Tag: descriptive music

Open Mic Adventures LXXVI: “Black Mage”

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I’m still promoting my latest release, Leftovers II, but I’m also excited for my next album, Four Mages, which releases Thursday, 2 May 2024.  Of course, if you’d like to hear Leftovers II, you can do so at the following places (and probably more):

Today, however, I’d like to look at the fourth of the Four Mages, the dreaded “Black Mage.”

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Lazy Sunday CXLIV: Four Mages, Part I

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Last week I released Leftovers II, and in just a few weeks I’ll release my next album, Four Mages (2 May 2024).  If you’d like to hear my latest release, you can do so here:

Readers might have noticed some of the colorful mages popping up over the last few weeks on this blog.  I’ve posted three of the Four Mages so far (“Black Mage” is coming this Tuesday, 9 April 2024—stay tuned!), so I thought I’d share them with y’all this Lazy Sunday:

  • “Open Mic Adventures LXXIII: ‘Blue Mage’” – “Blue Mage” is a duet for oboe and bassoon, built upon a mysterious whole tone scale. The piece is written in 5/8 time, further lending to the mystical feel of this magical journey.
  • “Open Mic Adventures LXXIV: ‘Red Mage’” – “Red Mage” is a mischievous and playful duet for oboe and bassoon. It is the companion piece to “Blue Mage.” The piece has a playful, mischievous feel, and I love how it sounds very much like it’s from a fantasy JRPG soundtrack.
  • “Open Mic Adventures LXXV: ‘White Mage’” – “White Mage” is a bright but flowing solo for flute with celesta accompaniment. A piano could be substituted in place of the celesta. It has a delightful Final Fantasy vibe.

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

April 2024 Bandcamp Friday

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Today is Bandcamp Friday!  That means Bandcamp waives their share of any purchases made on my Bandcamp page today (Friday, 5 April 2024), so it’s the best possible time to buy my music if you want to support yours portly.

Earlier this week I released my sixteenth Bandcamp album, Leftovers II.  It consists of tracks leftover from other composing projects, as well as two older pieces (“Robobop” and “Pwrblld [Ballad II]“) and a lo-fi organ piece I recorded using an old computer microphone sometime in 2007.

You can listen to the full thing on Bandcamp for free a few times before Bandcamp locks out full track playback.  However, if funds are tight and you’d rather not pay $5 for the album (which you should totally do anyway—it’s just five bucks!), you can listen to the album through the following services:

Thanks for listening!  Even just streaming helps me out a great deal.

—TPP

Leftovers II Out Now

The Portly Politico4 Comments

My third release of the year, Leftovers II, is out today.  It consists of two previously-released tracks; four new pieces “leftover” from other projects; and an eight-minute organ solo I played on a keyboard and recorded using a crummy computer microphone seventeen years ago.

I have two other releases in the pipeline, Four Mages (releasing 2 May 2024) and Advanced Funkification (releasing 7 June 2024).  Four Mages is a collection of fantasy-inspired pieces, and Advanced Funkification is a funk album.  Some of the tracks on Leftovers II were composed while I was working on these other two releases, but they didn’t fit the “vibe” of either, so I decided to put together this collection.

In addition to Bandcamp, you can listen to Leftovers II on most every streaming platform, except for Spotify.  I’ll have full links up this Friday for Bandcamp Friday‘s post (I’m writing this post before the album hits streaming platforms, so I don’t have full links yet), but here are links to the relevant pages; you can navigate to Leftovers II from there:

Again, I’ll have a more complete list of streaming links Friday.

In the meantime, happy listening!

—TPP

Open Mic Adventures LXXIII: “Blue Mage”

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

On 2 May 2024—the day that is exactly twenty-six weeks, or halfway, to Halloween—I’ll be releasing Four Mages, a color-coded collection of fantasy-inspired instrumental music.  I’m really excited for this release (which consists of ten tracks, not just the four mages of the title), and I hope it will capture imaginations with its whimsical, mysterious, fantastical feel.

The first piece I composed for the album is today’s feature, “Blue Mage.”  I then immediately composed “Red Mage,” its companion piece, which I will feature next week.  Honestly, I like “Red Mage” better, but “Blue Mage” captures the more mystical, esoteric side of this album.  “Red Mage,” on the other hand, is more lively and whimsical.

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Open Mic Adventures LXXI: “Epistemology”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Last Friday, 1 March 2024, I released Epistemology, my latest collection of original compositions.  I personally think it’s some of the best of my newer works.

You can listen to and/or purchase Epistemology through the following services (and more!):

This week, I thought I’d feature the title track of this epic release.

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Lazy Sunday CCVIII: Original Music, Part I

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Ah, the glorious summer.  I can already feel it slipping through my Vienna sausage fingers like the grains of sand in an hour glass, or the metaphorical sandbags I’m desperately stacking up against the inexorable tide of the new school year.  I love teaching, but having mornings free to write and the like is glorious.

One perk of summer is that I can actually get out to open mic nights again.  I’ve missed playing live, and I want to find sustainable ways to play during the school year.  It’s difficult, though:  I typically don’t get in from an open mic until 10 PM.  That’s doable during the summer months, but during the school year, I’m usually zonked out by 9 or 9:30 PM, not hanging out with hipsters in some coffee shop.

Regardless, here are some recent posts featuring original pieces, two of which are open mic performances:

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments: