Blog Archives - ANTHONY LUIS SANCHEZ: Composer and Musicologist

ANTHONY LUIS SANCHEZ: Composer and Musicologist

On Musical Content Creation and Effectively Connecting with Audiences Online

7/29/2024

(This is a repost from my LinkedIn page. The information presented herein reflects my personal experience with music marketing and content creation as a composer. The tips that I give may not necessarily work for everyone, but they do help to provide guidelines for how to maintain an active and focused creative presence.)

Ever since I restructured my YouTube channel and updated my website, I have made it a habit to use different features of social media platforms to my advantage as someone running a remote sole proprietorship. I used to apply the YouTube "Shorts" feature for video clips about my travels. Now, I use it to advertise my music and engage more with audiences. Here are some important music marketing rules that I have learned in the process:

- Have at least some basic knowledge of and skills with video editing software programs.

- If you are a composer who is trying to earn income through your work, never show the score to a piece in your videos because composers should not give away their music for free.

- Use relevant hashtags so that more people will find your work: preferably, hashtag topics that focus on the music that you create.

- If possible, provide a link to the full version of the video. YouTube Shorts simplifies this process through the "Related Video" feature, which content creators can edit by copying and pasting whichever necessary video link from their channel.

- If the music is available for purchase, post the links in the video description (for long videos) so that people can find where to buy the content.

- Whenever necessary, share your posts to connect with and grow your audience because music marketing does not happen in a vacuum.

Prelude on the Name "MAURICE RAVEL" (2015)

7/29/2024

Music and video loop by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Quotations from Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Copyright © 2024 by ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC (ASCAP), Savannah, GA

Date and location of video loop unknown

Performers:

John Cooper, viola
Peng-Chian Chen, piano

Recorded October 15, 2015, in Dancz Hall at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA

Score available now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/prelude-on-name-23980617

Audiovisuals edited using YouCut: https://app.youcut.net/BestEditor

Program Notes:

I composed this brief chamber piece for viola and piano to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the birth of French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)in 2015. In creating this work, I devised an alphabetical grid to translate the letter of this composer’s name to music. I then translated his birth year (1875) and the year 2015 into pitch classes: (DbAbGF) and (DCDbF).

On another level, Prelude on the Name “MAURICE RAVEL” serves as a collage piece with quotations from some memorable Ravel piano compositions: Miroirs (1901), Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-17), Sonatine (1905), and Juex d’eau (1901). I have treated these quotations carefully by transferring much of the melodic materials to the viola and matching the quotations with the alphabetical realization of Ravel’s name. In this way, this prelude demonstrates the musical past connecting and blending in with the present.

As of 2008, the music of Maurice Ravel written before 1923 has been "Public Domain" in France. Such works written before 1923 became "Public Domain" in the US in 2019.

Galactic Stinger On Patrol (2024)

7/26/2024

Short film by Anthony L. Sanchez and Freddy Sanchez

This is the "sequel" video to Galactic Stinger (2016). Viewers can find the first video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oWJRZvGh5Y&t=0s

3D modeling and animation by Freddy Sanchez

Music: "The Voyage" by Anthony L. Sanchez

Music is coming soon to Patreon.

(See "Credits" at 1:37 for all photos, music production programs, visual arts, and video editing software used.)

Percussion Improv 1 and 2 (2020)

7/25/2024

Music and photograph by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Music created and edited using Reaktor 6 Player (Native Instruments), Lexis Audio Editor, Synthesizer (app), and Audacity.

Tones generated via my laptop and smartphone.

Photograph of New York City- Taken July 4, 2024- Edited using the "Num5" vusual effect filter via Glitch Camera (app).

Tacks:

0:00-5:04 Percussion Improv 1

5:05-10:56 Percussion Improv 2:

Music for Percussion Improv 1-3 (2020) available on my Patreon:

Percussion Improv 1: www.patreon.com/posts/percussion-1-43106609

Percussion Improv 2: www.patreon.com/posts/percussion-2-43107028

Percussion Improv 3: www.patreon.com/posts/percussion-3-43107209

An excerpt from Percussion Improv 2 is featured featured on this channel as a collaborative short video with the aerial performer Acro Mel: www.youtube.com/shorts/E8pXghHWOtI

Used by permission from the artist.

For more information on Acro Mel, please visit the following:

Website: www.acromel.ca/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/acro.mel/

Synth Mix (2017-2024)

7/24/2024

Music by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Coming soon to Patreon.

Photograph by the composer- Taken in New York City on July 1, 2024

Music created with reworked demo tracks using the following programs:

MidSequer 2 (app, discontinued)
edjing (app)
Audacity
Lexis Audio Editor (app)
CD-ROMantic (app)

"Reverse," "Reverb," and "Vaporwave Effect" applied

Not made with A.I.

Audiovisuals edited using YouCut: https://app.youcut.net/BestEditor

Variations on "La Folia" (2011-2012), First Version

7/21/2024

Music composed by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Theme under "Public Domain"

VST Playback via Finale

Photograph by the composer: taken at the Alcazar in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain in December 2023

Score available on Patreon: / variations-on-la-15017186

Audiovisuals edited using YouCut: https://app.youcut.net/BestEditor

Copyright © 2024 by ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC (ASCAP), Savannah, GA

Program Notes:

For centuries, composers have taken short musical themes, either original or borrowed, and experimented with ways of writing them differently. I find the "Theme and Variations" subgenre very intriguing because it opens up many creative possibilities. The theme for “Variations on ‘La Folia’” (2011-12) for piano comes from an ancient Portuguese tune, which roughly translates in English to “The Revelry.” Many illustrious composers have written variations on this theme through the ages: from Antonio Vivaldi to Sergei Rachmaninov.

When I began writing the “Variations on ‘La Folia’” in the summer of 2011,” I largely drew inspiration from the variations of the two composers mentioned above. My set of twelve variations is also deeply rooted in the music of nineteenth and twentieth century Spanish and French composers. Of course, I also wanted to strive for some originality with this piece. That is why the variations in my work are cyclical; they follow each other without much pause, unlike most "Theme and Variations" pieces that stop after each variation. Also, unlike previous “La Folia” variation pieces, I created a new set of variations for piano that balances musical technique and modern sounds without going to extremes on both ends. My Variations on "La Folia" can also be used as pedagical material for Piano students from the "Late-Intermediate" to ""Early-Advanced" levels because each variation addresses rapid piano playing and complex technical passages.

Elegy for the Planet Tyrr (2013-14)

7/21/2024

Music by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Copyright © 2024 by ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC (ASCAP), Savannah, GA

Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-red-pla...

Audiovisuals edited using YouCut: https://app.youcut.net/BestEditor

Jéssica Pacheco, piano

Recorded March 17, 2015 in Dancz Hall at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA

Score available on Patreon: https://bit.ly/2FBRiml

Program Notes:

In the summer of 2013, I began working on a new piano composition as an entry for the Barto Prize competition. Because this competition focused on literary works for inspiration, I wanted to choose a particular book that had not been musically overdone. As an avid reader of Science-Fiction, I decided to create a piece inspired by The Martian Chronicles (1948-1958, 1999) by American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). After reading through the original version of the book, I had initially intended to set “August 2026: ‘There will come soft rains” (the penultimate section of the book) to music. However, after considering how the inhabitants of Mars (which they referred to as Tyrr) had been exterminated by the human settlers due to greed and fear, I decided to write a piano piece from the perspective of the aliens.

Elegy for the Planet Tyrr (2013-14) is also one of the most challenging piano pieces that I have ever written. It is an atonal and experimental composition in one movement. The piece frequently features wide intervals (sevenths) to create a sense of tension in the work. It also incorporates the use of tone clusters (which the pianist performs with the fists) and playing the inside of the piano by gently scraping the strings back and forth with the fingernails.

The Great War (2014)

7/21/2024

For chamber ensemble and bass-baritone

Music composed by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

Copyright © 2024 by ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC (ASCAP), Savannah, GA

Features musical quotation from "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Public Domain)

Poem Text by Wilfred Owen (1893-1918, Public Domain)

Photo by British Library on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-o...

Audiovisuals edited using Audacity and YouCut.

Performers:

Victoria Bethel and Geoffery Wood, B-flat trumpets
Jacob Reeves, trombone
Christopher William Gurtcheff, tuba
John Cooper and Nicholas Lindell, violins
Christopher Williams, viola
Jacob Hood, cello
Washington Isaac Holmes, bass-baritone
Stephen Medlar, drum set
Joshua Todd Manuel, conductor

Recorded March 17, 2015 in Dancz Hall at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA

Tracks:

0:00-2:17 I. Fanfare of Premonition
2:18-4:19 II. Conflict
4:19-9:29 III. An Honorable Death (?)
9:30-13:03 IV. Resolution and Armistice

Program Notes:

I composed this cyclical four-movement work in 2014 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. Although the piece alludes to key events and developments (the assassinations of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, the evolution in combat through machine guns and poison gas, etc.), I did not intend for The Great War to serve as a historically accurate interpretation. Instead, I chose to create a reflection on the artistic reactions to World War I through music and poetry. Following this path, I drew inspiration from the Classical pieces of the time period (The Rite of Spring from 1911 by Igor Stravinsky [1882-1971] and the opera Wozzeck from 1917 to 1921 by Alban Berg [1885-1935]. I also included a musical quotation of the United States national anthem and elements from early jazz via the "Twelve-Bar Blues," which became popular by 1917.

The instrumentation in this piece changes by movement. The brass quartet represents the Axis Powers (mainly Germany), while the strings represent the Allied Powers. Throughout The Great War, the chamber ensemble gradually expands in instrumentation and sound (more like the last movement of the Haydn "Farewell" Symphony, only backwards). The drum set represents the combat used in World War I (bombs, machine guns, and poison gas).

The Great War also includes a musical setting of the poem “Dulce et decorum est ” (1917-1918[?]) by British poet and soldier Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) in the third movement entitled "An Honorable Death (?)" The text, scored for bass-baritone, depicts an unspecified account of a poison gas attack on a troop of Allied Infantry soldiers. The poem graphically describes the physical and mental effects of fighting after the unspecified speaker/singer recalls the death of one soldier (portrayed by the viola) by poison gas. He also comes to reject the Romanticized notion about combat. I find this poem bitterly ironic because Owen was killed in combat one month before the Armistice.

Piano Sonata (2020-2024)

7/8/2024

Music by Anthony L. Sanchez (b. 1988)

VST playback via Musescore 4

The full score to the Piano Sonata is now available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/106998124

Copyright © 2024 by ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC (ASCAP), Savannah, GA

Tracks:

First Movement 0:00-4:00
Second Movement 4:01-8:53
Third Movement 8:54-11:52

Audiovisuals edited using YouCut: https://app.youcut.net/BestEditor

Program Notes:

This large-scale solo work in three movements presents a postmodern approach to the piano sonata. I mostly adhere to a "sonata form" structure while also experimenting with contemporary harmonies and popular culture influences. When I began writing this piece in 2020, I originally wanted to create a set of preludes for piano. The more that I worked on writing the score as time went on, I realized that creating a piano sonata proved more appropriate.

I drew much inspiration from composers from the Classical era to more contemporary times. In creating the Piano Sonata, I sought to write a piece with both the performer and audience in mind. While I do incorporate moments with dissonance, all three movements follow modern approaches to tonality through tonal centers and are presented in a way that is still pleasing to the ears. In terms of influences outside of classical music, I especially drew rhythmic inspiration for the last movement from Latin American musical genres and video games, which enabled me to complete the sonata by incorporating a fast tempo and syncopation.