Meastro Mahadeen's Manuscripts
Lessons in Music
MIDIS by Me
COMPOSITIONS:
ARRANGEMENTS
FOR BAND:
Fur Elise (Beethoven)
Minuet in G (Bach)
Wind Beneath My Wings (Traditional)
CHAMBER ENSEMBLES:
The Merry Peasant (Schumann)
Amazing Grace for String Quartet (Traditional)
Amazing Grace for Brass Quartet (Traditional)
Amazing Grace for Flute Ensemble (Traditional)
Carol of The Bells (Traditional)
Opus 27 Number 11 for Brass Ensamble (Kabelovsky)
JAZZ:
Battle Hymn of the Republic (Traditional)
Wind Beneath My Wings (Traditional)
Going Home (Kenny G, Walter Afanasteiff)
Fantasy (Earth Wind & Fire)
You Are Me, I Am You (Dave Koz, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers)
ROCK BAND:
James Bond Theme (Monty Norman)
COMBINED CHORUS, ORCHESTRA, & BAND
Download an accual recording of the premire of this piece, performed by the JCHS Music Department, under the direction of me (Michael Mahadeen) Here! (mp3 format).
I am currently working on a CD, entitled Footsteps. To learn more about this album and dowload a recording of Back in My Life that will be appearing on it, please visit the footsteps page, located here.
The accual recording can be dowloaded here (mp3 format).
Insparational Musical Ideas and Thoughts
An Article written for Gavin Magazine by Dave Koz:
Why Everybody Loves the Saxophone
If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me and said that the saxophone was their favorite instrument, I'd be a very rich man. What is it about the darn thing that folks like so much? What draws people to the saxophone in such a profound way? Well, I know what drew me: Tower of Power's Back to Oakland album. It was the late '70s, I was a kid of 13, searching for a purpose in life. Then I heard that horn section-the blazingly funky tenor solos by Lenny Pickett; the thumping bottom of Doc Kupka's baritone. I was hooked.
But I'm a musician. What about all the regular folks who are making the saxophone such a hot instrument lately? The women who swoon at the mere sight of it; the middle aged men who in the throes of mid-life crises buy a Porsche and take up the sax to become "cool" once again? And what about all the kids? I hear that in band classes across the country, the sax section is the first to fill up, and rental stores can't keep 'em in stock. Never before has an instrument touched the spirit of so many Americans.
I don't think Adolphe Sax knew what he was on to when he invented it in the late 19th Century, or that he could ever imagine his instrument propelling the sales of 20 million Kenny G CDs. Those kinds of sales, combined with the success of Smooth Jazz & Vocals radio, have led to a veritable cornucopia of sax records in the marketplace. Everyone and their mother is making one (In fact, my mom is busy working on hers at the moment). So, what is all the fuss?
I have a few theories: First, the saxophone, merely as an object is quite simply a beautiful thing to look at. And no matter what playing level one might be at, it's an instrument that by its very nature can turn any old dweeb playing it into a super-cool cat (i.e. my career).
Second, it's perhaps the most versatile instrument out there. One of the reasons why I feel it has transcended time and made it through so many genres and fads is its uncanny ability to create vastly different moods. We all know the sax can be romantic (more than a few of us were conceived to the sounds of a smoky tenor sax, I'm sure)-but it can also be downright raunchy or jubilant, or sensitive, or somber, or happy, or gritty, or sweet-what you put into the horn you get right back. It is the instrument that is closest to the human voice in its ability to put forth emotion through song.
Finally, the saxophone is an instrument of personality. It's almost impossible to play the thing and not have who and what you are come out of it. Think of your favorite sax players-new and old: the reckless abandon of King Curtis; the smokiness of Ben Webster; the sheer brilliance of Charlie Parker; the mellowness of Stan Getz; the wackiness of Boots Randolph; the grace of Grover Washington, Jr.; the funkiness of Sanborn, the gentleness of Tom Scott; the complexity of Coltrane. Perhaps more than any other instrument, the listener can truly feel the heart and soul of a particular player coming out through his or her horn. It's unfiltered, it's pure, it's raw, and it's immediate-and that's what I think people are responding to. You don't need lyrics to emote-and the saxophone is 100 percent pure emotion. In the right person's hands it can be a powerful tool, with a rare ability to connect with people on a very deep level. I have felt tremendously blessed over the years to have it as my outlet for expression.
But, like all things in life, things change. This "sax madness" can't last forever. And thus, I have already begun thinking about what instrument has the best chances of sweeping the collective consciousness of the people in the new millennium. Will it be the trombone? Bass clarinet? The timpani? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm putting my money on the accordion. You may laugh now, but just you watch. I've already got one, and I'm not afraid to use it.
I can hear the babies being conceived already.
Quotes:
"When I am in the right mood, ideas seem to teem within me. Those I like I retain. Then there are scraps which might go to the making of many a good dish. When I start composing I draw upon the accumulation in my brain."
-Mozart
"The sax is kind of like a wife in that it's easy to take her for granted sometimes, but the commitment is always there."
-Dave Koz
"Music...never underestimate the power of this art form. As an artist, the biggest compliment and one of the most inspiring thing to hear, is that a song of mine helped them get through a tough period or a loss of some sort...that my music was soothing, putting that person at ease. Music is a comfort for me, too. It's a great source of healing...very powerful. And so I take it as an honor when someone embraces my music this way."
-Dave Koz
"Music is the key to the female heart."
-Johann G. Seume
"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony."
-Benjamin Britten
"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music."
-Billy Joel
"We are all slowly walking towards our destiny; and all of the passion, love, and emotion is what we remember in our steps along the way. Music is one of the greatest gifts in our world. It holds the secret to unlocking all of that love and emotion. It is the secret to our past, present and future. It marks our footsteps on our journey towards our fate.
-Michael Mahadeen (Afterwards of Footsteps)
"Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite."
-Thomas Carlyle
"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
-Charlie Parker
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another."
-Frank Zappa
More great quotes about music can be found here.
Philosiphies:
Music is pure emotion expressed through sound.
Music is the perfect combination of mathmatics and logic, with feeling and emotion.
Music is a universal language. The written music is like a novel. The words are the scales. The letters are the notes. In order to understand the novel, you must understand the the words and letters. The only way to learn a new language is to learn the basics first.
What is music? Don't tell me it's the page that you have in front of you. That's nothing. All that is is a graph. On the X-axis, duration, Y-axis, approximation of pitch. Your simple mathmatical graph is not music. You are what makes that graph music. The musician decides what the music is, not the graph. The composer just gives you a general idea.
The minute you take an instrument out of it's case, you have an obligation to play music to the best of your ability, regardless of if you like the song or not.
I truly believe that all good music must have some element of pain in it. it is the only way the music can convey it's true feeling.
During the Middle ages, there were the Seven Greater Arts, the Seven Lesser Arts, the Seven Greater Sciences, and the Seven Lesser Sciences. Music was one of the Seven Greater Sciences.
Anyone can play something technical with practice. Anyone can read a page of music with some theory training. Only musicians can take those things, add emotion, and play music.
All music does is express a feeling. It is simply another way of human expression.
Music is like any art form. But instead of colors, dance steps, or lines, you use notes and ornaments to build paint, dance, or act, your music. And like any art, in order for there to be any wieght behind it, or for it to mean something, there must be pure, true emotion, straight from your heart.
Deffinition - Music (noun):
American Heritage Dictionary:
1. the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous,
unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony,
rhythm, and timbre.
2. vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody,
harmony, or rhythm.
3. a. a musical composition
b. the written or printed score for such a composition
c. such scores considered as a group
4. a musical accompaniment
5. a particular category or kind of music
6. an aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of
sounds
The Essential Dictionary of Music
1. Sound arranged to express feeling