Music Videos
Blue on Blue Recording Studio has a special focus working with classical musicians and composers to create music videos of their music. 

 

On the Pivot of an Abandoned Carousel for flute and electronics, is a collaboration between composer and video artist Kay HE, flutist Laura Lentz, and Marc Webster of Blue on Blue Recording Studio. It is a studio production of the piece Kay premiered as a stage production in 2015 (see https://vimeo.com/145448948).

The piece describes the haunted scene of a carnival that was once a beautiful place full of happiness and joy. Years ago, the calliope, a small simple carnival organ, was a signature of the carnival, representing simple childhood happiness. Here, the flute, imitates the calliope, becomes increasingly more distorted until it collapses later in the piece. The scene becomes abandoned. The flute and electronics overlap so the audience cannot determine what is real and what is not. This mimics our memories, so as to show the exaggerations and delusions that form in our head. On one hand, the music can recall amazing memories of wonderful experiences. On the other, the music is creepy and haunted. This is the human brain’s ability. Things can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Experience the mind’s illusionary power.

For more Kay HE's works, please visit www.kayhecomposer.com
​Composer, Video Artist: Kay HE
Flutist: Laura Lentz
​Audio & Video Recording: Marc Webster at Blue on Blue Recording Studio

 

Hacky Sack - for flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, performed by the Five by Five chamber ensemble.

Hacky sack is a game where players stand in a circle and toss a small bag among themselves using only their feet, with the goal of keeping the bag from touching the ground.  This piece features a section which is essentially a game of hacky sack played in music.  
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In the Hacky Sack section (starting at 1:39), the flutist starts with the "hacky sack", plays a 4 bar solo, then tosses it to the next player, who plays a 4 bar solo, then tosses it to the next player. Just like the game of hacky sack, the order of the players is improvised, but follows the traditional rules of "don't hog the hacky sack, make sure to pass to players who have not gotten it recently, etc". ​  ​

The score provides a technique of practicing improvisation within the 4 bar phrases as well.  The score provides each player with several 4 bar lines written such that any player can play any line, or even switch mid-line at any time, and the ensemble will work. If the ensemble becomes comfortable with that level of improvisation,  the score also provides the rules so that player can also write or improvise they own lines as well.  The point is to pick a level that is fun for the players and fun for the audience, and challenging enough that the ensemble grows in it’s ability to improvise.  The Hacky Sack section starts at time 1:39.

For more about fivebyfive, please visit www.fivebyfivemusic.com
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Hacky Sack: Composed/Produced by Marc Webster
Flute Laura Lentz, Clarinet Marcy Bacon, Electric Guitar Sungmin Shin, Piano Haeyeun Jeun, Bass Eric Polenik. 
​Audio and video recording Marc Webster
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Heartbreaker is set as a lover’s quarrel between the rapper and a violinist.  The rapper, full of bravado announces he's just a heartbreaker and she just has to accept that, and the violinist plays back her response, which is basically "hell no".  

After the opening statements the piece develops as a battle - the rapper raps 4 bars, then violinist plays back 4 bars, trading back and forth, each trying to outdo the other. The argument becomes increasingly chaotic, until it self destructs, and out of the dust comes a love song.​
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The love song lyrics are from a 14th century Italian love sonnet and are sung by a tenor, representing the rappers innermost thoughts.  The lyrics tell how one Sunday morning he went to church and saw the most beautiful girl and fell truly, deeply, in love.  The love song turns into a tango, which becomes more and more assertive, until it transforms into the opening argument theme. The lyrics have been switched up for their reconciliation, except he can't help throwing in that he's still a heartbreaker, and of course she doesn't take it, which looks like it’s going to lead to another argument, and probably another love songs and another reconciliation, but that's another song.
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Ultimately, Heartbreaker is a piece about fighting with a person you love. It’s about the contradictions and emotions that happen in such a fight.  And it’s about the power of music to communicate, sometime even more powerfully than words.

For more Marc Webster's works, please visit www.marcwebstermusic.com

Composed/Produced by Marc Webster
​Soloist: Violin Shannon Reilly, Rap Glory, Tenor Pablo Bustos, 
Additional soloists: Violin Holly Workman, Viola Josh Lohner,  Cello Lars Kirvan, Bass Eric Polenik, Dance Travis Widrick, Dance Melissa Parkhust
Ripieno: Violin Liana Koteva Kirvan, Violin Aika Ito Violin, Ellen Sonnenberg, Violin Julie Gray, Viola Neil Miller, Cello Andy Barnhart, Bass Drew Bunson, Harpsichord Marc Webster
Audio recording and video by Marc Webster Additional video by Dan Finklestein Makeup and additional artistic direction for Shannon/Glory by Diana Elena Alvarez