly lives up to its name...at least the "weirdly" part. I don't blame you if some of you find this tune mildly grating... <;)
Hye 2007
Once again, I get my act in gear, and made some new MIDIs. Some were orphaned tracks which I had started on and left incomplete for a bit, which is why there may be strange title names (more on that in a sec). But when I got it into my mind to get the music ready, in the end they all ended up sharing common motifs, much like the Hye 2005 set.
"On to the White Mountains" was the first one completed, back in 2006. I had long had an idea about music to go with the Tripod Trilogy of books written by John Christopher. (This idea came to me back in the 1980s.) "White Mountains", "Never Be Mine", and "Bars of Titanium" all came from this basic idea.
Overture 2007
Some Sakuraba-styled bombast. Was I expecting that the gathering would produce some "drama" among the teenagers? Didn't really happen...as far as I know. ;P But it WAS a pretty wet week.
Friendly Places
This tune originally began as a vocal song idea, whose idea was so goofy I'd rather not discuss it. ;) In the end, I gave it a coda that ties in with the rest of the pieces, and left it at that.
Downtown Spring
The intro came to me easily...another take on the transitions between the "oohs" and "ahs" that you see in Flurb's "Darkwater East", except more cool and laid-back. And then...I ran out of steam. It finally was until the Hye idea came along that I finished it. However, I don't care much for that last bit before the loop... :\
Never Be Mine
In the first Tripod book, the hero named Will meets a French girl who is royalty, and - like the overwhelming majority of the world's population in the story - brainwashed into submissiveness to the Tripods. During the story, she willingly goes to with the Tripods to "serve" them. (Her fate, as reveled in the second book, was very sad and enraging indeed.) This music in my mind was originally for Will when he sees her go.
Greenery
Another take on Nakano-style ambient music. I used it for the Friday field trip, a visit to the LBJ Ranch.
Determination
A last-minute addition to the picture site's music, when I discovered a page should probably be split in two. This was another track which I abandoned because I wasn't sure where to take it. Necessity has a funny way of suddenly giving you an idea where to go. ;)
On to the White Mountains
Here is where it started, and it's the first MIDI of this particular grouping I finished. My original concept long ago was a soft vocal song to describe the journey of the first Tripod book. As you can see, a lot has changed. Now it's a boisterous rock theme that hooks you and takes you along for a wild ride! :D
Sleekit
This bizarre title comes from an old English poem describing a mouse, which begins "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie". My sister Sarah, an English teacher, brought the word to my attention, and I knew it was too cool a word NOT to use. :)
The tune itself conveys my infatuation at the time with the music of the band Chicago. As you'll notice, the middle section of "Friendly Places" became the main melody line here.
Bars of Titanium
The final piece directly associated with my Tripod concept. In the book, there was one sequence where Will and his friends did battle with one of the Tripos with grenades. Of course, the way I have it here, it sounds more like a boss battle theme from a game...big surprise. ;P
A Child's Dream
While trying to decide what to put for the Sunday School program, I decided to make a music box piece partly based on one of the motifs. It turned out quite nice.
I might as well fess up...one of the main riffs in these pieces came to me from an instrumental track by a Christian band named Stryper!!! :D
And for the moment, that is all. :)