I will be using this blog to let you know what I'll be up to each week.
This week I will be finishing up two huge final papers for school. I am currently at USM persuing a Masters in Composition.
The first paper is on Gyorgy Ligeti's First and Second String Quartets. The paper looks at how Ligeti was able to develop a new musical language between the time they were composed. At the end of the paper, I show how Ligeti seemed to be dealing with horrible childhood memories from growing up in war-torn Hungary in the 1940's and 50's when he wrote the Second String Quartet in 1968.
The paper gets into quite a bit of musical analysis but I think a lot of my students could understand the analysis if they take their time with the paper. When the paper is completely done I will have a link here to a pdf if you are interested.
If you want to get into Ligeti's music for the first time, there are some excellent budget priced box sets available to order at Bull Moose. The Ligeti Project is a great set that has a lot of his famous compositions for orchestra on it, approved by the composer himself. If you want almost everything else he ever composed, pick up Ligeti: Works on Sony. This has the String Quartets, the Piano Etudes and even a piece for 100 Metronomes. If you are truly adventurous, musically, you need to hear Ligeiti's music. Trust me on this.
The second paper I will be finishing this week is on Let It Be...Naked a re-release of Let It Be by the Beatles that gets rid of Phil Spector's added production and strips the songs down to "just the original tapes". My paper compares the two albums and asks the question, "Is Let It Be...Naked Really...Naked?" I originally really liked Naked a lot better, but as I looked at the two albums more closely I started to think differently. If you love the Beatles and reading thoughtful words about their music you might enjoy this. Again I'll have a pdf attachment for you to download this later on.
Besides teaching private lessons and practicing guitar that's what I'll be up to most of this week. I look forward to doing more playing in the Summer. Check out my calender at donpride.com. The calender is starting to fill up so I'll be adding more dates soon.
Check out Ligeti and Let It Be... Naked and let me know what you think. (My son says Ligeti goes great with video games.)
About Me
- Don Pride
- I am a composer, guitarist and teacher in Portland, Maine. Currently, teach guitar and composition at Portland Conservatory I play concerts and recitals throughout New England as a classical guitarist. I play guitar for the Portland Jazz Orchestra,an 18-piece big band and also the Carmine Band, who play weddings and functions throughout Northern New England. I am the leader of the Don Pride Band, a quartet that plays jazz, rock, and my own original compositions. You can see us every 4th Friday at the Frog and Turtle in Westbrook, ME. I have played with Portland Symphony as well as part of the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra from NYC. I toured with Clay Aiken as his lead guitarist for several tours. I hold two masters: one in composition, and the other in Jazz Studies and have an undergraduate degree in Classical Guitar Performance. The colleges I attended include Manhattan School of Music in New York, New England Conservatory in Boston and the University of Southern Maine. I love teaching, playing and making my living making music. So far, I've been able to pull that off.