Michael Sperone

Max MSP expo and patches/applications

2011-11-21T00:20:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone!

It's a month later, and I will now post stuff from the Max/MSP expo!

I've posted some patches and things from my workshop, "Max/MSP As An Extended Technique of the Acoustic Instrument."

You can find them here:
http://cycling74.com/toolbox/expo-74-using-max-as-an-extended-technique-of-your-acoustic-instrument/

Also you can find them, along with some other max/msp patches and applications here:
http://cycling74.com/toolbox/expo-74-using-max-as-an-extended-technique-of-your-acoustic-instrument/

New electric guitar quartet recording

2011-11-21T00:18:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone.

I recently recorded my latest composition for 4 electric guitars.

As I am not a guitarist, I apologize for the lack of playing ability. If you are in fact impressed by my guitar skills, you should instead be impressed by my editing skills.

Guitar Quartet mix

2011-09-19T19:15:00.004-04:00

In one month, I will be presenting "Techniques for Extending Acoustic Instruments" at Cycling '74s Expo '74. Expo '74 is a 3 day conference for Cycling '74's famous program Max/MSP.

Topics covered will include:
connecting your instrument to your computer
what to do after that
including:
altering the live sound
analyzing the live audio and different ways to use it
and more!

Album!!!!!

2011-08-26T15:25:00.003-04:00

Yay! Thank you sooo much to everyone who pledged money to support my album. I really appreciate it so much. It is now fully funded and the final parts of it are under way. Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering did the mastering, and Kathleen Kamphausen and Jeanette Sperone are doing the photography and album artwork/design respectively. Then I can send it out to be pressed and printed, and have an awesome album release party!

Thanks again to everyone who donated and spread the word about this!

Help kickstart my album!

2011-06-18T10:21:00.004-04:00

My album is kickstarted! You can help make it a success!! Find out how here....

Tintinnabulation - Nov. 5th @ Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY

2010-11-07T23:41:00.004-05:00

skip ahead to 5:30

Back from the Farm!

2010-08-23T23:00:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful time! Thanks to everyone at the farm, you can read about it here

Pictures to follow.

Better Art, Better Farm

2010-08-16T21:58:00.005-04:00

Hello! I am writing from the beautiful location of Better Farm in Redwood, NY!

I am in my second week as artist-in-residence at the BetterArt program here. It is great! I have written about 10 minutes of music and plan to write at least another 10 minutes, for glockenspiel and computer.

Yes, I have done quite a bit with that set up, but before this residency I hadn't written any serious, fully composed pieces for this particular instrumentation. This friday will be the premier of all the music I have/will compose(d) during these two weeks, I hope to get a recording so I can share with you. If not, then I will do a "studio" recording after I get home.

I'll post pictures as I get them "developed."

News!

2010-06-10T11:31:00.004-04:00

Tintinnabulation performed again recently... this time with a full band! I was glad to be joined by Justin Sabaj on guitar, Max Stehr on bass, and Jovan Alvarez on trumpet. We performed at Goodbye Blue Monday, and hope to perform again soon.

On The Cusp is currently organizing it's 2010-2011 season and we're excited about it! More details as soon as everything is finalized.

OTC 2nd concert!

2010-04-05T10:48:00.002-04:00

March 29th was On The Cusp's 2nd concert!

Thank you so much to Peter Jarvis for hosting us on William Paterson University's New Music Series. We split a concert with them, performing works by Kevin Norton, John Link, and Bryan Rudderow, followed by the WPU New Music Ensemble performing works by Peter Jarvis, Lou Harrison, and Steve Reich.

It was a wonderful concert, we hope to post photos, sound clips, and videos soon!

Check www.otcnewmusic.com for updates!

42 pieces for Cymbal and Computer

2010-02-16T22:20:00.003-05:00

I am working on 42 short pieces for cymbal and computer. I finished a bunch and have them up online here:

Cymbal Piece X

Cymbal Piece XII

Cymbal Pieces XIII & XIV

Cymbal Pieces XV & XVI

OTC first concert!

2010-02-02T14:32:00.004-05:00

On The Cusp had its first concert last weekend (January 23rd) at the Paterson Museum. It went well, thanks to everyone who came.

Photos, videos, etc... to come soon!

New blog location

2010-01-10T12:38:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, in my attempt to get shit done, I've moved my blog here:

edit:
Just kidding, I'm staying at this blog site.

New Year

2010-01-02T22:20:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!!

It's 2010 (Two-thousand Ten not Twenty Ten, as far as I'm concerned), and I'm wrapping things up. Bringing things to an end for the new year (though I might not get done with that for another month or two). I'm finishing up everything I've got started, and I mean finishing for real. Making sure every piece I wrote is properly engraved, finishing my album so it's ready to cut and print, finishing all "done" pieces so they're ready to engrave (then doing so)... in short, I'm getting shit done!

Hopefully this will bring about closure in my past compositions so that I may freely write new ones. I also plan to submit like crazy! Submit all my compositions to any and every person, ensemble, group and organization that has to do with music (with in reason).

So I suppose you could say that's my "New Year's Resolution", but I prefer to think of it as just getting shit done! Which I plan to do a lot of this year.

Lost Data -> album delayed -> :(

2009-12-17T12:43:00.004-05:00

It's true, my hard drive crashed. It's all gone. For now.

I managed to find all my scores, and recordings of them. But my mp3s are all gone, and most importantly, all the work I've done for my upcoming album is lost in a sea of irretrievable 1s and 0s.

Well, irretrievable by me, that is. With some savings, I can have it all my data restored and safe! Until I do some savings, that is...

So for now, it's just the one song Sean Lango, my recording engineer, and I will be finishing up and polishing off for you to enjoy.

But until my album is released, please enjoy this album by my good friend Shea Collins.

Until next time, Happy Channukah, Merry Christmas, Happy National Fruitcake Day, Happy Kwanza, Happy New Year (Islamic and Gregorian), Happy World Aids Month, and Happy Festivus!

Electro-Music 2009

2009-11-06T10:58:00.004-05:00

Back from Electro-Music 2009
and it was awesome! These pictures are from my performance there, it was a lot of fun.

(Photos taken by Hong Waltzer)

So, on to finishing my album... for real now...

NEWS

2009-10-25T10:49:00.003-04:00

Tintinnabulation - Playing next week at Electro-Music 2009

October 31st at 12 noon... I know it's an early show, but it starts off a day of 19 performances and 7 workshops/demonstrations/lectures/etc...

$20 for the whole day!

Also... OTC has a first concert ready to go! January 23rd at the Paterson Museum at 7:30.
Music by:

Kevin Norton
Joe Branciforte
Barbara White
Michael Sperone
Bryan Rudderow

more concerts to follow!

Nothing entirely too interesting

2009-10-03T23:38:00.004-04:00

OTC update:

October concert postponed until January... January 23rd. Same program, new date.

Other news:

I found a nice dresser and a desk at a garage sale. I purchased them.

Other relevant news:

Finished a transcription of a Samuel Coleridge-Taylor arrangement of "Oh He Raise A Poor Lazarus" for solo piano, for orchestra. That is to say, he arranged this old American Negro melody for piano, and I made it for chamber orchestra.

I met with Sean Lango about mixing/recording/helping with my album, and this will finally be finished in the near future.

On The Cusp New Music Ensemble

2009-09-08T14:16:00.003-04:00

Hello all, I've been pretty busy planning a new ensemble: On The Cusp New Music Ensemble. Founded by myself and Bryan Rudderow, it is a performing ensemble dedicated to promoting/performing/nurturing the music and musicians of New Jersey.

We are planning several great concerts, including our first concert featuring the music of myself, John Link, Kevin Norton, Bryan Rudderow, Josh Lopes, and Joe Branciforte. Date/time is TBA.

Our second concert is scheduled for November 22nd at Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, NJ. This will be a special benefit concert for Sierra Leone. It will feature newly arranged Sierra Leonean folk songs, music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Bryan Rudderow, and special guest speakers.

Bryan and I are doing a lot of work to prepare for these upcoming events, so I hope to see lots of people there! :) More details to follow.

-Mike

Jebble

2009-08-14T18:55:00.001-04:00

Jebble is recorded!

www.mikesperone.com/compositions/

speaker icons = links to audio

8/10 - news update

2009-08-10T22:26:00.003-04:00

So many things... I found my piano solo! pheww, That's a relief! I left it at a student's house by mistake. Well, I got it back and did some work on it, and it's starting to take shape. I've also started a new solo for percussion (unspecified) which I'm writing for Peter Jarvis.

So, I'm also recording my percussion quartet "Jebble," which is an arrangement of an earlier electronic only piece "Jebal"... it's a long, daunting task, but I'm almost finished. I hope to be done on Wednesday. :)

And last, but not least... I've got a gig at The Stone ! It's August 18th at 10pm, I'm playing a new composition by Steve Ruel, with Steve, Tyshawn Sorey, and a french horn player TBA. It should be awesome!

I've lost my piano solo!!

2009-07-28T14:37:00.004-04:00

Ahhh! My worst fears have come to pass. The music notebook in which I'm writing my piano solo is lost... I hope that I left it where I teach today (Tuesdays) so that I will once again hold it today, in as little as 1 hour.
:(

But in other news I have some gigs coming up.
August 18th with Steve Ruel and Tyshawn Sorey at the Stone, performing a new composition by Steve Ruel.

September 12th with the Argento Chamber Ensemble at Le Poisson Rouge, performing "Music For 18 Musicians" by Steve Reich.

October 31st, Tintinnabulation, at Star Lake Music Camp for Electro-Music 2009

Also, I'm working on recordings... so be on the lookout for that. I'll post them when I'm done.

COMA and Publishing

2009-07-06T20:19:00.002-04:00

The ABC No Rio COMA gig is on July 19th at 8pm!

And check this out!

:) Super neat!

6/6/09

2009-06-06T16:22:00.002-04:00

I have a gig coming up at ABC No Rio at their Sunday night COMA series. Either the 12th or 19th of July. I'll keep you posted. Also, I've been working on my album, and have realized that I have got enough songs, and 4 of them are complete. I just need to finish the rest and then I can announce my release date... because I'm sure so many of you are interested.

In other news I'm playing a couple gigs with composer/saxophonist Steve Ruel, details to follow.

Also, if you haven't noticed my website has a few new updates as of last week... so check it out!

5/26/09

2009-05-26T21:40:00.003-04:00

I had a wonderful Tintinnabulation gig at the New Music Unit Power Concert last Friday (at my house). Thanks to those who came. Shea Collins will be playing the next one, this Friday, 5/29/09 at 9:30.

Also after a long Memorial Day weekend of 2 parades, 1 set of keys locked in my car and a hell of a lot of walking around with a 30 pound drum on my shoulders, I am pooped!

But I continue...

I have a slew of things on my to do list now... and I'm going to sit on the couch and watch TV while doing the easiest one of all... fix the hole in my pants.

5/15/09

2009-05-15T19:07:00.003-04:00

I had a wonderful gig last night at Goodbye Blue Monday. The other bands were awesome! The StereoFidelics tore it up with some serious fiddle playing by Melissa and sweet guitar riffs and simultaneous bass playing by Chris. And unfortunately I had to leave in the middle of The Ghost is Dancing to get back to NJ, but they were awesome!! Check these guys out they were super nice and played good music too.

Thanks to everyone there for all the positive feedback from last night, I had a blast. There will definitely be more Tintinnabulation shows in the future. The next one is next Friday, May 22nd at the New Music Unit Power Concert series in New Jersey.

Things

2009-04-27T14:03:00.004-04:00

Still I am not keeping up with this blog like I promised at the beginning. Oh dear, I will certainly attempt to write more, though I can't make any promises.

But here is what I am doing... I am booking gigs, only one so far, at Goodbye Blue Monday again. I hope to get about 6 or so for my solo electronic project. I will update as more get booked.

Also, I am working on a piano solo and have ideas for an unspecified instrument solo.

Also, I am still working on posting Juan's photos and I need to shrink them so they're not so huge so you internet people can see them. Juan so kindly offered to do that for me, THANKS JUAN! So, you may see some lovely photos of me soon.

Music

2009-03-25T10:24:00.002-04:00

So, this is a little bit of the my much hyped electronic glockenspiel project. It's the first 10 minutes from the New Music Unit Power Concert I played on March 13th.

Power Concert #3

Recently....

2009-03-17T01:25:00.004-04:00

I performed this Friday at the New Music Unit Power Concert series at my house. I did the 1st 20 minutes from the Goodbye Blue Monday show I did back in January. I will post audio and photos soon (it will be just like you were there). Also, photographer and friend Juan Giraldo did a little photo shoot after my performance. I'll post some of those when I get them.

So I am currently practicing the marimba part from my "Trio" for clarinet, guitar, and marimba, as well as Josh Lopes' "Keen Promise" vibraphone solo, and my "Diagrams" for percussion solo. All for recordings which will hopefully take place next month. Joe Bergen and I will be splitting the recording of Diagrams, as he plans to play it on a NMU power concert in the future anyway.

Why the sudden recording fever? Well, I want to submit my Trio for my grad school applications in the fall, Josh Lopes asked me to learn Keen Promise for a recording so he could send it to places to hear his music (like 6 months ago... sorry Josh, better late than never?? I hope), and I plan to submit Diagrams to the Percussive Arts Society composition competition this year for "Multiple Percussion Solo (small set-up)".

Also, I'm still waiting for Composers, Inc., a California based composer/performer group to announce this years Lee Ettelson Composer's Award for which I submitted my Trio back in November. The announcement date has been set back from March 10th to March 23rd. Perhaps the awesomeness of my Trio has stunned them so much it's going to take them an extra 13 days to recover?? ... not likely, but one can dream.

New Music Unit Presents! New power concert series

2009-02-23T22:06:00.004-05:00

Joe Bergen kicked off a new New Music Unit power concert series this past Friday evening with a wonderful solo percussion performance. "Power concert", like the term "power nap", is a short 20 minute concert which leaves you feeling refreshed and energized at the end. This coming friday (February 27th, 2009) will be featuring guitarist Justin Sabaj. Stick around after the concert for a wine and cheese and beer and crackers and socializing get together.

In the future, expect power concerts by Ultra Death Men, myself, Josh Lopes, the New Music Unit, Joe Branciforte, Jessica Frane, and many more!

Back, after a short hiatus

2009-02-08T14:01:00.003-05:00

So, the day after my gig I got sick with the flu. I then decided to take it easy, was feeling better, then got the flu again...
I am now feeling better for real this time... and I'm getting back into doing things.

My plan is to finish the vibraphone solo for Joe Bergen, then finish the electronic portion of Jebble for iKtus, and record some of my music. Also, at the same time I wish to fix a couple of things from my electronic glockenspiel patch, and do another gig.

I hope to have the composing done by March 1st, the recording done by May, and the gig in March or April.

Currently on my "todo" list:

2009-01-18T14:54:00.003-05:00

1. Vibraphone solo for Joe Bergen
2. electronic part for Jebble
3. learn Josh Lopes' vibraphone solo "Keen Promise"
4. continue to work on electronic solo

December 11th's Handmade Music

2009-01-18T14:19:00.003-05:00

This is from last month's Handmade Music, the kickoff event to the recurring monthly Handmade Music series at 3rd Ward artist space in Brooklyn. I went to present my electronic glockenspiel.

Coming up: pictures and possibly video from my 1st ever electronic solo gig!!!

Happy Birthday Elliott Carter

2008-12-11T13:57:00.002-05:00

Happy birthday to one of the greatest composers alive/to ever have lived!

Elliott Carter is 100 years old TODAY!!!

Me on CDM blog!

2008-12-10T18:54:00.002-05:00

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/12/10/handmade-music-thurs-ink-jet-robots-electronic-glocks-and-more-workshop-slots/

KP3-nome

2008-12-09T14:53:00.003-05:00

I have written a patch in Max\MSP, to allow my Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 to behave somewhat in the manner of a monome.

This has been done before by others (salamanderanagram, and chinkial). This is what I've come up with though.

The patch has instructions when you open it, but must be modified to fit your own specific needs.

Check it out here.

Electronic Glockenspiel!!

2008-12-05T22:39:00.003-05:00

My current major project, the electronic glockenspiel (I need a better name for it), is in deeply in progress as you can see here:

and a close-up here:

I remade the pickups which are now simply PC board conderser mics, only one of which is working, as the other needs a battery still. There is much less noise, almost none! and everything sounds better. BUT it picks up background noise more :( Oh well, I suppose there's always trade-offs.

Also, I've been getting into high gear on the Max patch that goes along with it, without which, this would just be a lame old amplified glockenspiel.

But the exciting news is that I'm actually going to present this to real live people. This Thursday (December 11th) at "Handmade Music", hosted at 3rd Ward Artist Facility in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Here's a description from Create Digital Music:

Handmade Music, the regular series of DIY music tech parties CDM hosts with Etsy.com and Make Magazine in New York, is back. And it’s back in a big way: the event has a new home in Bushwick and will be held on an actual schedule monthly. The first event is next Thursday, December 11. After the December debut, it’ll be every third Thursday of the month, starting with January 15, 2009. We’ve got a spacious, new home at the hip galleries and workshops of 3rd Ward in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

So this should be neat, I'll be bringing my high-tech glockenspiel and fancy Max/MSP patch to go along with it, as well as a couple other things I have in progress.

so much to do! (+ new photos!)

2008-11-21T00:22:00.002-05:00

I've so much to do! I've been working all day on my music and I've barely got anything to show for it. :( But it was not in vain, as what has been accomplished is useful. I'm working on figuring out an appropriate set to play at GBM in January. I know I have much to do, but I still have lots of time, so I'm not at all worried yet. I'll start worrying on December 8th.

I have new photos, professionally done by Miss Kathleen Fox Kamphausen, as you may have seen on my homepage on your way here. That's exciting!

Ok, off to do some more work!

GIG!!!

2008-11-14T09:17:00.002-05:00

So I finally got off my butt and booked myself a solo gig. I'll be playing at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn. So I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet. But I've got a few things in the works.

The future is now...

2008-10-17T09:34:00.000-04:00

What an amazing world we live in! I am writing this post on my telephone! What would Alexander Grahm Bell say if he knew that his invention would someday be able to access all the information in the world, and you'd be able to do it with out having to even get out of bed!! Perhaps he did anticipate this, and this is what he wanted all along...

October!

2008-10-13T16:02:00.003-04:00

So, it seems like this blog isn't keeping me on track like I thought it would. Never-the-less, I have gotten some things done. I've gotten quite a bit of programming done on my Max patch for my pop musics, I've been editing/fixing/rewriting "Uncertain Occasions" - my multimedia piece. Also, I've constructed my box for the wii/IR custom configurable touch/sensor pad.

Weekend Update

2008-09-30T12:43:00.002-04:00

So here's what I've got left on Jebble:

1: 2 sections need to be written, totaling 90 seconds of music. However, for 1, I need the full piece recorded (in order to then shrink it down to 72s for the tape portion of that section) and for 2nd one, I need to hear how the 1st one sounds because it will be immediately following that one.

2: write the Max patch/audio portion

So... I am officially considering this "done"/"on hold" for now until iKtus is ready to learn it. They've got a pretty busy season so far.

Now... to edit/finish my monster project "Uncertain Occasions"... an hour long multimedia performance.

2008-09-26T20:28:00.003-04:00

Well, I suppose I'm almost done with my percussion quartet.
I still have to:
1. finish editing it... fix the parts that suck
2. engrave it
3. write the electronic audio for the 2 sections that have that
4. write the Max patch for the live electronics

In other news, I have started to take a look at the Radiohead Remix thing. But it's going slow.

I've been getting some good work done with my solo pop music project. But it will still be some time before I've got that all worked out. So, don't hold your breath, but I plan on being able to do gigs by January '09.

I worked a lot on my stuff for the past 2 days, but it seems like I got nothing done... I guess it was just time consuming.

P.S. I really want this.

it's been so long

2008-09-16T13:22:00.003-04:00

Oh my Gosh!!!!!!!!

I'm falling way behind in my blogging/logging/writing/rambling...
Though, I suppose I haven't been doing much...
Jebble, section 11 is sort of done, in the fact that it's fully conceived in my head. And that leaves me with only 2 short sections to go before it's finished... well, before the 1st draft is complete, anyway.

And my garage/studio is clean!!! well, almost... it's close, but there's still more work to do.

That is all... for now...

Weekend

2008-09-10T22:14:00.003-04:00

So... I haven't exactly been keeping up with my doing nothing but composing my percussion quartet until it's done. :(

But here's what I have been doing...

Saturday I went to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and it turned out to be a benefit concert... which is neat, but I wasn't quite expecting/prepared to pay full non-student price. I enjoy the museum, but this particular benefit included really loud house music that made all the 1st floor exhibits impossible to hear. Though the top 2 floors were neat, as I had expected. It included the exhibition "That Was Then... This Is Now".

Yesterday I had my photo shoot (pictures to be revealed soon), with master photographer Kathleen Fox Kamphausen. She did a wonderful job!

I was also able to complete 2 books this weekend...
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Vol. 1
Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin
Both of which are excellent and I highly recommend them.

Today was semi-productive and I finished half of section 7 in Jebble.

Today

2008-09-04T23:58:00.000-04:00

Well, it almost turned out to be an unproductive day.
Trying to be fit and healthy, I did a bit of exercise this morning, some simple crunches and push-ups... then, tried my hand (or rather, feet) at the new treadmill in our living room. I dialed up program #2, and started out at a nice leisurely stroll. 30 minutes and a gallon of sweat later, I was finally done with my first treadmill workout... I walked off it in a weakend state, but proud of my cardiovascular achievement. It wasn't until a little later that I started to feel the effects of a workout I wasn't ready for... a little light-headedness, a bit of dehydration, a monster headache, and an overall feeling of unpleasantness. I fought this with simple hydration and some lunch, and it helped a little. But not with out a large portion of the day gone.

I did however get some things done. I resized my timpani solo and finally retyped the program notes, and sent it to the publisher. After sending a few different page sizes, we finally got it to fit. And now I can finally say my Timpani Solo for Solo Timpani is complete!!!! I also sent my Glock Solo for Solo Glockenspiel to them ...

AND section #14 of my major project, Jebble, may or may not be complete. I'm not sure... it's a bit sparse but I'll see if after the rest if it is done whether or not I want to fill it out some more or not.

So that's exciting.

Jebble progress report #1

2008-09-04T00:17:00.000-04:00

Day 1 since I've decided to devote all my time to finishing this.
I do believe I'm doing pretty well. I entered all I've written into my computer so I can hear the computer play it back in it's literal way of doing things. But it helps me anyway. I finished up a new section of music, so I have now finished the first 6 sections all the way through, plus I've got sections 8-10 completed: a total of 9 out of 14 sections done. I'm pretty psyched about that. I hope to have either #7 or #14 (the longest of them all) done tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll have another full day to write!! Without the one lesson I had to teach and the accidental nap I took today, I should be quite productive!

Current Projects

2008-09-02T23:35:00.000-04:00

These are my current projects:

1: composing a percussion quartet.
for iKtus percussion, they asked me to write them a piece last November... I'm not sure if they remember, but I'm writing it for them. This has taken priority as I am about 1/2 done and want to finish this soon. It is a re-working of my earlier piece Jebal for tape alone.

2: my debut pop album
yup, that's correct

3: my debut pop live performance
live performance version of #2... hittin' the clubs in '09

4: Steve Reich's "Drumming" mvt. I for solo percussionist and looper
I realized this would work well, I just have to perfect the looper, and learn how to phase smoothly with myself.

New Blog/News Updates!

2008-09-02T00:11:00.000-04:00

So, in an effort to log my progress/exhibit my work/contact other humans/waste time, I've decided to start a "blog". Hopefully this will lead me to become a better person, become famous, or track my progress over time. One or more of the three would be make me happy.

I suppose this will just be the introductory post. I'll try and make it a habit to post on a daily basis with updates on how my work is going. So people will know I'm not just wasting my life doing nothing... or perhaps it will just prove that to be the case...
either way, this is the beginning.