Tom's Music: My newly-discovered Power User Profile page

[Tom Hopkins]

I have only recently stumbled across the fact that I have a Power User Profile page! Here I am a forum moderator, one of the ostensibly “in the know” people, and this particular detail managed to escape me – apparently for months. I'll need to check my calendar to be sure, but I suspect that I must have been busy doing something else . . .

So, now that awareness has dawned, I've taken the time this weekend to populate my phantom page with information and, also, some of my music. Over the years I've posted very little of my work because I didn't feel it appropriate to post music in the Garritan Listening Room that wasn't created using Garritan libraries. Unfortunately, virtually all of my compositions and recordings pre-date my work with Garritan; some of it by a decade or more. Since Gary started monopolizing all of my waking (and semi-waking) hours about 5 years ago I have had precious few (read: Zero) spare minutes for composing - and no, the occasional brief library demo doesn't count.

Discovering this Power User Profile page makes it possible for me to post music separate from the dedicated Garritan Listening Room so, finally, I have a place to put some of my music for those who have asked and anyone else who might be interested. I've compiled a variety of examples of my music including brass ensemble, chamber, orchestral, piano, jazz and jazz-fusion, and even abstract electronic. Many of the pieces illustrate the technique of combining live and sampled instruments – something I strongly favor. Several pieces illustrate my peculiar habit of buzzing my lips into curved metal tubing. I picked up this irritating foible as a replacement for thumb sucking when I was quite young – never been able to break the habit since. My thumbs have reaped the benefit, though, and are now quite presentable!

I've written brief explanations for each piece plus credits for the musicians involved but, frankly, it's not obvious to me how Those In Search of More Knowledge can get at this information from the profile page; I haven't been able to spot the access point - but then, I do wear bifocals. Anyway, I've explored a lot of different areas of music over the years and have enjoyed gently bending, folding, spindling, and mutilating all of them. The present collection is an eclectic brew; the 20th century influences in my music are strong and varied. With the more unusual pieces, you may need to be in just the right mood (one that I suspect would perhaps be best served by modern psychiatric drugs) to fully enjoy them. With that, anyone interested may wander over by clicking on my name and choosing “View Public Profile.” Now, it's back to work for me.

[Hannes_F]

Tom,

a great collection that shows a side of the composer and arranger Tom Hopkins that has been unknown to me so far. Therefore I enjoy the pieces the more!

First class music, absolutely perfect produced! Yes, I think the layering of samples with recordings can be an "asset" method. Thank you for letting us listen to this!

Hannes

[joaz]

Loved your French Hommage.
C'est Formidable.

Salut Joe

[Tom Hopkins]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed them.

Tom

[Leaf]

Now that's one very outstanding body of work, Tom. My favorite is Dreams of a Child - 1953, after listening about a minute I was bookmarking your page for future listening, and at about 3.50 when the bass became apparent and at around 6 something when the horns sounded I was again reaching for the bookmark, in case I had forgot to do that. Loved all the others as well, and btw, nice touch with the seagulls in Infinite Refractions!:) A user name should have a gold border as a reminder whenever such a collection of works is sitting there, one click away.

David

[Tom Hopkins]

Thanks David. Dreams of a Child - 1953 has a special meaning for me because, of course, I am that 5 year old child in 1953. I lived that piece and it always conjures up very specific and vivid images. It's my own little 15 minute time machine!

By the way, were any of you who have replied here able to access the explanatory material and musician credits? Just wondering. I still don't see the doorway to that information for visitors to the profile page.

Tom

[Cobalt Katze]

Tom, really, I want to say it was wonderful finally being able to check out the music you've written :) Especially after all the support you've given in terms of coming to local performances of mine.

Listening to a select majority of the pieces listed, I definately sense a very personal style that I can't quite place in terms of influences. And I say that in a very positive way! There's a certain sense of tonality just pushing the borders of the norm while still coming across as very deliberate. I often find that when music crosses into the world of anormality, it loses a bit of what I feel is intentional note writing, but not so much with your work. Things are carefully placed, very inventive, and very unique :)

I look forward to listening to the rest!

[Rhap2]

Tom:

Really great charts and compositions and so well done in the early days.

How can one download some of your works to add good music to their computer in mp3 form?

Oh yeah..........can't see any descriptive info on your compositions at all.

Jack

[DPDAN]

Hi Tom, I really love your playing, what a great sound!

I have a bunch of information about all my different pieces of, well, music, and it is not viewable to anyone either. It was disappointing after typing it all in to not see it, I suppose it is still there.

Maybe PaPa can fix that for us.

Have a beautiful day Tom, and say Hi to Amy.

Dan :)

[Tom Hopkins]

How can one download some of your works to add good music to their computer in mp3 form?Click on the down arrow on the right side of the composition name line in the player. That should let you download the piece. That's the theory anyway!

Tom

[Tom Hopkins]

There's a certain sense of tonality just pushing the borders of the norm while still coming across as very deliberate. I often find that when music crosses into the world of anormality, it loses a bit of what I feel is intentional note writing, but not so much with your work. Things are carefully placed, very inventive, and very unique :) Thanks Leif. I'm nothing if not deliberate! :)

[Tom Hopkins]

Have a beautiful day Tom, and say Hi to Amy.

Dan :)Thanks Dan, and you're right, I really should say "hi" to Amy. She's around here all the time and I always forget to say "hi!"

Tom

[DPDAN]

for me :D

me

[Rhap2]

Tom:

Nah....that doesn't do it either. Right-clicking on the arrow only produces the "settings" and "about the flash player" info. It would be neat if you could post all these things in an mp3 list, then we could download all of them individually.

Oh well, that would probably take too much time at this juncture.

Sure enjoyed them all, though.

Jack

[Tom Hopkins]

Right-clicking on the arrow only produces the "settings" and "about the flash player" info.Well, it is supposed to be left-click not right but . . . I just tried actually downloading one of Dan's pieces from his Power User Profile page and I ended up with a file that was "0" bytes in size! Dan is very efficient but even he can't be *that* efficient. I'll ask Mark and Dave about it. It looks like it is meant to work. Maybe not.

Tom

P.S. I just tried it on a second computer and got the same (empty) results.

[DPDAN]

Dan is very efficient but even he can't be *that* efficient
ha ha ha,,, :D looks like we are both efficient Tom :p

http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/DPDAN/0%20bytes.jpg

[Tom Hopkins]

ha ha ha,,, :D looks like we are both efficient Tom :pActually, Dan, that piece is about a very small child - veeerrrrrryyyy small - and hungry too - not a byte to eat!

I sent off a bug report to Mark and Dave and they said they would look into both the download problem and the display of descriptive text. They're pretty busy right now so it may take some time to get this taken care of. At least they know.

Tom

[Rhap2]

Houston:

Will await further instructions..........Out, Spacemodule Rhap2

[DPDAN]

thank you Tom for contacting them.
Now Rhap, beam me over to the listening room....:D
over and out!
Dan :)

[Rhap2]

You are beamed, Dan..........;)

Geez I hate to have to wait to hear Tom's stuff (from my own, downloaded files).........

[etLux]

Took me a while to get to it, Tom, but I listened today
to the entire collection.

You know,Tom, regardless of eating flies and all that,
I've always thought well of you. And there's some good
work here.

Very little good work, though.

The majority of the works are just plain stunningly well
done.

BRAVO! (And then some.)

I'll be sending a hacksaw, soon, Tom, very soon. You've
got to break out of there, somehow, so you can do more
writing! I'll distract Gary (little shiny things are good for
that) while you cut the chains...

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

A Vocal Free Zone... mostly.
.

[Rhap2]

Right on, David and that's why I want to be able to download the whole show, but currently the Power Profile won't let me do it.......

Jack

[etLux]

Power Profile won't let me do it.......



It's something to do with the flies, I'm sure of it...

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[Tom Hopkins]

David, thanks for your extremely generous comments. Composing is the thing I miss most in this whirlwind of Garritan activity. One day I will return to it full time (which is the only way it really works for me - complete, obsessive concentration, to the exclusion of almost everything else.)

Tom

P.S. The problem with the downloads is indeed related to the flies but it is mostly the ointment in the site programming that gums up the works.

[Tom Hopkins]

Right on, David and that's why I want to be able to download the whole show, but currently the Power Profile won't let me do it.......I wanted to avoid posting standard links in this thread in favor of a workable download from the PUP page. One reason is because these will no sooner be posted than they will drop off the page, whereas a functioning download from the PUP page will always be accessible. One day this may happen but, for now, here are the links (and the missing info about the pieces):

Twisted Brass
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Twisted_Brass.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Twisted_Brass.mp3)
Tongue-in-cheek piece for brass septet. Mixture of sampled and real instruments.

Dreams of a Child - 1953
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Dreams_of_a_Child_1953.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Dreams_of_a_Child_1953.mp3)
Programmatic and episodic orchestral composition depicting the dreams of a very young boy over 50 years ago. Stream of Unconsciousness! Draws upon many influences to which the boy has been exposed. The episodes move from one to another until culminating in a nightmare and the return to the calm and safety of the bed. Mixture of live and sampled instruments. Jim Coile: Flute and piccolo, Nancy Rumbel: Oboe and English horn, Elizabeth Ward: French horn, Gary Gibson: Snare drum, Hopkins: Trumpet, trombone, and everything else.

Homage Français
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Homage_Francais.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Homage_Francais.mp3)
Pays tribute to French music of the early 20th century. Jim Coile: Flute, Hopkins: Sampled harp.

Walls of Stone
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Walls_of_Stone.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Walls_of_Stone.mp3)
Improvisation for solo valve trombone in the setting of a large stone church. Improvisation based on three short fragments jotted down before the recording session. Explores the interaction of the instrument with the acoustics. Hopkins: valve trombone.

Rain Forest
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Rain_Forest.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Rain_Forest.mp3)
From a book of piano pieces.

Doin' the Fleldmeldjer
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Doin_the_Fleldmeldjer.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Doin_the_Fleldmeldjer.mp3)
Written as a jazz fusion feature for the tenor sax of Jim Coile. Hopkins: All other instruments.

The Rogue
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-The_Rogue.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-The_Rogue.mp3)
Jazz piece for five valve trombones and sampled rhythm section. Solo trombone is the sly, improvised “rogue.” Hopkins: All instruments.

Bone Voyage
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Bone_Voyage.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Bone_Voyage.mp3)
Jazz fusion piece for five valve trombones and sampled rhythm section. Alan Hashimoto: triggered drums, Hopkins: All other instruments.

Midnight Magic excerpt
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Midnight_Magic_excerpt.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Midnight_Magic_excerpt.mp3)
Excerpt from a jazz piece. Jim Coile: Soprano sax, W. Michael Jaap: Sampled piano, Alan Hashimoto: Drums, Hopkins: Bass and synths.

After Hours excerpt
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-After_Hours_excerpt.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-After_Hours_excerpt.mp3)
Original ballad in the “standard” tradition for jazz quartet. W. Michael Jaap: Sampled piano, Alan Hashimoto: Drums, Hopkins: Flugelhorn and sampled bass.

Tin Pan Alley
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Tin_Pan_Alley.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Tin_Pan_Alley.mp3)
Charles Ives meets the cigar-chomping “song pluggers” for piano five (!) hands. A piece with a game to play: Hidden within its seemingly chaotic structure are fragments of well-known American popular songs from the first half of the 20th century. The trick is to find them – an intricate musical puzzle.

Infinite Refractions for Sampled Strings and Synthesis
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Infinite_Refractions_for_Sampled_Strings_and_Synth esis.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Infinite_Refractions_for_Sampled_Strings_and_Synth esis.mp3)
A nod to Xenakis. A piece that is intended to be, in its ultimate form, a kind of musical Mobius Strip – without a beginning or an ending. This is (necessarily) an excerpt. It could never be anything else.

Synscapes #6
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Synscapes_6.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Synscapes_6.mp3)
One of a group of abstract synthesis pieces from the early '90s.

'Round the Jazz Thicket
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Round_the_Jazz_Thicket.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Round_the_Jazz_Thicket.mp3)
A jazz-influenced “round” for three pianos, bass, and drums. Row, Row, Row, Your Boat in a psychiatric ward. Doug Miller: Bass, Gary Gibson: Drums, Hopkins: Sampled pianos.

Elegy
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Elegy.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Elegy.mp3)
An elegy with a “For Whom the Bell Tolls” subtext. The piece is a study in inevitability, always pushing toward the final surrender; the great, dark cosmic joke – and the joke is on us.

Circus Demento
www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Circus_Demento.mp3 (http://www.garritan.com/Hopkins/Hopkins-Circus_Demento.mp3)
Another one from the piano book. This one is impish in character and ends with one last musical punchline.

Tom

[Leaf]

Thanks David. Dreams of a Child - 1953 has a special meaning for me because, of course, I am that 5 year old child in 1953. I lived that piece and it always conjures up very specific and vivid images. It's my own little 15 minute time machine!

By the way, were any of you who have replied here able to access the explanatory material and musician credits? Just wondering. I still don't see the doorway to that information for visitors to the profile page.

TomTom,
I was waiting to see if someone else could answer, but no i can't see any way to to access the explanatory material and musician credits. There is however some piano notes that are very cool if you move the cursor around, i even composed a tune with them. Thanks very much for posting those mp3s. I was a five year old in 63 and it brought back the feeling and dreams of that era, that was perhaps in many ways still very 1953.

David:hp:

[Rhap2]

WOW, TOM:

Thanks a bunch. Now I can start my Tom Hopkins mp3 CD......

Jack

[Hardy Heern]

:D Hi Tom,

I just knew that we had to have something in common.....that is, nearly the same ages.....you're only a few years short of the best age...ie. a '45'er....but, hey, that's near enough!:)

I hope that you've still got a few years of 'mean' programming in you, still....keep up the good work.....I may even listen to it....No seriously!!:confused: %-

Anyway, enough of the pleasantries?...On behalf of Gary.....GET BACK TO YOUR WORK!!!:D

Your humble listener (potentially),

Frank

I listened to the beginning of French Frommage and it does have potential....once you get rid of the discord!!!!:) ....Hey...I'm just a simple man who likes harmony.....just like your uncle......

[etLux]

Discord? What discord? I didn't hear any discord... rofl.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

I did hear dat chord, though...
.

[Fabio]

Hi Tom.

I had the "suspect" you were a good musician because of your good work and your taste/comments, now I'm just certain...

A mixture of simplicity and sophisticated work is in your music, it's what I usually really appreciate.

Thanks for the opportunity of knowing more about you musician.

all the best

Fabio

[Garritan]

I have only recently stumbled across the fact that I have a Power User Profile page! Here I am a forum moderator, one of the ostensibly “in the know” people, and this particular detail managed to escape me Happy Birthday Tom! :)

[Tom Hopkins]

Thanks Fabio. Appreciated.

Tom

[Tom Hopkins]

Happy Birthday Tom! :)My very own Profile page?!!! Now, I need to figure out how to slice it up so everyone can have a piece. It is chocolate isn't it?

Tom

[Tom Hopkins]

I listened to the beginning of French Frommage and it does have potential....once you get rid of the discord!!!!:) ....Hey...I'm just a simple man who likes harmony...Hey, I'm just a not-so-simple man who also likes harmony - but my kind of harmony, not your kind of harmony. As I recall, you consider such mild little things as 9th and 13th chords as discordant. A piece of advice (and this is important): RUN FOR YOU LIFE FRANK! Do not, under any circumstances, expose yourself to my music! Considerable scientific research has shown that exposure to my music can cause irreparable damage to the neurons of brains numbed by the repetition of simple triads. For your own good, don't go there Frank! Please protect yourself. We want you to stay just the way you are. And have a nice day!:)

Tom

[etLux]

Seriously, Tom, I wish you wouldn't be too unforgiving of
those of us who love triads.

I'm quite fond of them. There's nothing like a C major
triad with a double-flat third and the fifth diminished by
a tritone -- it's such a sweet and wholesome sound...

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[Tom Hopkins]

There's nothing like a C major
triad with a double-flat third and the fifth diminished by
a tritone -- it's such a sweet and wholesome sound...Triads, mmmmm, triads . . . uuuuhhhh, wait a gosh darn minute! We'll have none of your "perverted" triads in here, young man! Now, clean up that mess and go to your room!

Tom

[etLux]

Triads, mmmmm, triads . . . uuuuhhhh, wait a gosh darn minute! We'll have none of your "perverted" triads in here, young man! Now, clean up that mess and go to your room!

Tom

Perverted?

Perverted!?

C C# F# G B E! With an A in the root!

Take that! Hah!

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

That'll teach 'im a lesson...
.

[Tom Hopkins]

Take that! Hah!Have we learned nothing from the lessons of history?! There is no future in escalating note density! I warn you: You are just a few notes away from repeating the events that led to that bloody massacre of a musical event called "Cluster's Last Stand." Oh, the humanity! It gives me a feeling deep down in my stomach - a feeling that says, "It's time for lunch!"

Tom

[Fabio]

Perverted?

Perverted!?

C C# F# G B E! With an A in the root!

Take that! Hah!

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

That'll teach 'im a lesson...
.

HEY! IT's a NICE CHORD!

I should write a piece with it as a base for serial development (extracting rythmic patterns from numeric structure of the intervals, and melodic patterns from interval structure it self...)...:confused:

[Tom Hopkins]

HEY! IT's a NICE CHORD!

I should write a piece with it as a base for serial development (extracting rythmic patterns from numeric structure of the intervals, and melodic patterns from interval structure it self...)...:confused:Fabio,

Just to make sure that David's and my tongue-in-cheek exchange wasn't lost in translation to Italian: We were being satirical and mock-adversarial. I'm sure we both agree with you on the merits of such an interesting combination of pitches. It's difficult to tell sometimes if such joking crosses language barriers unscathed. And it works both ways: Were you perhaps joining in on the joke?

Tom

[etLux]

Have we learned nothing from the lessons of history?! There is no future in escalating note density! I warn you: You are just a few notes away from repeating the events that led to that bloody massacre of a musical event called "Cluster's Last Stand." Oh, the humanity! It gives me a feeling deep down in my stomach - a feeling that says, "It's time for lunch!"

Tom

Like the venerable General Cluster, I stand
behind my clumped-up notes, right to the...

Last Chord (http://www.davidsosnowski.com/cgi-bin/l/t.pl?www.davidsosnowski.com/Rebel.mp3)

Ahhh... that feels soooo good.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

C C# F# G B E! With an A in the root!
.

[Tom Hopkins]

Ahhh... that feels soooo good.I second that opinion - now there's a place I could live long and happy. That's a good example of why I always watch for David's latest music posts. Delicious.

Tom

P.S. Either you "get it" or you don't.

[etLux]

Fabio,

Just to make sure that David's and my tongue-in-cheek exchange wasn't lost in translation to Italian: We were being satirical and mock-adversarial. I'm sure we both agree with you on the merits of such an interesting combination of pitches. It's difficult to tell sometimes if such joking crosses language barriers unscathed. And it works both ways: Were you perhaps joining in on the joke?

Tom

Fabio,

I should add that Tom and I have both, if rarely, been guilty
of using common triads.

It is our deep shame over this that engenders our vicious
hurling of harmonic invective.

We have agreed privately to a truce, however. Tom has
consented to allow me use of his emboli-inducing trumpet
passages if I will supply him with bagpipe glissandi in return.

We're still dickering over who shall have rights to retrograde
decrescendi; but an agreement appears promising.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.