Doug Skinner: An Archive on Your Gizmo

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Cinderella’s Glass Eye

April 12th, 2012 · Comments Off on Cinderella’s Glass Eye

“Cinderella’s Glass Eye” is a bit of fairy tale music, scored for tuba and piano.  There is a story to go with it; here it is.  (Some readers have complained that the images are too small; let me remind them, gently, that you can enlarge a thumbnail by clicking on it.)

And here’s the brooding counterpoint that begins it, before the waltz.

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The Speakeasy Series

April 11th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Speakeasy Series

David Gold and I performed in “The Speakeasy Series,” produced by Studio B in Maplewood, NJ, March 24, 2012.

Our set:

Make a Wish
Never Shtup a Nutjob
Fa La La La La
The Gypsy (by Billy Reid)
Don’t Talk To Me
Good Night

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Blunders

April 11th, 2012 · Comments Off on Blunders

I wrote the score for Katie Nelson’s dance “Blunders” back in 1980.  Frankie Mann recorded it; I played all the instruments, including piano, toy piano, ‘cello, organ, and percussion.  Here’s the first page.

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The Disinfocast

April 6th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Disinfocast

Matt Staggs interviewed me about my old friend, the inimitable John A. Keel, for his “Disinfocast.”  You can listen to it here.

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The Big Show

April 6th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Big Show

Michele Larsson put together The Big Show in 1978, in connection with an exhibit devoted to Loie Fuller at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, in San Francisco.  I provided music, which was mostly improvised, as I recall; Tony Gnazzo talked and rode an exercise bike; Helen Dannenberg and Michele danced.

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Lasciate l’Ombre

April 2nd, 2012 · Comments Off on Lasciate l’Ombre

“Lasciate l’Ombre” is a setting of an excerpt from Luigi Tansillo, as quoted by Giordano Bruno in La Cena de le ceneri. A bit of research reveals that Bruno’s citation differs from Tansillo’s original poem.  Duly noted.  My setting is based on the randomized four-pitch diatonic chords that I’ve used in several pieces.

My translation of the text:

Leave the shadows and embrace the truth;
Don’t exchange the present for the future.
I don’t despair of a better day:
But, to live with more joy and security,
I enjoy the present and hope for the future.
Thus I enjoy double sweetness.

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The Soliloquy

March 27th, 2012 · 1 Comment

Back in 1988, I used to perform this version of Hamlet’s soliloquy, in which each word is followed by a cartoonish sound effect.  It was, I recall, fun to perform, difficult to memorize, and took a long time to set up.  Here’s how it begins.

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Nocturne

March 16th, 2012 · 1 Comment

The “Nocturne” is based on the randomized diatonic four-pitch chords I’ve used in several pieces. Seven of these chords were used for the left-hand part. A set of seven numbers gave the number of repetitions of each chord (6215734) and the key of each chord (7623154: BECGFAD). They were then arpeggiated, in the familiar nocturnal 12/8. The right hand part was written from the three remaining pitches in each key, plus the flatted seventh, thus giving the eight pitches of two adjacent keys (B+E, E+A, C+F, etc.). The second part of the nocturne repeats the process with different chords, repetition sequence, and key sequence; with the key sequence darkened by dialing it over a couple of stops on the circle of fifths: E♭+A♭, A+D, G+C, F+B♭, B♭+E♭, D+G, C+F.

You can hear it on Bandcamp, over here.

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Keyboard Music 3

February 27th, 2012 · 4 Comments

This photocopied dossier collects 49 pages of my music for keyboard.  Let me know if you want one.

The pieces are:

The Muscatel Suite
Pay Attention
Gilding the Pyrite
The Guidonian Hand Applied to a Tracing of a Plaster Cast of a Yeti Footprint
This Honeycomb Matrix of Atoms Known as the Material World
Bill Irwin’s “Marionette”
Prelude
Oh
Jag
Fiction
Misapprehension
Hapax Legomenon
The Hand Without the Fingers Is Just a Spoon
Dodecaphonophenakistoscope

→ 4 CommentsTags: *Music · K

The Fun Song

February 24th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Fun Song

Michael Smith and I used to open every performance of “Doug & Mike’s Adult Entertainment” with this little ditty.  Mike was on pocket trumpet, and I played banjo uke.  We also made a karaoke tape, now included on our DVD.

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