The Composer Chronicles
Welcome to The Library! These great halls are filled with the stories of our world's great musical minds, from the masters across ancient civilizations to the champions of our digital age. In this library, Menken, Powell, Zimmer, and Williams share shelves with Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, and the tales of composers not as widely known are told with the same enthusiasm as their famous colleagues. Our Curator, Stephen Trygar, invites you to explore this wonderous library with him one masterpiece at a time.
Episodes
What do you get when you gather ten composers, all with different musical styles, talents, backgrounds, and areas of expertise? You get ICEBERG.
Featured pieces (in alphabetical order by composer last name):
Unfolding for strings and live electronics by Drake Andersen
Coatlicue barría la escalera del templo (Coatlicue was Sweeping the Temple Steps) by Victor Baéz
pOwer trIo for alto sax, piano, and percussion by Al...
When Stephen invited Brian for another episode of Game Play, he didn't expect to be faced with one of the most difficult, heart-wrenching, and beautiful games he has ever played. Lena Raine's music in Celeste is not only some of the best to listen to on its own, but it expertly aids in the game play.
Watch Stephen's Twitch streams on YouTube!
Theme music is by Daryl Banner.
Alexandrian Media podcast music by Andrew Gavin. ...
There are two sides of a coin. Dakota Sauvé has spent so much of his musical career helping develop video games, but there's a different side to his career that prefers to explore the world of experimental pop.
Featured pieces:
"Mecha Mt. Fuji" from Celestial Blossoms (releasing soon)
"Dream Boom" from untitled 3D platformer game
"Phasmius" from Venture of Dark
"Moon of Etheria" from untitled VGM EP
"The Spirit"...
Adam Kennaugh believes that genuine communication between the composer and performer(s) is what creates honest and powerful music.
Featured pieces:
Crepuscular Light | Watch this piece: https://youtu.be/0R0IfOUhi70
Confronting Distance | Departure Duo
Approaching Cyyrhus | Natalie Magane - In All but Name... (YouTube flute performance)
Where to find Adam Kennaugh and his music:
Website | Facebook | Instagram
You...
Derek Cooper is a composer with a deep passion for engaging with his audience. To Derek, the relationship between the composer, the ensemble, and the audience is one of the most important aspects of music making.
Featured pieces:
Puzzles: https://youtu.be/PWAG8XZ4fno | How he created this piece: https://youtu.be/c_8FhFXFn3c
Starry Night: https://youtu.be/fVfiv1hzYUM | How he created this piece: https://youtu.be/vj8n2zT3m10
On this episode of Movie Night, Brooks Leibee joins me once again to chat about Chris Roe's score for the 2018 documentary Spitfire and François Tetaz's score for the 2007 horror/thriller film Rogue. Grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and get comfy!
Watch Spitfire and Rogue (click on the titles to watch the films).
Where to find Brooks and his projects:
Instagram | Twitter
SoundCloud | IMDb
Theme music is by Dary...
In this interview with Eric Lagergren, he leaves us with an important message: never take your art too seriously. Perfection is unachievable, especially when you’re desperate to obtain it.
Featured pieces: Quarantime | Flor de Muerto | Rhopalocera
Where to find Eric Lagergren and his music:
Website | Instagram | Twitter
SoundCloud | Bandcamp
Theme music is by Daryl Banner.
Alexandrian Media podcast music by Andrew ...
In a world where music has time and time again been given narrative, Stephen Ryan Jackson uses his music to explore the mundane.
Featured pieces:
i can feel the universe expanding | solo voice + electronics
Tooth Necklace | flute + bass clarinet + violin + cello + piano + percussion
rinse & repeat | soprano saxophone + double bass + two percussion
Where to find Stephen Ryan Jackson and his music:
Website |&...
Melissa Dunphy is an award-winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. Melissa is a composer who would be amongst the first to tell you that, if you want to be a composer, you need to write what you're passionate about. After the premiere of her large-scale choral work the Gozales Cantata, her career took off, and she wants to share her vision with the world.
Featured pieces:
Come, My ...
You never fully understand what someone is going through unless you've lived it yourself. What makes Puccini's opera La bohème so powerful is that so many of its creators went through the same hardships that the characters of the opera went through.
Theme music is by Daryl Banner
Sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited! | Alexandrian Media Store
Music used in this episode:
"Quando m'en vo'" (orchestral version) from L...
Humans have been looking up towards the sky for answers for thousands of years. To this day, humans have held on to the belief that celestial bodies can impact our daily lives, and Gustav Holst saw this as an opportunity for music.
Theme music is by Daryl Banner
Listen to this episode ad-free by supporting The Composer Chronicles on Patreon.
Sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited! | Alexandrian Media Store
Music use...
The plays of William Shakespeare have been an inspiration to countless other pieces of art, and that includes composers and music makers. Giuseppe Verdi, one of Italy's leading composers in the 19th Century, was thrilled at the idea of getting to set an opera to one of Shakespeare's plays, something he would return to for the rest of his career; it all started with Shakespeare's terrifying tale Macbeth.
Theme music is by Daryl...
Let's kick off this spooky season with a Movie Night! Today, I am happily joined by author and booktuber Cameron Chaney. The film Trick 'r Treat is one of his favorite movies, enough for him to start a tradition of watching it every year with other activities; however, the music of this film is even more special. Besides setting the mood brilliantly, the music holds special significance to Cameron.
Making his debut after the release of his first album Year of the Beard, Toska Bear has been on the rise as a singer and songwriter. His unique style marries elements of indie pop, synthwave, vaporwave, EDM, indie rock, and hip-hop, and Year of the Beard is inspired by gay culture, video games, and underground music.
Featured music:
From Year of the Beard: "Year of the Beard", "Time to Let Go", "Help Me Out", and "Prom Queen Da...
Richard Fay is a composer who has absorbed the culture of his ancestors and his hometown and embedded them into his own music. With a love for klezmer, Balkan, and Irish music, he had established many various ensembles to perform these musics as well as his own.
Featured music:
From Hamosity: Music for Hard Times: New Horizons, Hamosity Horo, The Seasons, The Heron Pool, and Sean Mannion
Where to find Richard and his music:
Life can take you down interesting paths; you never know if that path will lead you directly where you want it to take you or somewhere you are pleasantly surprised to be. Kevin Graham started his career in filmmaking. With a passion for music stirred in, he turned his career into being a full-time composer.
Featured music:
From Dying of the Light: "Fireforge", "Golden Age", "Unbreakable", "Fortress", and "For the Stars"
Fr...
The trumpet is an instrument that has been around for a long time, but why only within the past one hundred years has it finally started to see an uptick in virtuosic technique? Stuart Stephenson, principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and I discuss trumpet music and the composers that wrote for the instrument.
Where to find Stuart:
Website | Instagram | YouTube
Theme music is by Daryl Banner.
Silas Hite is a composer with many projects. From television to the concert stage, ambient to folk, Silas has created repertoire for himself that gives everyone a chance to hear his music!
Where to find Silas and his music:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
SoundCloud | Spotify | YouTube
Theme music is by Daryl Banner.
Art used for cover by Patrick Whitehorn.
Listen to this episode ad-free by supporting The...
Often when music and language are paired together, we simply get lyrics to a song, but every once and a while, a composer will use language in a much more unique way. This week, I’m joined by David Dies to tell his story, discuss the use of language in his music, and the beauty of music.
Where to find David and his music:
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Website | SoundCloud | Apple Music
Theme music is by Daryl Banner
Originally designed for television, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote a musical that just couldn't be contained to the television.
Disclaimer: This episode discusses the events of a surgery and the emotional trauma inflicted by it.
Theme music is by Daryl Banner
Listen to this episode ad-free by supporting The Composer Chronicles on Patreon.
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