Christopher Cerrone - Don't Look Down perf. by Conor Hanick and Sandbox Percussion

[@stevenflam3069]

Love the bicycle pump!!! Great mix of sounds! A bit foreboding!

[@miroslavchernousov]

Awesome!

[@michaelagosta6205]

This is such a perfect metaphor for the last year. BRAVO.

[@petraszaszi4164]

🧡🧡🧡

[@jlarson1040]

I would have liked to hear some changes in meter. The third movement started off nicely but eventually became a very predictable 4/4. I'm not a big fan of minimalism so that should tell you where I'm coming from. The performance by Sandbox was quite good. This is the first thing that I've heard from them and look forward to hearing more from them.

[@cerronecomposer]

With all due respect, sounds like you didn't listen very closely as all movements constantly change the meter. Unfortunately sounds like your stylistic biases got in the way. If you don't believe me, the score is here: christophercerrone.com/music/dont-look-down/

[@jlarson1040]

​@@cerronecomposerSorry if I was a little harsh in my comments. There are actually things I like in your piece but with just one time hearing, wanted to say how I think it could be improved. I briefly looked through score and do see that there were instances where there are shifts out of 4/4 but in listening to it, I hear: 1, 2, 3, 4 \ 1, 2, 3, 4 \ etc. There are constant 1/16th notes throughout and no triplets or quintuples that I saw (again, I just briefly paged through there may be some that I didn't notice.) The periodicity of the rhythms became very predictable. There were no surprises. Again, I know that I'm being harsh but it's just not a style of music that appeals to me.

[@cerronecomposer]

@@jlarson1040 In the end, to each their own but it sounds like you don't have a great conception of what the music itself is, which has tons of layers of rhythmic complexity (including triplets and quintuplets). The prioritization of subdivisions of non-16th based notes is something I address pretty head-on in this interview: (kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHm1eXqAott_sKs). Many of the rhythmic layers are groups of 3, 5, and 7 16th notes. But if you have an issue with all music in 4/4, like, ever, for one second, you probably don't enjoy many kinds of music. But I hope you learn how to understand that many cultures, especially West African, Indian Balinese, iterate rhythmic complexity from uneven subtatic repetitions against a steady ictus. Never too late to learn something about other music you're unfamiliar with.

[@jlarson1040]

@@cerronecomposerI didn't mean to make such an issue about 4/4 time but note in the interview (50:00) you mentioned having a teacher who advised you to just put everything into 4/4. The majority of your piece is in 4/4 and does often have a strong accent on the first beat of the measure (e.g., the section played in the interview). That's all fine and good. I'm sure you've listened to "In C" by Terry Riley which is known a landmark minimalist piece. I listened to it again recently and found myself counting 1,2,3,4 till I got bored and turned it off. Your comment (42:55) about "mashing some notes on the keyboard...placing them in a 16th note grid" explains a lot about your process. Playing devil's advocate as I am wont to do, I wonder if the computer keyboard is writing the music rather than, you, the composer. I've dabbled a bit using Finale and have done much the same thing but didn't feel right about it so I discarded it. I've read about AI programs that can write music in the style of Bach, Beethoven, etc. and wonder how long it will be before composers no longer have a job. Why hire someone like John Williams to write a film score when you can simply tell a computer to write in the style of John Williams?