Away With the Wind

Here are two pieces I fixed up for the Berklee Writing and Composition Scholarship application. The First is the piece I composed for my Orchestration Course this summer through Berklee Online.

A Successful Day

I have been having such a wonderful day and I realized it was a perfect opportunity to give my blog some attention.

I started out the day by getting some letters posted in the mail which I had been putting off for no reason. I printed out the three musical scores I already submitted to the Berklee Writing and Composition Scholarship and I burned a CD of the music to drop off at my piano teachers house.  Then I hopped on my bike and delivered the letters to the post office (one was heading to a friend in Ecuador), the scores to Mary Anne's and stopped by the Co.op to hang up a new poster for my concert on the 9th.  I also talked to Sheryl and she agreed to sell my Album there.  In my confidence I was ready to hit every store in Belfast that might be willing to sell my CD but I only had one copy with me so I gave it to Coyote Moon and left for home.

On the way home my head was swirling with inspiration and I stopped a few times, pulling out a notebook, and writing most of the first draft of my college admissions essay (a process I have long been dreading).

When I got home I lay on the couch and read a fantasy novel.  This was a calculated step as I have not been reading enough lately and with all my inspiration that morning I didn't want to push myself too hard as I have a tendency to do and loose my productive streak.

My two hour piano practice was focused and productive.  I could see huge improvements in my playing since last week.  I was also inspired and wrote down a few melody lines I came up with and started an orchestration in Cubase which I will probably never finish.

Checking facebook I discover that the filmmaker I have been working with, Jon Cunningham, has recommended me to a conductor looking to work with young composers.  I have no idea where this might lead but I contacted her and am super excited to hear back.  I also told Jon about the film class I am teaching and suggested we teach some classes together this winter.  I can't express how excited I would be to be collaborating in teaching film.  Film is my hidden passion and teaching has been my excuse to work on a film project that I might otherwise not make the time for.

I have a bunch of gigs lined up for November.  I am working hard on my Berklee audition piece and I'm looking forward to playing Ultimate (indoors, now) and more contra dancing.

Anyway, that is it for now.
Things are shaping up for my music career it seems.
Best,
Clayton

CD Release Concert Nov. 9th

My CD release concert is coming up!

Pianist Clayton Clemetson will be performing at the Belfast Free Library on Saturday, November 9th, 6:30 to 8:00pm. 

A resident of Belfast and world traveler, Clayton Clemetson has been composing and improvising for 11 years and has developed a New Age style influenced by film music and traditional fiddle tunes.  This event kicks off the release of his most recent album, "From the Treetops," a collection of original solo piano compositions.

Listen to his music at:

sound cloud https://soundcloud.com/clayton-clemetson
or his blog: http://claytonclemetsoncomposer.blogspot.com/

Details:

Saturday, November 9th

6:30-8:00pm

Belfast Free Library Gammans Room
light snacks and refreshments!

reetops.

Autumn Excursions

This is a piece that Audrey and I wrote (admittedly more Audrey than me but I'll take credit for providing some inspiration).  After we performed it at Fiddle Camp, Neal Pearlman (one of the piano teachers) asked us to teach it to him which was high praise.

Cloud Pieces Score

It was suggested that I write up the score of a string quartet that I composed a few months ago and I thought I'd post it on my blog.  You can download it from Google Drive here.
The recording is actually a quintet with a double bass but for the sake of the score I rearranged some of the melodic material and pared it down to four instruments.

Orchestration Course update

The orchestration course has been wonderful and we are wrapping it up with week 12.  The last four weeks we have been working on our final project and I will be handing that in tomorrow.

This is a piece I composed for an exercise a couple weeks ago.  We were given some drum loops and were told to craft an orchestration around them.

Book Group/Film Class

I am leading a book discussion group at the library this year.  We will be discussing The Rithmatist and then making a short film about the book.
The last film class I taught was a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to doing another!

I am rather proud of this poster.  Simple yet intriguing.

Clayton

Week 5 Berklee Course

Here is a composition I wrote for my orchestration course through Berklee.  A few different themes in there but the focus this week was on the brass section of the orchestra.

The Storm

Tonight was one of the most magical nights: huge storm heads passing by a hundred or so miles away, each section of the towering clouds flickering in turn with distant lightning. For a long time I stood in the field, fighting away mosquitoes as I took long exposures of the storm, my camera set up on a tripod. Timmy huddled beside me under a blanket, sharing it with me between my fiddlings with the camera to give some protection from the bugs.

I enjoyed sitting there with my younger brother, watching the distant storm.  I'm sure he will remember that all too rare moment spent with his older brother as I have similar memories that have long stayed with me.

The clouds reached across the clear sky above us towards the near-full moon and I reoriented my camera to capture the sweep of the clouds across the stars and moon.

As the sky darkened above us the first raindrops reached us along with a steadily growing roar from the oak trees across the road. 
For a moment the air was perfectly still...
and then it slipped into motion around us,
bringing with it another smattering of rain.

Timmy and I raced for the house as the wind brought the world around us to dancing.  The grass rippled, trees shook in all directions, the tarps on our woodpile shivered and flapped.  I tried to fit through the back door but had to stop and collapse my tripod, a sense of excited urgency bringing speed to my movements.  We grabbed Willy from where he was reading on the couch and pulled him outside where the warm breeze smelled of rain and thunder. For a moment I watched the trees as they danced in the wind

and then I was off.

Across the field I ran, barefoot, not bothering to dodge the thick patches of thistles.  As I climbed up through the branches the moon found a hole in the thinning clouds and leaf shadows rippled across my arms, my hands.  I found a crook in the top of the tree and stood, watching the lighting, now in the northeast, having passed us by.

The Tree
 
I breathed in the night,

my thoughts on the beauty

around me.

I was riding the wind at the top of a tree

the silver moon lighting my back,

a storm showing off its beauty and power before me.

And have I yet mentioned the fireflies?

Or the stars peeking through the clouds?

All of nature seemed to join together
on this magical summer evening
to create this special moment of perfection,

one that will live long in my memory

There will surely be other nights
but I would count myself lucky
to live through another
as perfect as this one.

--Clayton Clemetson

New Album in the Making!

Hey all,

I have been spending a lot of time working on my new album.  I have the art pretty much complete.  I just need to lock the song order so that I can send it off to be printed.  I will be burning the disks at home so I will be able to make changes but I still need to have all the song names and know the approximate length.

For a taste of the content here is a new composition of mine straight from the album cue.

Jamming with Nora

My friend Nora who I've played Frisbee with for a couple years came over the other day to jam.  Turns out she is a talented cellist.
It is always nice to improvise with a new musician.  I am used to playing almost entirely backup during improvisations with other musicians that when she changed to chords and chops it was a surprise for me and I had to suddenly think about coming up with my own stand-alone melodies.

HDR photograph I took of a pond down the road

Farmers Market

My brothers and I played at the farmers market the other day. It was a fun and exhausting four hour gig. The nice thing about playing at the farmers market is you get a huge basket of goodies collected from all the vendors.  We ended up being joined for a few sets by Frets, a ukelele player.

Onwards!!

So it has been a while since I have written on this blog and I really need to give a bit of an update on my life.

Travel
I got back from New Zealand on March 27th after an exhausting flight home.  It took 48 hours but it felt like a week.
College
I have been working on raising money for college.
I am deferring my acceptance to Berklee for a year and looking at other college options.  I am very interested in Hampshire college.
Work
I have a job...working with the Bixby chocolate company!  Making (and eating) chocolate all day long sure isn't the worst job I've had.  It is a nice five mile bike ride to work.
Teaching
I am teaching fiddle accompaniment on the piano to one adult student and beginner sight reading and chord theory to a younger student.
Performing
My brothers and I are playing at the Farmers Market this Friday!
Ultimate Frisbee
Been playing some hard disc four days a week and loving it!

Best,
Clayton

Accepted to Berklee!

Hey all,

I have been accepted to Berklee School of Music in Boston!  I had to wait an extra week to find out due to being at a music festival with no internet access.  I managed to survive the festival even knowing that the email was just sitting in my inbox but the night after we left the festival all my dreams were about opening my email account and I sat bolt upright that morning with an intense mixture of excitement and dread, itching to make use of the Library's internet.

Unfortunately, although being accepted has taken a certain amount of apprehension off my shoulders actually being able to attend the college depends on the amount of scholarship the state awards me and likely how much debt I am willing to go into for the sake of this school.  I am honestly not sure what the answer to that is.  I truly want to go to this school but taking out massive loans is not a direction I want to go with my life.