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.