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Musical Background | My Compositions | Popular Tunes | Covers | Favorites | Equipment List
John P. Willis
Opinions presented here are held in all of my roles and capacities, both personal and professional. Summary
Social NetworkingDiaspora*Mastodon OrganizationsThe GNU ProjectThe Free Software Foundation American Civil Liberties Union Computers & ProgrammingProgramming Languages I KnowGreatest Common Divisor in 19 Languages Microcomputer OS History UNIX Tricks The Datashed (personal datacenter) Computer Collection ChivaNet Internet Services The VAX Pirate's Lair (my old website, ca. 2002) YOUNGMUMPSTER (my tech blog) GitLab GitHub GCC OS Test Macros GenealogyGenealogy HomeEnglish Notable Kin Scottish Notable Kin HobbiesMusicTelephones & PBX Other SitesPollsGeek Code-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS/E/G/H/IT/L/MU/P/SS d-- s+: a+ C++++ UBLAVHS++++$ P+ L++ E++ W+++$ N+ o? K- w++ O+++ M V+++>$ PS+++ PE-- Y+ !PGP t+++ !5 !X R tv b+++ DI++ D--- G e h---- r+++ x++++ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ Site InfoThis site is hosted on a Sun SPARCserver 20 running Apache 2.2, Perl 5, and a home-built CMS. RSS feed generation is done with a BASH script I have implemented, called Syndicator. This site contains no JavaScript, no CSS, and should render in any HTML 2.0-compliant browser. |
Musical BackgroundI began playing the piano by ear at the age of three, and began lessons with Jessica Woodul from the ages of five until approximately the age of fourteen. Ms. Woodul, my first and favorite teacher, felt at this time that I had progressed to the limits of her teaching abilities, and referred me to further lessons with Dr. William Leland at New Mexico State University. Dr. Leland was a very capable teacher and profoundly talented pianist, but there was some degree of personal incompatibility between us, most of which derived from my own lack of drive. In 1996, I began lessons with Dr. Stefan Bardas, who had himself studied under such prestigious pianists as Artur Schnabel. Dr. Bardas was a talented and challenging teacher, especially when it came to his deep knowledge of Beethoven, whose 32 piano sonatas he was widely known for performing in their entirety in a seven-concert cycle. An interesting bit of trivia surrounding Dr. Stefan Bardas is that through him, I can trace my musical lineage back to Ludwig van Beethoven:
I also provided piano accompaniment at University Presbyterian Church and First Evangelical Free Church in Las Cruces, NM for a number of years, as well as providing incidental music for real estate showcases, and playing full junior and senior recitals. My junior recital, at the Thomas Branigan Cultural Center in Las Cruces, NM, was standing room only, having attendance in excess of the building's rated capacity, and featured advanced works from Mozart, Scriabin, Chopin, Bach, and others. I had an opportunity to study abroad with Alfred Brendel, but rejected it, as the concert piano circuit was never my own professional or personal interest. Music remains an enjoyable avocation for me, and I also play guitar, flute, clarinet, and drums, as well as retaining an interest in multitrack recording. Most recently, I provided piano accompaniment for a circus event at College Heights Kindergarten in Las Cruces, NM, which involved the re-scoring of 15-plus musical arrangements.
My CompositionsThese are compositions I have created from early childhood to the present. They are presented here in several formats.
Popular TunesThese are pop tunes I've created.
CoversThese are pieces of music that I've covered and recorded.
Favorites
*If possible, please refrain from using MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) files. The MP3 format is encumbered by fascist software patents, and owned by Fraunhofer IIS, a known patent troll. The Ogg Vorbis format provides better quality, better compression characteristics, and is a free (as in speech) format. 1Alligator Munch-Lunch was inspired by the Alligator In My Room sketch from Sesame Street, and won second place in the elementary division for the 1988 New Mexico Music Teacher's Association Composition Contest. 2March was used in the WERC/TV Earth production of Captain Polymer and the Colloid Caper, a student-led animated environmental cartoon and documentary produced on Commodore Amiga computers running NewTek Video Toaster and Deluxe Paint IV in the summer of 1992, under the direction of Barbara Powell, Darrell Leland, and David King. Six area students--myself included--were selected to participate. 3Siamo Amici is an aria for Paola e Rudolfo, an aborted opera project I was working on. The librettist was a certain Stefanie Castellano, a music major. It is roughly an exchange in which the antagonist is making fun of the protagonist's exceptionally large forehead. Long and short, they make up and decide to become friends. The middle section (beginning with caro Rudolfo, non potete videre...), was intended for an alto. Having none available, I had to sing it myself. My voice is terrible, I know. |
$Log: index.shtml,v $ Revision 1.26 2021/11/10 13:20:33 jpw Add link to equipment list Revision 1.25 2021/01/31 15:16:18 jpw Correct spelling errors. Revision 1.24 2021/01/04 02:23:13 jpw Add lineage to Beethoven Revision 1.23 2020/01/30 15:04:06 jpw Add Love Reminds Me mp3 reference Revision 1.22 2019/10/07 17:09:22 jpw Add Chorizo Song and Beginning Revision 1.21 2019/09/17 14:15:41 jpw Further expansion Revision 1.20 2019/09/17 03:41:29 jpw Expand popular tunes section Revision 1.19 2019/09/05 00:48:39 jpw Add license Revision 1.18 2019/09/05 00:27:28 jpw Fix more formatting problems Revision 1.17 2019/09/05 00:25:39 jpw Fix various formatting problems Revision 1.16 2019/09/05 00:24:34 jpw Add Ogg Vorbis files Revision 1.15 2019/09/04 19:33:22 jpw Add covers Revision 1.14 2019/09/03 15:28:42 jpw Add Favorites section Revision 1.13 2019/09/03 03:02:12 jpw Fix sidebar Revision 1.12 2019/09/03 03:01:25 jpw Add sidebar Revision 1.11 2019/08/29 16:04:57 jpw Fix TITLE tag Revision 1.10 2019/05/31 02:59:09 jpw Fix broken links for LPF Revision 1.9 2019/05/31 02:57:14 jpw Add popular tunes Revision 1.8 2019/05/29 01:12:11 jpw Add Siamo Amici score and MIDI file Revision 1.7 2019/05/28 21:53:39 jpw Add Presentation to the King of Gogubozxk links Revision 1.6 2019/05/28 21:07:27 jpw Add musical background section, teacher photos, nav links Revision 1.5 2019/05/28 16:45:03 jpw Add "The Andro Singer" links Revision 1.4 2019/05/28 16:09:32 jpw Fix footnote formatting Revision 1.3 2019/05/28 16:08:23 jpw Expand footnote for Siamo Amici Revision 1.2 2019/05/28 15:59:48 jpw Add Siamo Amici MP3 link and footnote Revision 1.1 2019/05/28 15:41:49 jpw Initial revision
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