The musical compositions of
Richard O. Burdick
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Opus 251

The Open Mindset

For Saxophone Quartet and videotape
(with or without orchestra) (5:19)

a companion work to The Mindset, Opus 242
and The Body Set, Opus 250

Music written: January 24, 2022
Video created: January 25, 2022

Find this music on BandCamp

The Open Mindset for Saxophone Quartet is a work that can be performed with or without an orchestra. It is a companion piece to The Mindset Opus 242 and The Body Set Opus 250. The work is intended for quartet to perform in front of a video screen. The video shows dancing images of the I Ching Hexagrams.

Intended as a work for quartet to perform
in front of a video screen.

I forsee many version of different quartets with vidoetape:
Opus 251 for Saxophone Quartet
Opus251a for Horn Quartet
version in progress: String Quartet, wind quartet
Contact us if you would like to request a version.

(5:20)

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Program Notes:

This work in it's final form was not a calm meditative work, but just the opposite. A work that accelerates throughout and has lively melodies.

This composition is not similar to The Mindset
with eight sub-group works, it just has eight steps to it.

I have tried a few time to create a work that is a cycle that doubles in length at each rotation. This may be my best version of that form. See the speed chart below that might help you understand the form.

The chart shows the I Ching number, speed then the number of how many beats long each section is.

 

 

A musical composition that depicts acceleration

I was honoured to be on stage with Kenny G:
I was a member of Sacramento Symphony. We played a concert for every California's Governor's inauguration. We had a center stage at the Arco Area and one year Kenny G played. He did his circular breathing holding one note for over two minutes and went around and shook the hands of the Governor and the other mucky-mucks while hold the long tone. It was quiet an impressive trick!

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Music Samples:

Opus 251 Page one

The Open mind set is the set of
I Ching that has "- - -" on the top:

I Ching 09-46   G+4	I Ching 17-07   A-14
I Ching 25-15   B-49	I Ching 33-02   C+2
I Ching 34-24   C+20	I Ching 42-36   D-43
I Ching 50-19   Eb-16	I Ching 58-11   E+3

 

Notes step one 09-46

Notes step two 17-07

Notes step three 25-15

Notes step four 33-02

Notes step five 34-24

Notes step six 42-36

Notes step seven 50-19

Notes step eight 58-11

 

speed chart

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Buy the sheet music from paypal? The music will come from Richard via e-mail within a day	Richard via paypal & e-mail

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A grant from the SK Arts board was requested in 2018

The final work is considerably different
than outlined in the grant.

Here is my narrative from that proposal:

As a composer my artistic vision has gone through a significant change it the last few years. The big change is that I want to bring more beauty into the world through music, and I am doing it in a unique way.
I still consider myself a musical explorer always looking for something new.
The fact has not changed that I compose in a variety of styles, and can not stop my exploration and expansion of these facets, but this makes it very hard for the average person to grasp - a single piece of music of mine could not possibly be representative of my whole 300+ work output. A saying that I use the I-Ching as a foundation to my work is not saying “my work is like the first week of February” The I-Ching is a set of symbolic ideas like all the weeks of the year that I use as a group, singly or in various subsets. There is so much more for me to explore and present including the color and shapes on video. In the I-Ching are many hidden patterns that help me create an incredible diversity of music, but now the overall goal to do this is in pursuit of beauty.
The funding from SK Arts will help me further my artistic vision by exploring more deeply the theoretical aspects of my I-Ching music system by creating a musical & visual documentation of my exploration.

No matter what I do, I seem to keep active and am very creative. Creativity and self-expression seem to be first nature. Life doesn’t seem to be possible for me without creative expressions of some sort. I am often inspired to write music when I hear the different works that I get to perform with the Symphony, but now I am really trying to focus on beauty and upliftment. I believe that I can be a positive helpful influence to people through music.

My artistic practice has evolved over the years from writing on paper now on computer, I have use old patch-chord synthesizers and Musique concrète, and now I can emulate all the instruments virtually in a very realistic manner to create final recordings plus I now I have a huge pallet of computer generated sounds .

This project is to me is as important as writing a symphony. It's the direct companion to "The Mindset, Op. 242" which was funded by SK Arts, THANK YOU

i————————————————-

Q: Describe your proposed project, addressing topics like: · what you plan to do with the grant (provide details).

A: I have been trying to get this work written for more than four years now. But with so many other things to do I keep getting distracted. With this most needed financial support from Sk Arts I will be able to reduce my workload and devote significant time to this project.

I plan to write the companion work to my composition from early 2018 “The Mindset Nonet, Op. 242.” This is a 74-minute long work that includes nine subset parts of the large work. I wrote one large work, but I created a total of ten compositions for nine different chamber ensembles by using the technique of subset groups. Thank you to the Saskatchewan Arts Board for funding this in 2017.

I have started to plot out the new work “The Open Mindset, Op.251” and envision the full work and eight sub-set parts for a total of nine works each four movements long. I doubt I will write the Mahler-esque long composition that I did before, but I know it will be another major work.

For this work I will create a videotape of color and I-Ching images along with pre-recorded sound to present along with the live musicians in performance. This well-established practice dates back to Scriabin’s light shows more than 100 years ago. One of my other facets as a creator is my National Parks videos series, where I have written music to go along with nature videos. I have at least 15 of these pieces written and each one gets better the more I create. Color is one aspect of my I-Ching system that I have defined, to have changing color and show the I-Ching shapes along with the music will greatly enhance the attractiveness of my work.

Theoretically the work will be based on the I-Ching set of 8 scales which are opposite of what I used in opus 242, and a very different flavor (feel or style) than “The Mindset. “

The instrumentation of Op. 242 was to me a wonderful group to work with, but I plan to orchestrate the new work for chamber orchestra: eleven players like the Regina Symphony Orchestra core or full strings and six wind instruments. From within the little orchestra I will then have the option of subgroup such as the ever-popular wind quintet and string quartet.

I believe that this work will require a great deal of time to write and create the video for. (78 days should do it.) It is based on an interesting theoretical aspect of my I-Ching Scale system (more below), which I have not explored before.

As a full-time member of the Regina Symphony core, I am constantly reminded how few compositions are actually written for our instrumentation, so this could be an important addition to the “classical” repertoire, especially since my plan for the work includes some shorter sections in smaller combination of instruments such as quartets, quintets, and octets that become single independent works.

Besides my work performing full-time for the symphony I work almost every day writing and recording music, but for the time spent on this project I would temporarily stop recording for other people.

Q: How this project fits into your body of work and reflects your artistic vision/artist statement?
A: This composition furthers my artistic vision by exploring deeper into the theoretical aspects of my I-Ching Scales system, and creates a collection of works for a diversity of small to medium size groups from within and including the chamber orchestra.

A music composition with a basis in the Chinese philosophic I-Ching written by a dual Canadian and American citizen (A North American), and in a style that still can be classified as “with a European background” that is known primarily as “Classical Music” makes the music compositions strongly multicultural. Not only that but it is believed by my ancestors that I have blood ties to the Anishinaabe people, and my “Burdick” history goes back to 1636 in North America before any countries were organized. My ancestors played a role in the Revolutionary war of 1776, helping slave escape to Canada and fighting for freedom in the American Civil War. All these items combined helps define my culture as a true North American and the Chinese influence in my work makes it truly multicultural.

Q: What you hope to accomplish – your project’s current state of development, and the work and progress you anticipate over the grant term?
A: I know once I am free of financial worries by receiving this funding that I can make this important step forward. Currently I only have a few sketches for this new work. I am waiting for funding to start it. I am moving farther away from some of the dark music I have written in the past to a desire for light and beautiful music; I hope someday that my evolution in this way will inspire others to pursue beauty in art. I hope to open minds with my work “Open Mind.” Open and beautiful.

Q: How you will organize your activities and time - your work plan and timeline?
A: Once I receive this funding I will put aside all my other work. Based on my extensive work as a composer and video creator, I believe the 78 days I am off for the summer is all I will need to complete this important work.

Q: What you hope to discover or learn? LEARN
A: “The Open Mindset” will be base on a particular set of my I-Ching Scales. The Open Mind Set is a set of I-Ching hexagrams that have three receptive lines in the upper treegram. Such as: + + - - - -. This example is the scale: G, A, B, C, D, D#, E, F. It is the upper half (D, D#, E, F) of the scale that is the symbolic aspect of “mind” The four half steps that represent the openness of the mind are like very subtle energies that we can tune to only if we are in a meditative-like state of mind. This is very different than Op. 242 “ The Mindset” which used the “+ + +” treegram which has a very strong energy.

I hope to come to a greater understanding of myself by reflecting on what is symbolically represented in the I-Ching as openness. As I go through this creation process I sort-of document it in sound and color, which can become a tool for others to more quickly feel and learn what is being revealed through the universal symbols that the I-Ching contains.

There is a lot of background information on my website if you wish a further understanding on my I-Ching Scales theories: http://www.i-ching-music.com/IchingMAIN.html

·Q; What you hope to do with the project after the grant term – plans to exhibit, produce, perform, publish or present the work?
A: I am constantly working on recording, releasing CD’s, publishing, and promoting my music. Being that I have been in a very creative period in my life, I am focusing as much as I can on creations. I have no doubt that in other times I will do more live performances.

When I complete a composition I publish the sheet music on MusicaNeo.com and other music download sites (now over 200 on MusicaNeo.
(see: https://www.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/17328_
richard_burdick/ ) I currently have more than 140 works published there. I also create a web page for each work, for example see my “Sphinx Variations on Canada” page can be seen here:
http://i-ching-music.com/opus227.html.
Then I either (1) record a CD for public release and create advertising videos for the CD for release on youtube.com or (2) post a demo of the work for youtube.com. After anything is completed, such as video release I advertise the item on many places on the web:
2 pages on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Richard-O-Burdick-80141080078/
https://www.facebook.com/Rich.Burdick
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/R_O_Burdick
And on www.linkedin.com
(Plus possible appropriate chat groups, such as the orchestra conductors groups)

Find me on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/RichardOBurdick/
videos?view_as=public

I am slowly expanding into other places on the web such as all the new forums that are popping up.