if we can build a bridge for this canyon if we can bridge it and find our way through the mist if we can find it what lies between your heart and mine what lies between us could steadily slip into decline could steadily slip no more would we meet across that divide meet across it but instead stand side by side
Very exciting news!!! I've been wanting to try my hand at writing some music for film for a long time now. One day, whilst standing in my kitchen making popcorn with my friend, my phone rang and it was my good friend from Johannesburg. He is an interior designer with no previous film making experience who decided he wanted to make a film based on the story of The Happy Prince (Oscar Wilde). He asked me if I'd like to write the music for his film to which I nearly choked on a piece of popcorn - what an amazing opportunity! Not only do I get to try my hand at writing music for film, but I also get to work with my very good friend! It's a win win situation.
I started by reading through the original Oscar Wilde story, which is very sad and moving. It's about a Prince who, when he died, was made into a statue and put on a tall pillar in the centre of the city square. There is a swallow migrating to Egypt who lands on the statue for the night and discovers the the Prince is sad because of all the suffering he has witnessed from his position in the centre of the city. He asks the Swallow to distribute the jewels from his sword, eyes and the gold leaves covering him amongst the poor / needy in the city below. He and the Swallow develop a strong bond and the Swallow, despite the encraochment of winter, decides to stay with the Prince where he eventually dies due to the cold.
As I said...it's a pretty sad story.
Next I set to identify the main themes in the story: The Prince and The Swallow. I wanted to create a specific mood for each of these characters. I went in search of inspiration from existing works to use as a creative guide for my own compositions.
For the Swallow theme I was inspired by the soundtrack of Amelie - specifically the waltz. I felt that it has just the right elements of innocence and a carefree lilt, which depicts the Swallow's mood when we firt meet him flying through the reeds at a stream.
For the Prince theme I was inspired by Rachmaninoff's C minor prelude. The bell-like motif with the weighty extended chords gives it a feeling of grandeur akin to great cathedrals and equally grand statues. It is well-grounded just like the Prince is on his pillar.
Finally there is a lullaby which the Swallow will sing to the Prince after telling him stories of his previous migrations to Egypt. For this I drew my inspiration from the movie The Gladiator, specifically the song by Enya. I feel that the slight Arabic / North African mood of this piece perfectly suits the images the Swallows stories conjure up in the mind of the Prince of the pyramids and the Nile.
So...with the inspirations for each theme chosen, I have started with composing the Swallow Theme first. Just last month I made the first recording of this piece and sent it to my friend for his feedback. Fortunately he LOVED it - it certainly helps that we are on the same wave-length!
Next I will be focusing on the Prince Theme. I am slightly nervous about the challenging aspects of trying to recreate the mood so perfectly and skillfully set-up by the great Rachmaninoff, but where sheer talent as a keyboardist is lacking, there is the advancements of technology to substitute ;) So far I have come up with two possibilities yet I'm not yet convinced as to whether or not either of these are the "it" tune - so there is more grafting to be done, but hopefully I am close.
And that's where I currently stand with the composition of the music for this film project. Very exciting and incredibly daunting. Unfortunately I can't post any of the recordings / themes online at this stage - you'll have to wait for the finished product.
We have set November 22 as our deadline for this project. It may turn out to be a bit too ambitious to meet, but since it is the day of both our (my friend and my) birthdays, it seems significant, so hold thumbs that we make it.
Either way, I'll be keeping you up to date as I go....
Now that I have all my recording equipment set-up it's time to learn the software packages necessary to record music live onto my pc. I'm using two software packages: Kristal Audio Engine http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ and Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Both are free / open source. I'm all for sharing information and working together to develop something and make it accessible to everyone, and that's what the people who develop this software are all about. Makes me wanna slip on my bell-bottoms and tie-die t-shirt and go skipping through the fields!
Okay...it's not all daisies and rolling around high in the long grass naked etc etc...because the software is being developed independently by people all around the world, there are one or two small glitches. Essentially it all works really well, but, there are always learning curves with new software.
Fortunately there are really helpful people on forums just dying to help you out with any problems you're experiencing. The more you share about the software the better the software will become in future editions - so everyone benefits.
At the moment I'm having issues with "track bleeding" and the niece people on the Kristal forum http://www.kristalusers.net/index.php are helping me work through it.
I've already recorded my first few experimental tracks but it has been so rewarding to hit the play button and hear what I've created being played back at me. And it makes composing such a pleasure!
At the beginning of this year I started researching recording options. There are many studios to choose from and they vary greatly in price, equipment and experience. If you've never looked into this before, let me assure you that it is no cheap exercise to have your music recorded.
After months of trawling through gumtree ads I decided that the best long term option would be to set up my own recording studio. With that decision made it was on to researching equipment. All I really wanted was to plug a keyboard and a microphone into my pc and record live. Nothing major; no competing with Abbey Road studio, just a very simple set-up.
I'll spare you the boredom of this research process and the hours spent finding definitions for sound engineering terms completely foreign and reams of internet based info and just skip straight to the exciting bit: The Purchase and The Set-up.
I decided that, since I'm a struggling musician, my equipment was going to have to err toward the cheap and functionable side and I found the solution in a recording package offered by Behringer called the Podcast Studio and consisting of a pair of headphones, a condenser mic, a small mixer, an audio interface (firewire) and some free / open source software.
Look how happy the lady looks on the box...that in itself should tell you just how super duper it is ;) In truth it is VERY humble equipment - all totally entry level and, some engineers would laugh at it and dismiss it like a blown speaker cone. But I believe you have to a) start somewhere b) keep in accordance with your budget and c) find the equipment that suits your current needs with a view to improving upon it in the future when you're feeling more flush.
On to the set-up.... This was more challenging than finding the right equipment! Firstly, I had no table big enough to carry my pc, a midi-keyboard (which I already owned) and all this sound equipment. So off I went on a mission to find the perfect table, and would you believe that it ended up being a trusty trestle table? Simple and clean. I don't mind admitting that buying this table sent me off into a little day dream about owning an industrial-style loft in downtown New York (my inner-city dream home).
Back to reality....I set up all the equipment, installed the software etc and stood back to admire it all:
When I studied Sound Technology at university I had this one teacher who was completely paranoid about her sound equipment. She used to carry this paint brush with her all the time and would obsessively brush away imaginary dust molecules off her sound desk every couple of minutes. I used to think she was a little cooked, but now I'm starting to see her point! When you fork out the cash for this type of equipment it comes with a guarantee and an in-built sense of paranoia! No one else can touch it let alone breath near it! ;)
Once I had the equipment set-up I could see what else I needed - it's amazing how these things creep up on you - suddenly I need: a pop filter for the mic and a shock mount, a D.I. box for my guitar, and a music stand would be nice too. *sigh* it never ends.
I'm busy learning to use the software which is all open source (call me a hippie but free software just makes great sense!).
This is so WAY overdue! The identity of Violet Greene has remained pretty dormant since she was conceived in 2007! How have 2 years already flown by without her introduction to the world?? Possibly because her creator has been very busy with other things like musical theatre productions and that draining day job...blah blah blah all excuses!
So who is Violet Greene?
When I did a little Google search I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first real result was for me...THE Violet Greene who's blog you are currently reading! That was quite a surprise since I figured I was pretty unknown, and if you've watched the movie Wanted then you'll know that one can measure one's success in life by doing a Google search for yourself. If nothing comes up then you know you're a total waste of skin ;)
So...phew! Collective sighs.
There were other results too: Violet Greene the 9 year old figure skater (show off) and a couple of PlayStation links. so...more relief at being relatively original (I quite liked the "make believe" nature that these suggested).
Of course all this swelling confidence was reduced when I caught sight of Google's suggestion "Did you mean Violet Green?" Well...did I? Um...no I didn't, but thank you for offering.
So...who is Violet Greene? She is the alter-ego to a performer / singer / songwriter / poet / composer. She is Beyonce's Sasha Fierce. She is Sean Coombs P Diddy etc. She is the product of a parent's bad choice of name. She was created to present a solution to an artist whose name is almost unpronounceable. She is two colours in one.
However, her origin is only interesting in light of what she has accomplished since conception and herein lies the purpose of this blog - to keep you informed as to what Violet Greene has / is / and would like to accomplish. Also, I hope this blog can be a platform for creative discussion as to the process of creating your identity as a performer and getting yourself and your product out there into a public arena.
So...as to the what has been accomplished I can present the following. I've been developing my identity. There is a lot to consider when creating an identity. It's your brand and you always want to present your brand to the public in a consistent manner. You also need to think about who your target market is and for me that's a matter of find out what sort of person would listen to my music. Who would my fans be?
I had to take a picture of myself - people relate to images of other people - and I took the picture you see on this blog one Sunday morning in my dining area. I then retouched it and cleaned up the background which was just an arb dining space. I gave it a sepia overtone and adjusted my eye colour in keeping with the Greene part of Violet Greene. There is no use of violet although, in the untouched images you would be able to see that I'm wearing a violet coloured shirt - so it's there in spirit.
Next I worked on a bio which you can view on my Myspace page here http://www.myspace.com/thegreenehouse It's not an easy thing writing a Bio as you want to present yourself in a positive light without sounding like you think you're the best thing since sausage filled pizza crust. Also, it should be a work in progress and should be updated regularly - this is the part where I've been very unsuccessful, but I am working on it.
Then I created some stationery such as a business card. However I wasn't thrilled with the results of my limited graphic design skills and would like to give this another shot and include ideas for T-shirts, caps, badges, and other promotional items.
I have set-up profiles on all the major social networking sites and, as soon as I have some recorded tracks to present, I will be making more frequent use of them as a means to generating interest and support for my music.
So, with the basics in place I'm hopefully on my way to becoming a house hold name ;) or just famous in my suburb - either way, the joy of music is in the making. Violet has been writing poetry and music since pre-pubescence and has even had some of her songs played on local radio and television stations. Fame, however, is not the goal, writing good music with which people can identify is. But, even more importantly, and somewhat selfishly, Violet Greene likes to make music for her own enjoyment and creative satisfaction - if it is well-received by others, that's great, but it's a by-product of a richer experience. Besides...people's tastes are fickle and often their understanding and appreciation is limited - just look at poor Vincent van Gogh - he sold one painting in his lifetime yet now we swoon over his work. The artists pleasure is at the forefront of his/her creation - public interest is handy if you are to make a living, but not essential to validate its worth - or at least this is what Violet likes to believe.
For now the No. 1 item on my Violet Greene Things To Do list is RECORD YOUR MUSIC!! Seeing as I have about 15 years worth of written songs I have quite the backlog! And I'm going to share more on this in future posts.
As a parting shot; I had a freaky experience recently. Two years ago I created a Facebook account for myself, but have hardly used it as I've not felt ready to "unveil" myself to the world at large as I need to have my songs recorded first. Anyhoo...I got one or two friend requests which I accepted, but hardly visited the account until one day when I decided to update it a bit. Whilst updating the info. on my profile one of these friends began a chat with me. This guy was chatting to me as if we'd known each other very well in the past. So of course I played along for a bit to see where he was going with this sillyness, only to discover that he honestly believed me to be a girl he knew who is named Violet Greene and apparently could be my twin!!! It's one thing to share the same name, but to share the same name and looks!??! That's just freaky!!! In German they call it a doppelganger and the legend is that if you come face to face with your doppelganger you could die - they would suck up your soul (or something equally uncomfortable). Let's hope I never meet this Violet Greene on the street!
