It's hard to put a label on Chris Misch-Bloxdorf's music. Drawing on experiences that have included everything from big bands and heavy metal orchestras to brass quintets and hip-hop collectives, Chris's voice as both a composer and trombonist is all his own. We know you'll love listening to his Blinded By Silver Lines as much as we love playing it.
What inspired your piece?
Mainly writing for y'all. I didn't have a specific thought when I began writing this piece, but I really liked the instrumentation and knew that whatever I wrote would be executed extremely well by the quartet, which, for a composer, feels freeing. My influence typically comes from a variety of things such as what I am listening to at the time, whatever happens to be my head space during the process, and, for this piece, spending lots of afternoons watching the sunset and the leaves change color in Prospect Park. In addition to that, I have a "bad" habit of writing pieces in very obvious sections and was attempting to use several themes as connective tissue throughout the piece, which still came out with specific sections, but overall I think worked.
How did this inspiration influence the compositional process for you?
I suppose trying to naturally arrive at new sections was a goal of mine. I did that by listening to the midi file too many times. If I felt that a section sounded underdeveloped when I wasn't looking at the musical notation, then I would try to figure out why. I was also just really into how awesome these four instruments blend together. So many options for interesting timbres, which is something that really excites me. The song title is a play on the phrase "Every cloud has a silver lining", which is important to me because I try to live my life with ever persevering optimism. Unfortunately, staring at the silver lining of clouds can make you temporarily blind to the world around you, which is something I'm trying to figure out in my life as I grow and develop. Honestly it's often difficult for me to pinpoint a direct influence. In one of his songs my friend Rory answers the question, "How do you write songs in so little time?", by saying "...I spent my whole life working on this...my whole life is spent." I really connect with that.
Is there any aspect of the piece that you felt was specifically suited for Slipstream?
Kind of the entire thing. The constant flux of eighth note driven rhythmic ideas is only succesful with four instruments and instrumentalists that are able to accomplish it in a flowing and relaxed manner. I really wanted to write something that was pretty for Slipstream but also energetic and exciting. This often led to long flowing melodies on top of a bed of rhythmic counterpoint.
What inspired your piece?
Mainly writing for y'all. I didn't have a specific thought when I began writing this piece, but I really liked the instrumentation and knew that whatever I wrote would be executed extremely well by the quartet, which, for a composer, feels freeing. My influence typically comes from a variety of things such as what I am listening to at the time, whatever happens to be my head space during the process, and, for this piece, spending lots of afternoons watching the sunset and the leaves change color in Prospect Park. In addition to that, I have a "bad" habit of writing pieces in very obvious sections and was attempting to use several themes as connective tissue throughout the piece, which still came out with specific sections, but overall I think worked.
How did this inspiration influence the compositional process for you?
I suppose trying to naturally arrive at new sections was a goal of mine. I did that by listening to the midi file too many times. If I felt that a section sounded underdeveloped when I wasn't looking at the musical notation, then I would try to figure out why. I was also just really into how awesome these four instruments blend together. So many options for interesting timbres, which is something that really excites me. The song title is a play on the phrase "Every cloud has a silver lining", which is important to me because I try to live my life with ever persevering optimism. Unfortunately, staring at the silver lining of clouds can make you temporarily blind to the world around you, which is something I'm trying to figure out in my life as I grow and develop. Honestly it's often difficult for me to pinpoint a direct influence. In one of his songs my friend Rory answers the question, "How do you write songs in so little time?", by saying "...I spent my whole life working on this...my whole life is spent." I really connect with that.
Is there any aspect of the piece that you felt was specifically suited for Slipstream?
Kind of the entire thing. The constant flux of eighth note driven rhythmic ideas is only succesful with four instruments and instrumentalists that are able to accomplish it in a flowing and relaxed manner. I really wanted to write something that was pretty for Slipstream but also energetic and exciting. This often led to long flowing melodies on top of a bed of rhythmic counterpoint.