Open Source Music

Pronounced ˆdike-man, the Dyckman Valley is where I grew up in New York City. It is the oldest inhabited part of the island, originally the home of the Weekquaeskeek Indians.  They are the ones who “sold” Manhattan Island to Dutch governor Peter Minuit In 1626.

I happened to be mixing the tracks to this song when a documentary called “Super City: New York” was playing on The History Channel.  What caught my attention was a shot with an archeologist taken in Inwood Hill Park. He was standing in a place I had been many times as a boy. The neighborhood kids called them “the Indian caves”. Well it turns out they actually were. It was the winter home of the Weekquaeskeek Indians.  Really.

I don’t know how I connected the musical theme with that vision – but there you have it. Enjoy

 

 Dyckman Valley [4:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

download individual raw tracks:

• Track 1
• Track 2
• Track 3
• Track 4
• Track 5
• Track 6
• Track 7

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

What a great evening I’ve had. After a full week that went well, and at the end of a fun night, I found myself wanting to play.  So I did. I was really inspired tonight, and it came out of my fingers as an upward spiral of good spirited blues.  I think there is a better mix to be found in here somewhere, but good bad or indifferent here is my “Sweet Meet Blues”

 

 Sweet Meet Blues [3:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I really wanted to record something new tonight, but the little black box which connects the keyboard to laptop has an unacceptable hum. Drat.

Well, actually I got lucky. Moving some files around I noticed a set of three tracks which I had not produced yet called Friday Playday. I originally recorded these tracks on March 18, 2007. Sounds impossibly long ago against the backdrop of my current “new” life.

I call this a track and not a song because as I poke around inside my existing recordings I notice that I have played a lot of very different variations on surprisingly few themes. In other words I hear the same melodies and counter melodies across many recordings, but they seem pretty different because of the musical arrangement.   This is upbeat, all me – playing across three or four different tracks, and (I hope for your sake) not completely unpleasant. 

 

 Friday Playday [5:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I had a hard time with computers today. After working until late in the night on the sound effects for an animated film project I am producing for LifeNet Health, it took me hours to deliver it. It should have taken about 25 minutes.  Every time I tried to create a file with the video and sound track together my workstation would crash. You know, I really do hate computers.

I finally delivered the sound effects late this afternoon, but I spent way too long being frustrated.  So I fixed myself dinner, and finished wiring up my home recording studio. Except the little box that goes between the keyboard and the computer either would not work or injected an awful hum into the recording. You know, I really do hate digital interfaces for computers.

So I played something anyway. This time I do not post separate tracks of the same tune – hell I’m lucky I got the recording at all. Here is October Prelude and Twinge of Regret. This is a live recording.

October Prelude is really short – not even a minute – I just liked it. While the chord progression in Twinge of Regret is a theme I’ve often used, I’ve never quite played it like this before tonight. Especially the sax part at the end – it kind of turned into an *ICARUS sounding arrangement. I hope you like it.

 

 October Prelude [0:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Twinge of Regret [4:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

ICARUS - Album by the Paul Winter Consort

ICARUS  is an  Album by the Original Paul Winter Consort Produced by George Martin. Here is one of many links to more information.

Album Cover 1979 Angel Station

Here are two versions of a song called “Ticker Tape”. The first mix is a little rough and the second one is more produced – I like them both. We all get our inspiration from somewhere, and for me this song was inspired by a Manfred Mann Album - Angel Station – not a specific song – just the feel of the whole album. 

Angel Station is unique in featuring a six-note descending theme in most of the songs on the album, woven skillfully into the context of each song in a different way. You can read more about Angel Station here.

 

 Tickertape Version 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Tickertape Version 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been getting my new place set up and just got to the point where I needed to record music. In my old place I had the whole upstairs room over the garage for a studio and I used to use it 3 or 4 times a week. In the condo while there’s not so much room, I have been playing both with and without my headphones every day since the day I moved in… but I wanted to record.

So setting up various gadgets like the fire wire mixing board, and turning my lap top into a multi-track audio recording station took several hours. Once I got all the cables in place and turned on the juice I came up with these two melodies. They kind of go together if you want to down load and overlap the tracks. Or you can just listen.

The first one is called “I Came into a Dream”, and the part two or second song is called “And So It Goes”.

 

 I Came into a Dream: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 And So It Goes: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

alternate links

• http://music.tomanthony.com/music/and_so_it_goes.mp3
• http://music.tomanthony.com/music/i_came_into_a_dream.mp3

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Here is a recording and individual tracks for a song I named snickers. It’s actually about a goat, not a candy bar, but that’s a long personal story

 

 Snickers - Mixdown Version 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Snickers - Mixdown Version 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Snickers Main Piano Track: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Snickers Main synth Track: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Snickers Main Guitar Track: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alternate download – links below

http://music.tomanthony.com/music/snickers_mixdown.mp3
http://music.tomanthony.com/music/snickers2_mixdown.mp3
http://music.tomanthony.com/music/snickers-main-piano.mp3
http://music.tomanthony.com/music/snickers-main-synth.mp3
http://music.tomanthony.com/music/snickers-guitar-master.mp3

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

That “Hello World” headline is a takeoff on the first line of code you write to test the program works. I also mean it literally. Here I go with this first post, inviting you to join me as I expand my musical horizons. One cannot function in a vacuum.

As I polish this site up I will be adding new compositions and individual tracks that may be mixed into a master piece of music. All my work is offered under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Generally that means you may use it as long as you Attribute the music to me and include a link back to this web page.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.