Tag: Romantic Music

Heptadic Structure Out Today!

The Portly Politico12 Comments

My latest release, Heptadic Structure, is out today on Bandcamp!

It’s one of my more unusual releases.  It’s  an experimental electronic album consisting of seven pieces written in variations of 7/X time signatures (7/4, 7/8, and/or 7/16). Each piece consists of 21 measures, for a total of 147 measures of written music. 14 + 7 = 21, and 21/7 = 3. 3 represents the Holy Trinity, and 7 represents God’s Divine Number.

If that made your head hurt, no worries—you can just listen to the music and enjoy! Ranging from classical (“Angularity“) to weirdly experimental (“Akhenaten“) to melodious (“Balladic Processional“) and beyond, Heptadic Structure is a mathematically musical journey through time and space.

The title derives from the somewhat dubious field of Biblical numerology.  When I conceived of an album built upon the number 7, I cast about for a good name.  I searched online for “Heptadic Stucture” and came up with the numerological concept.

I would caution believing Christians not to dive too deeply into Biblical numerology.  While I do think it’s fascinating that there appears to be some kind of underlying mathematical structure to God’s Word, it’s too easy to fall into Gnostic heresy.  As Christians, we should rely on God’s Word, not an alleged pattern of numbers that may or may not be woven into it.

Regardless, it makes for a cool concept for an album!

You can purchase the album for $7 (ha!) on Bandcamp.

It’s also streaming on all the major platforms (except Spotify):

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Open Mic Adventures LXXXII: “Brown Friar”

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Well, just like with Lazy Sunday, I was off on my Roman numeral numbering for Open Mic Adventures.  Fortunately, it’s just by one, but I made the mistake somewhere around the fortieth-odd post, so, like with Lazy Sunday, I’m just going to start the correct numbering back with this post.  As such, there’ll be two posts with “LXXXII” in their titles, but the list of “Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures” below has been corrected.  Goodness!

Regardless, today’s track is from my seventeenth album, Four Mages—the last one I have yet to feature here.  It is a collection of ten electronic tracks, all but one of which (“The Blind Prophet“) is color-coded. Each piece explores some facet of fantasy archetypes, weaving and casting a musical spell upon listeners.

Here are some platforms where you can listen:

I really enjoy this album, and I hope you will, too.  It’s about fourteen minutes in length, so it’s perfect listening for doing a short errand or for a quick drive.

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Open Mic Adventures LXXXI: “Yellow Knight”

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Today’s track is from my seventeenth album, Four Mages.  It is a collection of ten electronic tracks, all but one of which (“The Blind Prophet“) is color-coded. Each piece explores some facet of fantasy archetypes, weaving and casting a musical spell upon listeners.

Here are some platforms where you can listen:

I really enjoy this album, and I hope you will, too.  It’s about fourteen minutes in length, so it’s perfect listening for doing a short errand or for a quick drive.  This week’s feature has done a bit better than most on YouTube, too.

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🧙‍♂️Four Mages🧙‍♂️ Out Today!

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Today is 2 May 2024, exactly twenty-six weeks to Halloween!  What better day to release my latest collection of compositions, Four Mages?

🧙‍♂️Four Mages🧙‍♂️ is a collection of ten electronic tracks, all but one of which (“The Blind Prophet“) is color-coded. Each piece explores some facet of fantasy archetypes, weaving and casting a musical spell upon listeners.

It’s $5 on Bandcamp, and is also available on all major (and minor) streaming platforms except for Spotify.

I’m quite excited for this release; I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed composing it.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

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

Open Mic Adventures LXXI: “Epistemology”

The Portly Politico4 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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