Tag Archives: Music

Es Wird Scho Glei Dumpa – Merry Christmas from Austria

Download brass quartet sheet music: Es wird scho glei dumpa.

Please note that “Es Wird Scho Glei Dumpa” is also part of the compilation Christmas Reharmonized, Volume 1 & 2.

Here’s what it sounds like when played on a piano:

The Story Behind

I like Christmas. Especially the couple of weeks before Christmas eve. It’s getting dark and cold, but there’s candles and everything is lit in vibrant colors, we cuddle, drink tea and sing our favorite Christmas carols. At the some time everybody is busy shopping or trying to finish whatever they need to get done before the year ends, but we usually still find time to spend with friends and family. It’s a confusing but beautiful time. I tried to capture this weird feeling of enchantment mixed with numbing haste by arranging and reharmonizing the Austrian Christmas carol “Es wird scho glei dumpa” for brass quartet.

Word of advice if you want to play it with your band: The second half of the piece could be callenging and needs practicing.

Creative Commons Licence


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

30 Sound Bites for 30 Days

Another 30 Days Challenge! I’ll record small snippets of music / sound every day for 30 days and will upload them to soundcloud.

Some background information:

  • 1: Composed by me when my project at work suffered a huge setback, which was also kind of a relieve at the same time.
  • 2: Composed by me when trying to see the positive side of aforementioned setback.
  • 3: Recorded during a random band rehearsal.
  • 4: Composed by me when realizing that if management doesn’t want to listen, I shouldn’t care either.
  • 5: Composed by me after learning that my sister was pregnant! Feeling happy and queer at the same time.
  • 6: Composed by me with some of my roots in Jazz in mind.
  • 7: Cover song – Teardrop.
  • 8: Composed by me with a G as rhythmic constant.
  • 9: Composed by me as a byproduct of 8.
  • 10: Variation on Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor.
  • 11: Composed by me in 2008 while in Los Angeles.
  • 12: Composed by me after listening to and playing some Boogies.
  • 13: Recorded during a rehearsal for the drummer’s entrance examination at Johannes Bruckner University Linz.
  • 14: Birds in the City – With the US leaving the Paris Climate Agreement this seemed worthy a recording.
  • 15: Composed by me after listening to some Monk tunes.
  • 16: Composed by me with the goal in mind that the left hand should play the melody.
  • 17: Composed by me with the goal in mind to write something in E Major.
  • 18: Composed by me with the goal in mind to write something that could pass as Jazz ballad.
  • 19: Composed by me with the goal to create some variations of the same harmonic material.
  • 20: Transcription – Album version Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau’s “The Old Shade Tree
  • 21: Composed by me with the goal to let off some steam.
  • 22: Composed by me with nothing but the form ABA in mind
  • 23: 8th note improvisation over blues in F, trying not to default back to the F blues scale too often.
  • 24: Composed by me by trying to “phase around” right and left hand.
  • 25: Composed by me by shifting a #11 motive in whole tones. It’s funny how the same thing can be perceived as light-footed (at the beginning) or menacing (at the end).
  • 26: Composed by me by overdubbing some vocal percussion.
  • 27: Composed by me with Dave Grusin in Mind
  • 28: Composed by me with the constraint that the C-G-G Ostinato (heard in the second half) should work over the whole tune.
  • 29: Johann Sebastian Bach – Prelude in C Sharp, Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Buch 1, BWV 848. I still can’t decide whether I like the “Dah-Dap-Dah-Dap” phrasing (first half) or the “Dap-Dah-Dap-Dah” phrasing (second half) better. I found recordings from renown artists both ways. The first phrasing feels better suited for Bach to me, while the second has more groove.
  • 30: Composed by me with the goal to write a good night / good bye song.

Andachtsjodler – Merry Christmas from Austria

Download brass quartet sheet music: Andachtsjodler.

Please note that “Andachtsjodler” is also part of the compilation Christmas Reharmonized, Volume 1.

Here’s what it sounds like when played on a piano:

The Story Behind

Around 2000 I was one of the most active trombone players within my 30 km radius (my radius as a trombone player is more link 500 meters these days). On the 23rd of December of 2000 I was hired to play with a brass quartet in the “Welser Altstadt” (see Google maps, we played within 10 m of that location). I was a teenager back then and at a point in my life where 100 EURs plus open bar felt like I had conquered the world. I even got to kiss a girl later that night. But that is not the point.

The point is that I heard (because I played it) an Austrian Christmas tune called “Andachtsjodler” for the very first time in my life that night. I had never heard or played it before, but when we played it the innkeeper who had hired us (he was pretty drunk by the time) started to cry. It was not only him, the song also touched me.

More than 10 years later I improvised a piano version of the “Andachtsjodler”:

Recently I distilled it into a brass quartet version. I hope it helps you beam yourself to Austria and experience some of the magic that still surrounds Christmas.

Creative Commons Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Listen to Fred Hersch

You have to watch this youtube video:

To me Fred Hersch’s version of “Both Sides Now” is profoundly beautiful and touching. It clearly stands out compared to the millions of stimuli that I get on a day to day basis. When I say stimuli I mean everything ranging from music, photography, writing, management presentations, engineering solutions, mathematical equations to coffee table discussions. In my quest to understanding “Life, the Universe & Everything” I can’t resist to ask: “Why?”.

To tell you the truth, I don’t think I have a way to test my answers (hypotheses) in a “true-or-false” manner. However my intuition at the moment tells me this:

  • Technique. You have to be in control of your fingers to be one of the top piano players in the world. Interestingly I don’t think you have to be in total control, as in all points in the four dimensional “what finger, what key, what intensity, what time” space. You just have to cover a big-enough, interesting-enough subspace, which is a challenge already.
  • References. “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell is considered a master piece in its own right. Not only has it proven to capture people’s minds, but for those who know it already, it will most likely trigger positive emotions instantaneously. Similarly Fred Hersch’s interpretation is firmly rooted in the tradition of Jazz, which provides another huge set of references.
  • Story Telling. From the first note to the last Fred Hersch takes you on a journey that is logical from one note/one phrase to the next and that is holistically consistent in a way that it captures your imagination throughout the piece.
  • Personality. Both what he plays and how he plays it screams “Fred Hersch”. Even if you would transcribe his music and have it played by some random, classically trained pianist, it would probably lack some important characteristics.

For lack of scientific methods, I can’t be sure that this list is correct or exhaustive. But what I can say is that I find all of these qualities in Fred Hersch’s “Both Sides Now” and that I should certainly make sure they are in the random coffee table discussion to make it just as beautiful and touching.

Alles Leuchtet – Everything’s Shining

For as long as I can think I’ve had one or more songs every year that were like my own personal summer soundtrack. When I hear one these songs they put me right back in time by bringing back memories, smells, tastes, feelings, …

So here is this year’s song:

What is interesting to note is that it makes use of different German accents.

Arts and Jazz

Another night out playing some jazz music. This time for the visitors of the vernissage of Austrian artist Jörg Wascher.

wascher

The gig was ok although for me listening to Jazz while looking at art (mostly paintings, but also some sculptures) and drinking wine is a little bit too much of a cliché. Plus I don’t like background music in grocery stores, so why would anyone like it at a vernissage?

But it’s not my call, we got paid for the gig and I really enjoyed playing with that group. We were four and we have not played in that setup before, but interestingly all share some kind of common history or are linked otherwise.

The trumpet player, Erwin, and I are friends for a long time. He also studied mechatronics, and obtained his PhD a couple of years ago. After being a post doc at KU Leuven he’s now back at JKU for another post doc position. His office is on the same floor as my office.

The bass player, David, was the youngest of our group, about age 20. He studies bass at Anton Bruckner university, the school where I studied jazz piano for some time. And here it comes: We also were neighbors for most parts of our lives! Our parents are still neighbors. David has an older brother Joe (we’re almost the same age), who is a brilliant guitar player. It really is interesting that neither my personal, nor Joe’s or David’s musical paths crossed while we still lived in Thalheim. – I played in a band with Joe later and with David for the very first time tonight, but not before anyone of us was older than 20.

The drummer, Markus, played in Joe’s band while we were teenagers, and I would see him every now and then from across the street. Also he was one of the best friends of a very good friend of mine, who I met much later – they went to the same music highschool. So I have met Markus again at a couple of birthday parties since then. – He went on to become a professional drummer.

It is funny to see how all of us are connected to other people in such diverse ways, how we develop our own paths. And sometime, like magic, they cross again, or lead into different directions …