It’s been coming for a long time but MusicHostr.com has finally reentered active development.  A lot of code from my now defunct zymio project is being ported to MusicHostr.com.  Here’s a general list of changes to expect

• Complete redesign
• Daily Featured Artist and Composition
• Genres
• Favorites
• Groups
• Suggestion Box
• Albums
• AJAX Upload
• Messaging
• Fans
• Password Recovery
• Extended Profile
• Downloadable MP3s
• Embeddable Player
• Facebook Integration
• iPhone Application
• Link to Purchase Music in iTunes
• Plus more!

Every holiday season for the past several years, I have written at least one new piece of music for the season.  Christmas Festival Overture developed from 2005-2007.  2008 saw two pieces (Snow and an unnamed piece).  And now I introduce “Celebration of Life.”

As some of you may have noticed, it’s actually the piece that I was writing a week or two ago.  However, it has been extended and converted to an orchestral arrangement.

“Celebration of Life” tells the story of the greatest duality of all, life itself.  Life can be grand, or it can be small.  It can be complex or it can be simple.  And yet life remains the most wondrous of all aspects of the world around us.  As the year comes to a close, people around the world celebrate life in numerous ways.  Some celebrations are sorrowful while others are full of joy.  Some celebrations are full of grace while others are much more active.  And we all find ourselves engaged in an annual celebration of life as we look into the future with high hopes and little idea of what to expect our lives to do next.

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In a desperate search for a topic, we may have found one.

[pro-player width='300' height='34' type='sound']http://coltonprovias.com/episodes/episode2.mp3[/pro-player]

[MP3]

Finals week has begun so I will be updating this blog sparingly.  Expect a barrage of updates once finals are over on Tuesday night.

DJ Dispersion and I managed to record a show together.  Insanity insues.

[pro-player width='300' height='34' type='sound']http://coltonprovias.com/episodes/Episode1.mp3[/pro-player]

[MP3]

Here is the completed piece with a timelapse video playing at 24x to show the process of taking a piece from piano to a completed score.

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The holiday season is upon us and through the past several years, I have written Christmas/holiday music.  Here are the pieces I have done that managed to make their way onto the internet:

Christmas Festival Overture (Single)

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Christmas Festival Overture (2007 Garritan Community Christmas Album)

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Morning

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Snow

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If you enjoy this music, become a fan of me on Facebook.

I’ve decided to give this a second go.  I am currently starting another piece of music and will be posting videos of each step in the process of writing the song.  The first step is brainstorming, of course.  I sit at a piano or MIDI controller and just make something up on the spot.  Usually I will record it as an audio file or as MIDI data.  Here at Penn State, I only have pianos to work with so I did both video and audio.  Here is the recording:

[pro-player]http://youtube.com/watch?v=B215TRUO87E[/pro-player]

Also, just as something extra, here are some of the songs from the musical I’m writing:

[pro-player]http://youtube.com/watch?v=yjQYxN3LE2U[/pro-player]

Facebook seems to be getting on the ball recently.  With their recent announcement of per-row permission implementation and extensive permissions management, I have decided to end development on zymio.

I still own the domain.  There are some other plans that might take on the name zymio, though.