#wahlquist

[rmichaelwahlquist]

The graphic music score (drawn with the help of my talented wife) for Ashtottara Shatanama, the opening track of my prepared piano album Map of Trees (2013). The idea here is that the piano is prepared in a certain way (lower strings with rubber doorstops, middle strings with screws, upper strings with plastic combs) and that each tree is interpreted as a sonic event by the performer. Though each performer will realize the score differently, the distinct piano preparations combined with the clusters of similar and related trees give each performance the same overall sound world and outline.

In March 2021, as part of my ongoing recording project The Infinite Well, I'll be revisiting the parameters I set up in this piece and pushing it to the limits.

Check out more of the score, liner notes and listen to the full album here : https://www.rmichaelwahlquist.com/map-of-trees

You can also find Map of Trees on Spotify, Amazon music, or Apple music.

Listen one take on Ashtottara Shatanama here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA3Jn6R2G-A

[rmichaelwahlquist]

It's been an intense week but I've finally been able to post all the recordings from last week's sessions for my musical takes on the #28PortraitChallenge. I hope you'll give some of them a listen, it is basically an EP worth of diverse tracks that include:

Day 8 "Adorable" – Bare Feet on the Concrete (a light, jazzy take)https://youtu.be/lJNQRoUxhQM 

Day 9 "Chaotic" – Apophis vs Mehen (some chaos + its reverse)https://youtu.be/NOola3B5-E4

Day 10 "Shy" – Carnivorous Wallflower (spiky with a soft center?)https://youtu.be/1vrTkNA8pLA

Day 11 "Loner" – L'Anchorite (something like a hermit's song)https://youtu.be/2TW4FgAtBPo 

Day 12 "Dreamy" – Arpeggiare (um...arpeggios. Augmented+M7)https://youtu.be/1SC21Vmffmc

Day 13 "Vain" – Procession of the Suit of Cups (100 plastic cups)https://youtu.be/3BpOVQLJ59k

Bonus – The Four of Cups (four plastic cups in the piano)https://youtu.be/2XWqlJ0cKj0

Day 14 "Kind" – Epicedion in memoriam S.W. (see below)https://youtu.be/h6txTmfpy9I

Day 15 "Spiritual" – Prayer on a Mountaintop (prayerful)https://youtu.be/KPVRSh_ADVo

Day 16 "Cunning" – Air of the Artful Heir (quirky)https://youtu.be/89lrXjJhwA0

I especially draw your attention to Epicedion, here's the writeup:

  While technically created as part of my ongoing #28PortraitChallenge project for February 2021 (for day 14's prompt 'kind'), I dedicate this improvisation to the memory of a relation who passed away suddenly, as I would learn later, at basically the same hour I was recording this session. They went doing what they loved - hiking, an activity they felt drew them near to God something like worshiping in a temple.

Epicidion (sometimes Epicedium if you want the more Latin word instead of Greek) is a funeral ode, similar to a threnody, dirge or other poem/song honoring the dead. I feel that the elegiac yet optimistic mood of this song fits the attitude towards death in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Death, while still always a sad loss, is nevertheless tempered by hope in the universal resurrection of the dead made possible through the resurrection of Christ. I wish that hope for all because I firmly believe it is a reality. Death is not the end and we will be with our loved ones again.

"Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection. And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them" (Doctrine and Covenants 42:45-46)

You can check out the full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLolvBA2NVD39Qx0aK7zlLnMm7mLQtqwaL

[rmichaelwahlquist]

I’m really grateful to have written something like this in my life, something just so pretty...I forget about this piece and then listen to it every few months and am pleasantly surprised. The harmonic language, the treatment of ideas, and that long, haunting, ending - it’s the sort of thing that I always wanted to compose.

Even more amazed that this violinist was practically sight reading!

[rmichaelwahlquist]

There are a lot of things to remember on September 11th but I always think about how it was my Grandpa Wahlquist’s birthday. He was diagnosed with cancer when I was a boy but lived long enough to see me become a father. I remember a time shortly after high school when I was beginning to dream of becoming a composer, but childishly bemoaning my ‘weird’ last name and contemplating adopting a stage name or pseudonym. I hadn’t said anything about these deliberations when out of the blue Grandpa Wahlquist pulled me aside and told me to wear the Wahlquist name proudly and to never be ashamed of it or do anything to tarnish it. I’ve been Michael Wahlquist, composer, ever since.

Charles Pack Wahlquist (1926-2008), with his guitar.

[hammond4713]

Jack Wahlquist on Solar Roadways and BitCoin

Jack Wahlquist on Solar Roadways and BitCoin

Original Blog Post: http://heartbeatstoit.liberty.me/2014/06/04/fostering-community-that-supports-entrepreneurs/ The Critical G’s Blog: http://www.thecriticalg.blogspot.com The Critical G on… Video Rating: 4 / 5

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