Artikel
16.02.2023, 00:49
Romanticism--Old and New
Lecture Recital
Michael Mauldin, January 2001
The romanticism (with a little "r") of the Romantic period of music history (1830-1900) is the flowering of an ongoing thread that binds the musical periods--and all of us--together. The piano music of the Romantic movement--that of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt and Brahms--is an overflowing of a force that budded in the Renaissance, further developed during the Baroque (1600-1750) and Classical (1750-1830) ...
Artikel
12.12.2021, 01:57
AT CHACO Near the time
Of my departure
From New Mexico
Just forty years ago
My best friend Michael
Decided it was also time
For me to visit Chaco Canyon,
That sacred place at which
He’d celebrated the spirit
Of the Anasazi, the light,
The timelessness, the land they shared
In many of his most beautiful
Musical works.
As we made our way
Down the makeshift ladder
To the finely wrought stone circle
Of the Great Kiva,
Of which only the base remains,
I was stunned ...
Artikel
06.03.2021, 23:24
BREATHLESS
There are many ways to tell the truth,
And many truths to tell.
Two thousand years ago,
Artists felt the heel of religion
Thrust firmly on their necks.
But a century or two ago
They learned to breathe again.
The air was sweet but dangerous,
The mountain passes cold and thin.
Most sought to find a heel again
Another heel, within.
But some—a few— breathed free.
Their bodies became whole and sound,
And their eyes grew clear at last.
...
Artikel
06.05.2019, 00:59
The “senior pieces” all bear the names of those for whom they were written. Some are quite difficult and were not chosen by the students to be included on their senior recitals.
Andante for Horn and Piano (Brennan Rose) (4:48)
Remembrance for String Bass and Piano (Ivan Aidun) (2:37)
Silence (Soprano and Piano) (Ariacella DelGrande) (1:52)
Festival (Jared Civerolo) (2:05)
Running (Ryan Harlow) (1:52)
Mysterious River (Makenna Clov is) (3:25)
Recordings of "Senior Pieces, ...
Artikel
23.12.2018, 23:03
My walk in the foothills this morning was blessed with glowing, back-lit wildflower colors—yellow, gold, blue, purple, white, red, and even maroon, if you include the prickly pears. But in this challenging environment, my favorite color—in all seasons—is green. Brave green.
On hard, dry dirt or from cracks in boulders, the force that wants to turn sunlight, earth and water into life is quietly persistent. Extravagant perhaps. Impractical perhaps. But determined.
At this altitude in the foothills, ...
Artikel
30.08.2018, 17:53
On my walk to the kiva this morning, the damp-but-not-slippery ground felt firm, yet springy.
Waiting brownly through the drought, the sudden-green grass reached into sideways-sunlight.
A pine-tree dew-drop flashed its spectrum-coded messages.
Half a mile through the trees, there was no traffic on the highway.
In the stillness, except for an eagle's cry there were no sounds...
but that of the grass growing, the mist rising, and ancient songs and drums.
Artikel
26.03.2018, 20:59
Beyond the Four Hills, Aesthetics Panel, by Michael Mauldin
Foreword: Though musical gestures suggestive of shared physical phenomena populate all music, I won't discuss my use of them here. Rather, I share the narrative of how I became involved in trying to use my music to celebrate an environmental essence.
I've lived and written music in New Mexico for 40 years. Most of the pieces were inspired by its rugged beauty, ancient cultures and “spiritual” landscapes. I was drawn by its space, its ...
Artikel
18.03.2018, 16:57
"This work was inspired by visits to an unexcavated Anasazi city on San Juan Mesa in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Within view of Sandia Peak in the distance (where KHFM has its broadcasting tower), I brought my young son, Kendall, here once when my 'Petroglyph for Strings' was on the air. I mused at the irony. Before his birth, that piece had begun at that place. But now I heard the music--fleshed out--and the laughter of a child in a plaza that once rang with the laugh ter of many children. Often I ...
News
18.03.2018, 16:46
Annual American Composers Update, SAI
MICHAEL MAULDIN
PREMIERES: "Silence," Peggy Pond Church, poet, Ariacella DelGrande, soprano, M Mauldin, piano, Albuquerque Academy, 4/22/17.
PERFORMANCES: "Canon in F," "Seshukwa: Eagle Dwelling Place," Faculty Recital, Keller Hall, New Mexico School of Music, Albuquerque, 1/29/17, M. Mauldin, piano. Preludes 1, 2 and 4 of "Birds in Winter," Beste Toparlak, harp, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition Winners Recital, Landmark Center, Indianapolis, March ...
Artikel
04.03.2018, 17:04
ALL THAT IS
Many times I've changed my interpretation of a piece of music after having performed it live for other humans a few times. Something inexplicably magical happens when there is the physical proximity and attention of others. It's almost as if the intention of the original piece literally--physically--comes back into existence when we perform and hear it. "The universe as a whole festers in a state of uncertainty and snaps into clear, actual being when observed by a conscious being — that is, ...