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Chris
Wright's
Music

My Music / My Website / What They're Saying

My Music

In the mid-90's, I visited my sister in Texas. My nephew and nieces (then ages 16-18) were on the couch listening to Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven'. I asked them, "Why are you listening to that? I listened to that in college 25 years ago." Their answer - "Because there's no good music these days." I know the feeling. Commercial radio, once a source of joy and discovery, is now a wasteland.

It was then that I decided to get more serious about writing music.

I am influenced by the career and creative pattern of the Dutch artist Vermeer. Claude Monet dashed off canvases by the thousands, but Vermeer only produced 84 paintings in his entire career. Each one took enormous thought and was meticulously done.

Similarly, I agonize over something for 6 months just to produce 8 minutes of music. Don't expect a large output from me, but do expect inventive, uncategorizable music unlike anyone else's, crafted to the highest standards.

I grew up in a household where classical music was always on the turntable. I started listening to Top 40 radio in 1960 at the age of 6 (I had a 'Transistor Sister' playing her radio). My music is the product of many influences, but always lyrical. I'm a melodist - I get tunes. Not every composer does.

What to call my music - electronica? intelligent pop? new classical? crossover? You could say it's somewhere between classical and pop, but it's all a big adventure to me.

Here are some of the composers and musicians who have influenced my work -

FIND CD'S HERE - LISTEN TO SAMPLES

Gregorian Chant - You can take the boy out of the church, but you can't take the church out of the boy!

Bach - The Great Master. Every time I turn around, he's there. Counterpoint.

Chopin - Idiomatic writing for the instrument, orchestral completeness.

Faure - Lyricism, long melodic lines, elegance.

Granados, Nightnoise - Inventive use of folk elements.

Peter, Paul & Mary, John Renbourn - Performance values.

Stéphane Grappelli - Inventiveness, immediately recognizable individual voice, elegance, consummate good taste.

Ella Fitzgerald, the young Frank Sinatra, Huong Lan (only available at Vietnamese shops), Jascha Heifetz - Phrasing, articulation, control.

P.F.M., Renaissance, Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McLaughlin) - 1970's artrock, crossover, fusion.

Gershwin - Youthful exuberance, crossover, autodidact, contrapuntal layering.

Beatles, Moody Blues, Acoustic Alchemy (Nick Webb), Stevie Wonder,
Dan Fogelberg - Geniuses all.

And last, but not least, John Eaton, the best music teacher I ever had. He is a talented performer, popular entertainer, and lecturer at the Smithsonian. Piano technique is the least of what he taught me. Now that I have moved on to composing on synthesizer, his lessons about musical values are what endure. He taught me about emotional impact, the balance between precision and expressiveness, the compression of expression ('classicism' - not wasting notes), and producing a singing tone from the instrument.

My Website

I started this website in 2003 to appeal to people like me who are not boxed in by categories and labels but, instead, like music that crosses genres and boundaries. The site endeavors to help you discover great music that might otherwise escape your notice and to bring you the most compelling stories in music, regardless of era or geographic location.

What They're Saying

My Music - Dreamanicity (sample) / Find it here

"I really enjoyed how it takes you on a journey. There is a lot of motion and diversity of sound. I also enjoyed the fact that it was not predictable at all in where it went -- which was very refreshing to hear!"
- Grammy winner, Washington State

My Website -

"I've watched your website develop and seen how far it's come. There's a density and richness to it now, especially with the way you've integrated Amazon links throughout. It's primo, magnificent."
- Sedona, Arizona

Recognition -

	March 2008 - My music The Light Still Shines went into rotation on Generally Gentle Radio.
	October 2007 - Preeminent American composer William Bolcom has placed my 2005 interview with him on his website. As he wrote me at the time, "It looks VERY GOOD - one of the best articles on me so far."
	January 20006 - my series on Stéphane Grappellii was featured on Jazzlinks Network
	August 2005 - my profile of Yo-Yo Ma was selected for the Cello.JamNews directory

	November 2004 - named Website of the Week by Roots, the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin - Barron County
	2003 - 2007 - my series on Jascha Heifetz was featured on ViolinMP3. com, the former web home of English violinist Simon Hewitt Jones

Order through these links and AdventuresInMusic.biz
receives a commission on anything you buy
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Order through these links and AdventuresInMusic.biz
receives a commission on anything you buy
at no extra charge to you.

Order through these links and AdventuresInMusic.biz
receives a commission on anything you buy
at no extra charge to you.

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