As the title suggests, each song is a musical painting depicting a certain mood or event.

15 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Virtual Orchestra, ROCK: Progressive Rock



Details:
PROGRAM MUSIC - Virtual Orchestra-Electronica

Music inspired by a program, i.e., a nonmusical idea, which is usually indicated in the title and sometimes described in explanatory remarks or a preface. Thus, program music is the opposite of absolute music. Although examples of program music are found in nearly all periods from at least the 14th century, it was not until the 19th century that it became a serious rival of absolute music, to the point of ousting the latter-at least temporarily-from its dominating position. About 1900, many persons, particularly writers on music, believed that in order to be understandable music must âexpress somethingâ or âtell a story." Today such views are a thing of the past, and it is generally agreed that music is an art in its own right, that it must work with its own tools, and that too great a reliance on outside program will weaken rather than enhance a compositions artistic merit. In fact, one cannot help feeling that a good deal of the interest of composers in program music is owing to a lack of purely musical imagination, a lack for which they try to compensate with an interesting program. In the last analysis, there are two types of program music: music that is good regardless of the program, and music that is mediocre or poor although it is a skillful rendition of the program. In the history of program music, a general trend from the pictorial (objective) to the psychological (subjective) approach can be observed. Prior to 1600, composers limited themselves to imitating natural sounds (birds, battle cries, thunder, trumpet fanfares, etc.), bodily movements (flight, running,hobbling,throwing,falling,stopping), and words closely associated with movement (e.g., heaven=high; death=fall). Beginning in the 17th century, basic emotions or feelings were "translated" into music through associated movements or sounds. Thus, anguish is portrayed by a trembling or staggering motion, confidence by a secure and wide step, joy by a melody reminiscent of laughter, sorrow by descending steps in chromatic succession, etc. These examples illustrate the two basic methods of program music, imitation of sounds and imitation of movements, each used directly or indirectly by way of association.

Craig's roots lie in serious classical training with one of his earliest performances of Samuel Barbers Piano Sonata earning him the Honor Award from the Detroit Musicians League. He also has a Bachelors Degree in Music Composition from Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan. After many years of performing classical and mainstream venues Craig left Detroit and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. In his first few years in L.A. Craig kept busy freelancing various jobs including some film scoring and transcribing music for such artists as Wendy Carlos and Eddie Jobson. Eventually he landed a job as chief studio engineer at 2KSounds who were affiliated with E.M.I. and Virgin Records. Here he worked with an array of artists from Folk to Rap including Glen Campbell, Randy Bachman and Michael Narada Walden. He left 2KSounds and started his own record label, Random Arch Music where he keeps busy producing his own as well as other artists CD's. Make sure to check out Craig's Christmas CD,"Do You Hear What I Hear?" an eclectic synth Christmas, and his other CD's as well.