Reposted by David McMullinHan-earl Park @hanearlpark.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I leave it to the enterprising to tab this one out. (Heads-up: I don’t tune to EADGBE.) 001
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Now on Bandcamp and Mirlo: Crossings, my quartet for unpitched percussion, performed (live) by Talujon: davidmcmullin.bandcamp.com/album/crossi... mirlo.space/david-mcmull...davidmcmullin.bandcamp.comCrossings, by David McMullin1 track album 153
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 19/07/2026As I slowly get my music onto platforms where you can hear it, here are my Li Bai Songs, settings in Mandarin of Tang dynasty poetry, for baritone, violin and guitar: davidmcmullin.bandcamp.com/album/li-bai...davidmcmullin.bandcamp.comLi Bai Songs, by David McMullin6 track album 152
Reposted by David McMullingarybutler.bsky.social @garybutler.bsky.social · 17/07/2026www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgAI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensiveThere’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s, that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Alt... 043
Reposted by David McMullinBurning Ambulance @burningambulance.bsky.social · 10/07/2026Thinking about what Muddy Waters said to the Art Ensemble of Chicago after watching them perform at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival (possibly the performance recorded for Bap-Tizum): "I don't know what y'all was doin', but y'all was *doin' it!*" 0242
Reposted by David McMullinHaden Plouffe, composer/pianist/rambler @haydnpuff.bsky.social · 07/06/2026Always: 2296128
Reposted by David McMullinkate wehwalt @katewagner.wehwalt.net · 11/05/2026If anyone has any suggestions for support groups that are not on reddit I would love to hear them. Re CFS I’d like to talk to people who have recovered also. (I don’t buy the idea that no one recovers from it) 4262
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Question for harp players: At quarter-note = 44, how hard is it to make all the pedal changes in this passage? Is there a way of notating it to make it easier? Or if not, if I have to leave out or change some notes, which ones are causing the most trouble? Thank you! #Harp #NewMusic 242
Reposted by David McMullin🌅 Patricia Wallinga 🌇 @pwallinga.bsky.social · 25/10/2025I believe that 80% of all potential problems in new music are the composer's fault, and I work my ass off to fix those 80% before they end up in anyone's hands, but by god I'll hold my ground on that 20% and I've regretted every time I didn't. 1212
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 06/09/2025It turns out there are people out there who dedicate their lives to developing the tremendous skills and sensitivity it takes to make beautiful music out of dots on paper. I don’t have the discipline to do what they do, so instead I make dots on paper for them. 1172
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 28/08/2025Question for string players: What’s the clearest, most efficient way to indicate to a string section that a long held note should be played as if continuously, changing bow direction as necessary, but as subtly as possible, without everyone rearticulating together? 310
Reposted by David McMullinDavid Howl @shinydh.bsky.social · 25/08/2025And now I'm halfway through my sixth year of the outside world seeming like a massive threat - oh, because it is - and my world becoming very small as a result. #StillCoviding #FiveYearsOn 083
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 08/08/2025“We belong to one another and at the heart of all our catastrophes is a crisis of love: of ourselves, of one another as ourselves and of the Divine.” 131
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 01/08/2025Many thanks to the one brave soul (it was @muz4now.com) who found my Bandcamp page and dropped some coins in the hat there! I don’t have a lot there yet, but what I do have is all name-your-price, i.e. free if you wish. So if you too are curious, help yourself: davidmcmullin.bandcamp.comdavidmcmullin.bandcamp.comDavid McMullin 074
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 29/07/2025There’s one little run in the rosary choral piece I’m composing that resembles other music just enough, in melodic contour, tempo, rhythm, accentuation pattern, and rhyme, that every time I get there my mind consistently supplies the wrong words… 111
Reposted by David McMullinJoshua Kosman @joshuakosman.bsky.social · 28/05/2025New post at On a Pacific Aisle, with thoughts on the beginning of Esa-Pekka Salonen's last lap in San Francisco. pacificaisle.substack.com/p/the-beginn...pacificaisle.substack.comThe beginning of the endA superb rendition of Stravinsky's "Firebird" began the final chapter of Esa-Pekka Salonen's San Francisco tenure 184
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 28/05/2025The other day I made it to the end of part 1 (of 5, after an introduction) of the choral-orchestral piece I started a little over 5 years ago. 120
Reposted by David McMullinDavid McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 07/03/2025Whenever I see “proslambanomenos” I hear it sung as a solo break for the bass in an a cappella doowop arrangement. As Boethius surely intended. 131
Reposted by David McMullinStan Stewart (muz4now) @muz4now.com · 13/05/2025"Requiem for a Stranger" was my opus in 2021 - you know what was happening then #grief #StrangerRequiem #NowPlayingmuz4now.comRequiem for a Stranger #StrangerRequiem #NowPlayingStan Stewart - @muz4now 052
Reposted by David McMullinMike @professorberry.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Some day people are going to wake up and realize that the arts are not valuable because they make you better at math and science--THEY ARE GOOD ON THEIR OWN MERITS and teach kids skills that are far more useful in their daily lives: empathy, cooperation, listening... 3111
Reposted by David McMullin12tone @12tone.nebula.tv · 13/05/2025Are there cool uses for genAI in art? In theory! Do I have any interest in finding them or seeing other people try to find them? Not at the moment! My decision to view all "AI art" as bad without reservation or qualification is a tactical one, to protect a thing I love from people trying to kill it. 37810
Reposted by David McMullinMario Godoy @godoymusic.com · 11/03/2025I have some scores available on Bandcamp! Haven't had much success with it, but it's there for when I need it to be. 011
Reposted by David McMullinDr. Garrett Schumann @garrt.bsky.social · 07/03/2025FINALLY listening to @willmasonmusic.com's super cool new album, which I would also recommend for your @bandcamp.com Friday explorations today newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/hemloc...newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.comHemlocks, Peacocks, by Will Mason Quartet7 track album 1193
Reposted by David McMullinC. René Hirschfeld @hirschfeldcomposer.bsky.social · 10/03/2025In 2003 my Sonett V for #piano and #percussion was released at collegno label. Now there is a new recording of the same work played by Ragna Schirmer and Matthias Daneck out on Berlin Classics ! Thank you Ragna! www.col-legno.com/en/shop/2021... www.jpc.de/jpcng/classi... #contemporarymusiccol-legno.comRené Hirschfeld - Wandlungen, available via col legno - New colors of musicSensual musical language: From an English sonnet without words for piano and percussion to a suite for harp and percussion based on Shakespeare. 022
Reposted by David McMullinJessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 10/03/2025Ok. Little chat. As we are hitting the 5 year anniversary of Covid lockdowns beginning in 2020, as someone who is permanently disabled by Long Covid, here’s what I’d *love* to see when people talk about the ongoing pandemic and how it effects them: 1597207
Reposted by David McMullinChris Hutchings #ChoirsForClimate @hutchingsmusic.bsky.social · 07/03/2025An Irish guy called Anselm McDonnell is doing this: don't think he's on Bluesky though. anselmmcdonnell.bandcamp.com/merchanselmmcdonnell.bandcamp.comMerch from Anselm McDonnellMerch from Anselm McDonnell 111
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 07/03/2025Bandcamp Friday has me wondering: Have any composers here tried distributing or selling scores and parts as “merch” on bandcamp (or faircamp/mirlo/jamcoop/bandwagon/etc)? 733
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 03/03/2025When I hear “content” I think: The bottle exists to carry the wine. The wine does not exist to fill the bottle. 041
Reposted by David McMullinChris Dwan (he/him) @somershade.bsky.social · 03/03/2025A friend recently mentioned to me that they had seen a D&D style alignment matrix for Boston area intersections. I find myself fascinated by this, and it's late and I'm a bit of a wreck, so here we go in no particular order and with no promises of completeness. 1/? 910433
Reposted by David McMullinJudd Greenstein @juddgreenstein.bsky.social · 28/02/2025Everyone tip double at Veselka tonight 1183
Reposted by David McMullinBurning Ambulance @burningambulance.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Today's BA newsletter includes a major announcement: WE'RE RELEASING A CECIL TAYLOR ALBUM. More details, some other cool news, and some interesting links for paying subscribers, within. Read, share, subscribe! burningambulance.substack.com/p/links-n-su...burningambulance.substack.comLinks 'n' Such: February 21, 2025Plus, an announcement about two new CDs from our label 2323
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 19/02/2025#Violin players, please help me out: Is this playable? Tempo is quarter-note = 68. And is it the good kind of challenging, or is it the curse-the-jerk-who-wrote-this kind of challenging? 321
Reposted by David McMullinJen Wang @jenwang.com · 06/02/2025Update on my life: Last year, I joined my kids' school's PTA, because they needed a treasurer and I'm good enough with numbers. It was a straightforward, self-contained job: balancing the checkbook for an organization that only did a few fundraisers each year. 381149212
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 23/01/2025A milestone I missed when it happened: sometime in the last few months, my work in progress (The Luminous Mysteries, setting all the prayers of the rosary for chorus and orchestra) became the longest composition I have written. #composing 120
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 11/12/2024I often think about how Mendelssohn had a society for historical music that played pieces by Bach that were then only about 75 years old. A similar group today could do Stockhausen, Babbitt, Xenakis… 2100
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 06/12/2024Any #oboe players out there? Here’s a piece waiting to be premiered, played beautifully in this demo recording by Jennifer Slowik: davidmcmullin.bandcamp.com/track/votive More info and PDF score here: david-mcmullin.com/compositions...davidmcmullin.bandcamp.com 041
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 04/12/2024Addendum: This approach is specifically for your artistic growth only. For marketing and promotion, the opposite applies: for that it’s best to be known as the composer who reliably does some one recognizable thing. Even better if you can pass that thing off as a new -ism and yourself as a founder. 150
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 29/11/2024The one I’m most proud of right now isn’t finished yet, but here’s another. This is quite different from most of my music, so it’s not very representative, but that’s part of why I like it. makertube.net/w/e47idZD55K...makertube.netAnother SunAnother Sun — solo piano — 2018 — 9 minutes David McMullin, composer Jon Sakata, piano Another Sun is dedicated to Dr. Ferdinando Buonanno, a great friend and mentor who has long been an inspiratio... 271
Reposted by David McMullinDr. Kendra Preston Leonard (she/her) @kleonardphd.bsky.social · 28/11/2024Brilliant bread 0241
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 27/11/2024Recent discussion of composers who always sound like themselves, and the thing going around about 5 pieces to understand your style, have got me thinking again about what it means for a composer to have a personal voice, a style. I presume that I do have these—but I don’t want to know about them. 220
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 27/11/2024This is harder than it sounds. A lot of music I love doesn’t really help understand my style. But here goes: 1. Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time 2. Mingus, What Love 3. Coltrane, Alabama 4. Bruckner, Locus Iste 5. Imbrie, Pilgrimage 1100
Reposted by David McMullinvijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Please consider musicians when you listen to music. 221371
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 21/11/2024Since there seem to be a lot of choral people popping up recently, here’s some original choral music. Magnificat, for unaccompanied choir, was written for the New York Virtuoso Singers in 2000. makertube.net/w/g8g2EdzKFy... #choral #music #ContemporaryMusic #ClassicalMusicmakertube.netMagnificatMagnificat, for unaccompanied choir — 2000 — 7 minutes composed by David McMullin Dedicated to the loving memory of my great-aunt Dorothy McMullin, Sister of Mercy (1904-1999), whose love of God, ... 292
David McMullin @mcmullin.bsky.social · 19/11/2024Quick question about the mechanics here: if you reply to someone else’s reply in a larger conversation, does everyone upstream get tagged/notified, or just the person you’re directly replying to? 100
Reposted by David McMullineileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 11/11/2024The vital importance of immigrants to a democracy is not just as sources of cheap labor, population replenishment, or as conveyors of culture, capital, & skills (‘good immigrants’), but because immigrants fight for–and model for everyone–the right to have rights. Thank you, Wong Kim Ark. 6/6 171327217