Holly Mead - Composer, Pianist

A brief interlude from all the Russo posts:

In March, I had the pleasure of assisting Minna Choi and the Magik*Magik crew with a livestream performance of Max Richter's "Recomposed" at the Merced Theater. Here is a tiny snippet from…

In Chapter 4, we explore small and large themes!

First, we will start with a motive (also called a motif, cell, or figure): a series of tones that are distinctive, but incomplete - usually 1-2 measures long. A small theme…

In the last part of Chapter 3, we learn about musical addition, subtraction, context, and subfigurations!

Addition & Subtraction

When you add tones (e.g. passing, neighboring, anticipation, ornamentation, and/or auxiliary tones) to an original theme, this is called Addition. When…

In the next part of chapter 3, we learn about different kinds of rhythmic transformation!

​​Rhythmic Transformation

Rhythmic Transformation: "a theme's rhythm is changed in order to vary it from previous statements."

Displacement: a phrase can be started on…

Chapter 3 is all about transformation. It details the different types of melodic transformation and rhythmic transformation - more tools to add to our composer tool box! Transformation is useful because it can stretch out ideas and give you more…

Passing Tones

Passing tones move by major or minor seconds between two chord tones that are a third apart.

Neighboring Tones

According to Russo, a neighbor tone is a non-chord tone that is a…

Mixed Progression

As a warm up for sabbatical times, I’ve decided to finish working my way through William Russo’s book Composing Music before 6/1. It’s been a great primer so far and will be fun for my students too!

​In…

A wintertime collaboration retrospective

Before I wholly dedicate myself to sabbatical prep, I wanted to share the fruits of a fun side collaboration (Twilight Fox™) with my friend Vincent Favilla. Vince wears many hats - psych professor, programmer, artist, musician…

For those of you who expressed interest in the nuts and bolts of my learning journey, I've provided a general outline for the current vision below. And if you are a joyfully curious composer who would like to work through…

In lieu of grad school, I have decided to embark on a DIY deep dive into the study of composition and orchestration. In order to carve out large blocks of time for uninterrupted learning and creating, I am taking a…

Diatonic Triads

The Russo saga continues...

King Edrevol is so moved by your musical performance with Ceridwen that he has to wipe away a tear before clapping. You think he is awfully sensitive for someone with a bloodstained reputation, but…

​O Ignee Spiritus (O Fiery Spirit)

In May of 2019, I gave a talk/performance at Pixar Animation Studios about nine extraordinary women composers and their music, and the first composer I introduced was Hildegard Of Bingen. Here is a partial…