"The Art of Richard O. Burdick" is an echo of the first album I ever owned: "The art of Dennis Brain."
I almost titled this "More of Burdick's Brass" since this album has two works for six brass instruments.
This recording presents two brass ensemble sextets by Richard O. Burdick and his work for two horns and 'cello
From the Composer:
RB: "This recording marks a big step forward for me, but it also marks a time that was potentially the most disastrous in my life. I had a string of hardships starting in late August. My Son Oscar moved out to his room to his own place, and we found bed bugs; ugh!, My cat got stuck up a tree for 25 hours before the tree cutters came and rescued him, but worst of all my computer crashed and took down my main drive and the back-up. I have recovered almost everything, and am now backing up much more. But the sound I had in my recordings will never be the same.
In this time of crash and rebuild, I have changed my microphone set-up from the eight mics I was using to the best sounding for mics. This means every track I record is recorded to two stereo track. I think it's a better sound quality. Some only plug-in to Digital performer have been lost; the strangest loss is "Au-Peak Limiter" a little plug in the limits the top end of the sound if it gets too loud; an item that should be part of Apple's system . . .
I think the video I did for "Music in the Mountains" was very successful. I recorded this in June of 2020 during the shut-down I can still find this on the web: Richard Burdick's The Wind in the Woods & Fanfare for Symphonic Brass and Percussion, Op. 192 (2018)
The group "Music in the Mountains" that I call "my summer festival" is a wonderful series of concerts late June each Summer in Grass Valley California. I have been performing with them since 1992 and have been principal horn for a while now."
About the Music:
The brass pieces on this CD are all performed by Richard. In the program "Digital Performer." For the trumpet part, he recorded this on horn, but an octave low, then with the plug-in "Spectral effects" he transposed it up one octave and 11 point into the bright spectrum. For the trombone and tuba, he recorded them an octave high and the transposed them down an octave. Trombone was put 1 point into the bright, and tuba was 12 points into the warm.
In the process of creating demo's for his works I was using the "Sibelius Sounds" from the Sibelius music notation program. These recordings I considered "demo's" recording versions that were subtable for getting a sense of what the work should sound like, but the brass parts were the only ones that were "real" instruments. I now have a set of the "SWAM" instruments (The SWAM engine combines concepts of Physical Modeling and Behavioral Modeling with the Multi-Vector/Phase-Synchronous Sample-Morphing technique.) SWAM is a computer generated sound that I control with a piano key board and a breath controller. The breath helps make the instrument sound real because I can give the notes length, internal shape, volume and much more that we take for-granted in traditional instruments. It is amazing, and the cello in the trio opus 236 is done with SWAM. To me it isn't quite real, but it is way better than my demo's!
My absolutely HEAR-resistible work: The Wind in the Woods & Fanfare, Op. 192 for Symphonic Brass and Percussion which was released on C49 is similar to the large work on this CD: I Ching Elements, Op. 194a for brass sextet Opus 194a:
I Ching Elements (brass version)
for pairs of trumpets, horns and trombones (opus 194a)
There are eight movements in this work:
No. 1 Projective (+, +, +) in F
No. 2 Lake (+,+,-) in G (on Brahms Symphony No. 1)
No. 3 Fire (+,-,+) in A
No. 4 Thunder (+, -, -) in G
No. 5 Receptive (-,-,-) in C
No. 6 Mountain in Bb (-,-,+)
No. 7 Wood (-,+,-) in B
No. 8 Wind (-,+,+) in E
Opus 236:
The Obvious for 2 natural horns and 'cello Written from November 21, 2017 - March 19, 2018 "When I arrive at a place where I think "I just can't do that", and I do it, I feel I have successfully made music."
"As I prepared to write my large work:The MindSet, Op. 242 I am got ready in steps. at least this step, when I wrote this I was thinking about a CD release of music for two horns and 'cello; there is actually quite a bit of music for this trio. This music is based on the I Ching Hexagram (scale etc.) that is tuned to the "Genius Brain Frequency" of 80-82 MHz This is my number 58-11."
This music is based on the I Ching Hexagram (scale etc.) that is tuned to the "Genius Brain Frequency" of 80-82 MHz This is my number 58-11
Opus 118:
Horn Concerto No. 3, Op. 118 was written by Richard Burdick in the fall of 1998. This was written with the natural horn in mind as the soloist. The natural horn is quite a soft instrument the way it was played as a “hand horn” in the classical and romantic era. This quiet instrument made it very difficult for the accompanying brass instruments to play. So the final version is for modern valve horn with brass quintet. There is also a version for horn with string orchestra (Op. 118a), and a version for trumpet with wind quintet (Op. 118b). Really this work is best for the original brass ensemble. With the brass, it’s easier to hear the intertwine lines in the different parts.
Cover Photo : three different photos (Flowers, Lodge in Western Glacier National Park and the Oregon Coastline) mixed by R Burdick, taken by R. Burdick
About the Performer:
Richard Burdick as a musician:
French hornist: Richard O. Burdick is the first horn of Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Regina Symphony Chamber Players in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is a prolific composer.
His move to Canada in 2003, with his wife Rebecca and his two boys, marked the start of the fourth major period in his musical Career.
In the 1980’s Richard was first Horn of Napa Symphony, a member of a San Francisco based theater orchestra and played lots of chamber music as manager of Trinity Chamber Concerts, a chamber music series in Berkeley California.
Starting in 1990 he played fourth Horn full-time for Sacramento Symphony, which went bankrupt in 1996. He then won auditions for Fresno Philharmonic, Napa & North State Symphonies and played in Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera.
He is a prolific composer and has many self produced CD’s of his own compositions, Bach, his classical natural horn playing and multi-track performances of many of his favorite pieces.
He performs on a variety of horns, a baroque natural horn (1720), a classical era natural horn (1800), a romantic era (1840's) natural horn, a single F horn from the 1880's, his main symphony horn is a Brendan Model Finke triple horn.
He has also done many music related jobs such as arranger for Sacramento Symphony, librarian and personal manager for Sacramento Philharmonic, and manager of Trinity Chamber Concerts (chamber music series) in Berkeley, California for 19 years starting in 1984.
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