Jerry Gerber

True, writing a shorter piece for fewer players is different from a long-form piece with lots of players. But I wouldn't underestimate the string quartet because the same capacity for musical development and variation exist in a 4 movement string quartet, except of course there are fewer timbres.

Though I did mention that I originally conceived of this piece for a visual presentation, it's very rare that I have an interest in scoring to picture. I've already scored over 750 cues for film, TV and games and found that musically and artistically it's not what I want to do. Film scoring can pay well and there can be prestige in doing it if that's what you're looking for, but for me composition is most rewarding and challenging when music is not governed by a story, plot or visuals. Before film and TV a composer who collaborated in producing an opera, dance piece, songs or Broadway was entering into a true collaboration where the music determined, or played a large role in the pacing, length, style and general direction of the project. Not so in film scoring. Though I enjoy teamwork, I'd rather write symphonies and produce albums. Film music seriously lacks something I love about music--the abstract nature of musical development and variation that can only be explored in composition-for-its-own-sake or in collaborations that don't inhibit that property of music. Background music for film almost always negates that element of composition. It doesn't have to, but the nature of how films are produced makes it so. The other issue for me, is that most films suck. When I try and watch a film these days on Netflix, about 80% of the time I watch 10 or 20 minutes of it or so and turn it off as I feel like I am wasting time, or worse, putting junk into my brain; sort of like eating junk food that titillates and seems tasty when eating it but has no nutritional value and can damage your health . I could not possibly score a project that I think is crap, and most films are crap. If a composer reaches a stage in their career where they can pick and choose every film they score, well, that's great for them, but in order to do that you'll have to spend all your time scoring films or looking for projects to score. I'd be back to square one again! No thank you!

Thanks for listening Tim!

Thanks Tim! I originally planned this piece for use with visuals but it ended up merely as a piece of music. Yes, the only orchestral library i use is is the VSL Orchestral Cube. I have the orchestral, solo, chamber and appassionata strings although I don't recall offhand which ones I used in The Galaxies.

Thanks Wookiee. And thank you for being so helpful in regards to CW tips and troubleshooting..

Thanks Tim and thanks for listening..I'm actually very lucky, I had hip replacement surgery last April and I'm walking like a healthy 20 year old now. The difference is incredible. Hip replacement surgery has something like a 97% success rate. I also had mitral valve (heart) repair surgery in October and that too has changed my life incredibly for the better. No more getting out of breath or feeling light-headed. The miracles of modern medicine are really amazing. But you're right, aging is challenging no matter what. Even with modern surgical interventions we're merely buying time (which I suppose is nothing to scoff at) before the eventual and inevitable end.

Yes, true. No matter how well life is going--the joys, successes, relationships, happiness, accomplishments--always waiting quietly in the corner is the grief, the knowledge of our mortality and the mortality of everyone we care for. Our existence in this world is impermanent and in the quiet of night we know we all must face loss and grief. Thank God for humor and thank God for grief. For without these things we'd be unbearable, insufferable little twits, thinking we're Gods when we are probably the lowest form of sentient life in the universe. Best to you Bjorn and happy new year...

Hi David! Thanks for listening to The Galaxies. I hadn't thought of this piece as dodecaphonic or Schoenbergian, in fact I gave up trying to write serialized music many years ago, but I guess there is enough chromaticism in the piece to warrant that association. I'm really glad you enjoyed listening! Happy New Year to you, Jerry

In celebration of the launching of the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The Galaxies

Thanks Larry. Lovely piece! How was this recorded? Any orchestral samples? Live choir or from a sample library? You did a good job with the orchestration, very nice feeling to the instrumentation and good integration with the choir... You are aware I assume that my choir is virtual, it's the East-West Hollywood choir with word builder.. Best, Jerry p.s. I think you're supposed to create a separate thread for your own work, rather than post it in a thread based on another's composition...

All my string samples are from the Vienna Symphonic Library: Solo strings, orchestral, chamber and Appassionata strings...

The choir is East West Hollywood Choirs. No VST plugins other than the choir itself...

It's been a beautiful, miraculous, mysterious and very bummer year for me. Two surgeries, weary of the pandemic, the world is as unstable and teetering on disaster as ever. Yet life is precious, deeply meaningful, with joys and pleasures. But sometimes late at night a restlessness and anxiety comes over me. One of the works on my upcoming CD release is entitled Nine Hymns on Spiritual Life. Here's an excerpt from that group of hymns: It's Always Worse At Night Happy holidays to everyone. May 2022 not be a disaster for the planet... Jerry

Cakewalk is fantastic. It's been my DAW of choice since 1991 and gets better all the time. Now working on my 16th CD using CW to compose and produce my compositions and recordings. Thank you so much for creating, maintaining and upgrading CW. The music industry has no idea what it's missing in terms of a DAW that has so many great features. Even the earliest features, like being able to rename controllers, a color-coded event list and the general look of CW still add value to this DAW. Happy holidays and and happy new year to all at Cakewalk! Jerry

I tested it. By excluding the themes folder from virus scanning, the theme options in CW open immediately. No delay. This was driving me nuts for years. Can't believe I stumbled across the solution. Now we know. Jerry

Go to Windows 10 settings and choose Update and Security. Then go to Windows Security. Now click on Virus and Threat Protection. Scroll down to and click on Manage Settings. Now . Now scroll down to Exclusions, this is where you choose the folder you want Windows to exclude when doing a virus scan. Enter the folder where your CW themes are. I haven't yet tested this tonight but I will in the morning. I do know I got a Windows message telling me why it was taking so long for the theme options to appear, and it said because the folder has to be scanned for viruses. So it should work.

I discovered what the problem is with this very slow opening of the theme dialogue box. It's happening on my other machine and I got a Windows 10 popup saying that windows has to do a security scan on these items. OK, so now I know what's causing the delay, it's not CW. But does anyone know how to stop Windows from having to do a security scan every time I open the theme dialogue box? Thanks! Jerry UPDATE! Never mind, I learned how to exclude certain folders from virus scanning...

Hi Jack, thank for listening to my music. I am not teaching at present, taking a break to focus on composing and producing. Thank you for inquiring. Jerry

Thank you Larry and thanks for listening! Jerry

Thanks for listening Bassman..

Thanks for listening noynekker! I'll often get ideas from sitting at the piano and improvising. At that point I don't record anything, I don't notate anything, I just play and listen and experiment. Actual composition begins when I am in front of Cakewalk with the notation editor open. I sometimes begin with a melody or a short melodic motive, or a rhythmic pattern, or sometimes a harmonic progression. There's no one right way to begin composing a piece! I do have some idea before I begin writing what I want, for example, is it going to be a symphonic movement? What length? Will it be for samples only, synths only or both? Will it be a short piano piece? A song with vocals? Once I decide what I am composing then I start to write. If, after 20 or 30 measures I start to feel it's not going anywhere (about 20% of the time) I abandon it and start over. But if the opening begins to grow on me I get inspired and go to work. I am a big believer in the "economics of composition", meaning how does a composer make a lot out of a little? In most longer pieces, in order to achieve unity and cohesiveness, there are only a few main ideas; perhaps a main theme, one or two sub-themes or motives, and that's that. Too many ideas creates disunity, too few ideas spread out over time can result in too much repetition and/or predictability. So there you go! I hope this is helpful to you in your own composition efforts. Best, Jerry p.s. For those who don't think that CW's notation editor is a very useful tool, I think my compositions and recordings show otherwise. It would be impossible for me to create the kind of music I do by using the piano roll view. I spend most of my composition time in the notation editor, the event list, the controller view and the tempo view..

OK, I overreacted. I should have checked first. All of the themes I used have been updated. Sorry about that. Jerry

I really appreciate that Bandlab is being so conscientious in updating Cakewalk so frequently. I really do! But when I upgrade and all my themes don't work properly anymore it's really frustrating and time-consuming to start searching for which themes have been updated and which have not. Can there be some coordination between those who design themes and the new updates? This last update that I downloaded today (2021.12) nullified all or most of my themes. I could not simply install the earlier version so I did a system restore so I could get back to version 2021.11.18. Now all my themes work again. I'll now pass on the new update and hopefully in a few weeks or so the themes I like best will also be updated.. Jerry

I am posting the 1st movement of my 6th symphony and including the score. Though I have completed my 11th symphony this year I am particularly happy with my 6th and 8th symphonies. Keep in mind I don't put dynamics, hairpins, and a few other instructions to the players not because I don't know how but because there are no players! This work is conceived and produced for virtual instruments. A brief statement about this is here. This piece is part of the album Time Shadows. Here is the link to the recording and score. Enjoy listening. If you have any questions please ask! Jerry

Thanks John and Colin and Sjoens for replying. I guess its just one of these quirky things that might never get looked at...