Shakuhachi Project

I finished my first Shakuhachi, the Japanese traditional end-blown flute.

Following the "standard" specification, it has 5 equal sized finger holes, beautifully arranged at even spacing of 1/10th of the flute's length.

After drilling the bamboo nodes to create a continuous pipe, the bamboo was initiated with fire. The heat treatment process left burn marks on the bamboo, which I found aesthetically appeasing.

The next step is cutting the utaguchi (blowing edge) at the end of the bamboo. Finally, the finger holes were drilled. Fine tuning was done by adjusting the finger hole size and adding or removing materials from the bore.

For finishing, the word Shakuhachi (in Japanese character) was inlaid at the back of the utaguchi. Then three strips of rattan binding was introduced. The strips served as decoration as well as adding some strength to the bamboo.

Finally, a thin layer of lacquer was applied to give the bamboo a nice, smooth, shiny appearance. Listen to the sound of this instrument here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xogmvzcuxst

USB from hell

In the middle of the night, when I was recording the last track for the ending credit of the movie KURSInya, my mic started to introduce a very annoying constant clicking noise. It was rather loud and occurs approximately every half second.

Tinkering with the cable connections did not help, so I decided to open the microphone. Due to its weird construction (it is a cheap dynamic microphone) I had to cut the cables to take out the mic out of its casing. I found that wiring the mic ground connection into a large, electrically isolated body reduces the noise. So I proceeded and finished the recording session.

However, the problem persists. The noise is reduced, but never fall to zero. The worst thing about it is I cannot put the mic back into its casing (I still cannot find a way to open it). So it is now hanging, naked on the stand.

Today I found that unplugging my USB printer from the computer eliminates the noise completely ...

New Recording on Youtube

New recording of Carawitta and Fugue for two guitars are now available on Youtube.

Listen to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHI8fTNnG4U

Played by Oskar Satria and Riston Adenan, in Substantially Guitar Concert, Jakarta, 2 Mar 2008.


Thanks to Sudirman Leman for uploading the performance.

Variations on a theme in D Minor

I just wrote it this afternoon. It is short work for a trio of guitar, violin, and cello. It is going to be premiered on 23rd Feb 2008 at CCF, Bandung. Basically it is a very short, 2 measures long theme being repeated again and again with different variations. As the music progress, the original theme become the background and a new material is introduced. Repeating this process produces an original work quickly and easily.

The full score is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?inwnvngcibd

Indonesian Rhyming Dictionary

I've finished my project of writing the Indonesian Rhyming Dictionary, or "Kamus Rima Bahasa Indonesia". Hopefully this book can soon be released to the public. Currently in the process of finding a publisher.

Currently I'm just having fun with it

"Sonata Duta Junta Pendusta"

Dewata semesta,
beta bercerita nyata, beta meminta cinta wanita jelita berkacamata, juwita berpita magenta. Pendeta buta renta berkata terbata bata, serta merta bersukacita, berpesta bergempita beserta anggota tahta mahkota junta pendusta.

Ternyata, penderita kusta ternista serta anggota kasta jelata, mengkudeta, bersenjata, meminta harta permata, bercita cita menata gulita dukacita, mencipta pelita sukacita.

"Kita terlunta lunta, penderita tata kota. Junta menyita harta, kereta, talenta, unta ... Vendeta!!"

Dewata semesta, beta meminta cinta wanita jelita berkacamata, juwita berpita magenta. Fakta berkata, "meronta ronta!", wanita berkata "airmata", junta berkata, "Anumerta."

Time Signatures

Why should every single song on MTV is written with 4/4 time signature?? Well, Igor Stravinsky thought about this issue a few decades ago, and wrote "The Rite of Spring", with the time signature changes every single measure, but his great idea is now forgotten, and we are back with the Bum tch Pffst tch type rhythm (that is the reason why we have so many crossover artists nowadays, classical music has more or less the same rhythm as today's rock music)

In Stravinsky's time, the most important element of music is the harmony, an old idea propagating from the romantic era. Today, most musicians' still judge the quality of a composition from its harmony. However, I noticed that it is no longer true among non-musicians. They are much more inclined to hear the rhythm, and do not really care about the underlying harmony, even the melody.

So here it is, a piece of solo guitar with irregular time signature, that I believe is easier on 21st century ears. I plan this piece to be a part of a larger scale work, so there will be more movement coming.

http://www.mediafire.com/?4u99z5tze9m

Carawitta and Fugue no 1

A friend of mine, Syarif Maulana, had a concert last year. I contributed a composition for two guitars. It was premiered at his concert, 9 November 2007, with another young guitarist from Jakarta, Johan Yudha Brata. The piece features an interplay between a baroque style music with Indonesian traditional music.

Both players had only 2 weeks to study the piece before the concert, but they managed to deliver the performance. At least the audience appeared to be very pleased. Unfortunately there was no recording of that event, but the score is available here

http://www.mediafire.com/?bs69exkxnz9

As always, let me know if you want to perform this piece in public at fauziew/at]gmail[dot\com