I have three albums available on various streaming services. Search for "Daniel R. Mitchell"
The compositions with links on them can be downloaded and played with any MP3 compatible player.
Right click on the links and select Save Target As... (or whatever the appropriate function is in your browser)
or just click on the link to download/play.
In 2007/8 I created my own software sythesis system and published a book describing the process.
My compositions have been created with
BasicSynth since that time.
For traditional score notation, I sometimes use MuseScore,
and sometimes LilyPond. The "Score" links download the PDF files.
The music is Copyright by Daniel R. Mitchell. You are given a license to download/play the music for personal
use without charge. This music is registered with SoundExchange for commercial broadcasters or other
streaming providers who want to play the music.
Music created using electronic "tapping" sounds, i.e. with short attack and no sustain. Each tap uses the same timbres,
in different registers, mostly limited to six voices, creating an ensemble of tap-like instruments.
For Baritone and piano. The text is from Robert Heinlein's novel
Time Enough For Love. It hasn't been performed, but I used the synthesizer to play it with voice sounds.
For SATB choir, this was composed in Spring 1981. I was working on it my last semester
of study with Merrill Ellis. It hasn't been performed, but I used the synthesizer to play it with voice sounds.
Traveling across the long stretches of open land from east to west, north to south, the freight trains haul their cargo of food, grains, ore, petroleum, manufactured things, and anything else that is needs to ship long distances, to their destinations. In the United States, there is no legal limit for train length, and trains of more than a mile in length are common.
Fireflies (also called Lighting Bugs) are bioluminescent flying insects that gather at sunset and signal their potential mates by flickering on and off. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “some frogs eat such large numbers of fireflies that they themselves glow.”
The labyrinth is a symbol of the journey through life. It is distinct from a maze,
a puzzle to be solved, with dead ends and turns that lead nowhere. To walk a labyrinth,
all you need is to stay on the path, even when it suddenly changes direction,
and you will be guided to the center.
The music is structured as seven “circuits” building in layers, varying in texture and melodic patterns, each set off with chime sounds.
I have been watching the hummingbirds at the feeders. At the house
there are five (or more) birds and four feeders with four feeding openings at each feeder.
That means there are sixteen potential feeding spots for five birds.
Nevertheless, the birds constantly swoop and dive at each other in an attempt to drive the
others away from what they obviously consider a limited food source.
I think the birds probably waste most of the energy they get from feeding just trying
to chase the others away. The biggest irony is that we refill the feeders when they get
close to being empty, so there will always be plenty of nectar in the feeders.
Hummingbirds are just like some people. Some people are upset that others might
be getting more of limited resources and attack the other to protect what is perceived
as "mine" never realizing that if they just quit fussing and attacking others,
let everyone have a space, everyone would have plenty. Nature will constantly replenish
what we need. There is no need to be obsessed over what others have.
This piece started out as a fugue but eventually changed. I have also
put the original fugue here.
What is the point? Is it the end you point with or it is the end you poke with? In the end, the poke is the point. Or, do we mean a point of view? That’s an opinion focused on a particular premise that guides thought. Perhaps it is a query of the purpose of something. We should always “stay on point” when speaking or writing.
A 9th cord arpeggio accompanies two melodies. Then, running patterns with sustained sounds accompanied by a rhythmic pattern follow. Finally a merger of the previously heard sections.
I was sitting on the porch, enjoying the day, and heard the birds chirping.
I imitated some of the bird songs using the synthesizer and this was the result.
The journey we are on in life is not a straight line, and we speak of bends and curves in the road ahead.
But we travel on a multi-dimensional space and changes sometimes follow the arrow’s arc, not time’s arrow alone.
This composition opens with a canon in two parts with a repeated, cyclic accompaniment.
A contrasting developmental section provides a respite. The ending returns to the opening themes,
reversed in order and heard in octaves.
A composition using “minimalist” technique to create a hypnotic listening experience.
The “matter” involves slowly changing the density of part, the rhythmic speed of another part,
the timbre of yet another part. The slow changes in density, speed and timbre are scattered
throughout the aural space.
Subconscious distractions of events that otherwise we think are important.
I created a new subtractive synthesis instrument for the BasicSynth synthesizer
and then wrote this piece with sounds produced by various patches for
that instrument.
Happy, Happy,
Happy Birthday to you.
(Feel free to sing
And dance in
Your Birthday suit
As you eat cake and ice cream.)
May your wishes
And dreams come true,
Happy, Happy,
Happy Birthday to you.
When we need understanding from others, we plead for persuasion. We need them to persuade us as to why they think that way.
This piece is plaintive, with a main theme layered, and varied, into a bigger texture. The pounding, emphatic, accompanying figures contrast the plaintive melody.
Sticks N Stuck is a "happy tune" that got stuck in my mind.
It is bouncy, lively, repetitious, and joyful.
The sounds remind me of someone playing at tapping rhythms with sticks.
The piece has an A-B-A structure, with the "sticks" taken over by a "serious"
middle section, but returning at the end.
See Sawing is from the idea of something going back-and-forth, like a see saw.
The effect is created by panning the different sounds at different rates.
It can also be considered a pun about "seeing" and what we "saw."
Musically the piece has a meditative, calming style, repetitious in structure,
slowly evolving texturally.
Charism is "an extraordinary power (as of healing) given a Christian by
the Holy Spirit for the good of the church." (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
In general, charism means grace. More specifically, the term is applied to the
spiritual orientation of a religious order of the Catholic church, for example, a teaching order.
The piece was composed using a melody that repeats in different contexts.
A synthetic flute is used for the melody, accompanied by marimba-like,
organ-like, and bell-like synthesized sounds.
Multiple echo units used to create a dynamic texture.
Bounce was conceived as I worked on the echo effect for the BasicSynth synthesizer.
When the echo time is set long enough, and the panning is synchronized with the echo,
the sound of each note seems to bounce.
In terms of musical form, Bounce is a compressed "rondo"
with short phrases alternating and repeating throughout the piece.
Several layers of sound are built up, often like a canon with delayed echo of the phrases.
The exposition of all the themes is followed by an elongation and a thinning of the texture.
A recapitulation of the opening closes the piece.
Whirledwind was inspired by a satellite image of hurricane Katrina
as it made landfall on the coast of Louisiana, USA.
The storm was massive, and was one of the most destructive storms of recent years.
The musical style is "minimalist" or "pattern music"
due to the repetitious and slowly changing musical phrases.
The drum sounds are recorded individual sounds, while everything else is synthesized.
This piece began as music for the video Pulse. I later extended and revised the music into a stand-alone work. The piece is constructed as a contrasting A-B-A' structure. The opening section is a melodic, tonal composition with arpeggiated accompaniment, punctuated by the "pulse", that fades into a point of repose. The middle section, which also functions as a development of the theme, switches to a dissonant, pulsating double "canon" that is blended with fragments of the main theme and arppegiated figures. The recapitualtion varies from the exposition by continuing to build in texture to the end. Produced with CSound and Notelist.
Music for the video "Pretty Flowers". The music is very basic 12-bar blues, a light, somewhat tounge-in-cheek composition to match the images of wildflowers. Produced with CSound and Notelist. The second version was created using BasicSynth.
Music for the video "A Resting Place". The music mirrors the concept of the visuals - a stuggle to find a place of rest within the busy-ness of life. The melodic material is taken from the hymn My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Produced with CSound and Notelist.
Music for the video "Sunflower Serenade". It's not really a serenade in form, but a short sonta in 5/8 time.
Produced with CSound and Notelist.
A second version was created using BasicSynth. The "instrumental" arrangement uses sampled instruments.
Yamaha DX7, Kawai, and Yamaha FB01 synthesizers controlled by a PC over MIDI.
The 2006 Revision is the same piece, note for note, but using CSound as the synthesizer. I was never happy with the sound quality of the original. Much of the development section in the original is muddy and the counterpoint does not come through clearly. The revised version is much closer to the way the piece was envisioned.
The third version uses BasicSyn th Composer. Note this is cleaner than other versions, which is why I wrote BasicSynth in the first place.
For Synclavier II digital synthesizer and percussion. Another computer composition. The percussion instruments for this piece consisted of "found objects" such as wooden sticks, pots and pans, and a cardboard box bass drum. The percussion parts were performed by my fellow composition students.
For Synclavier II digital synthesizer. Another computer composition. I generated the "theme" with a computer program and then cut and pasted it into a piece using inversion, retrograde, etc.
For symphony orchestra, with Synclavier II digital synthesizer.
This is my Master's thesis. It was selected as the winning composition for the annual student composition contest and performed by the school orcestra.
The "Synthesizer Parts" link will download a ZIP archive of the Synclavier II parts. recorded in WAV format, 44.1k sampling rate, 16-bit PCM. 2 channel.
I found this in a box of stuff. I think it was written for guitar, probably me playing around one afternoon. For GIT-BELL, I used bell sounds instead of guitar.
The idea for this piece came one afternoon as I sat on the doorstep to my apartment listening to the rain, the dripping faucet and the moaning sound the plumbing tended to make.
The drone sounds were written "by hand" while the drips and drops were created using a computer program.
A collage of fragments from several ballet. Each fragment was selected by a computer program. I patched them together into a note file for the Synclavier II digital synthesizer.
From my senior recital. For wind ensemble:
Flutes, Clarinets, French Horns, Trumpets, Trombones, Tuba, Chimes.
The title was the motto for the city of Shawnee, where I grew up,
attended High School and University. This was a multimedia presentation
that included a slide show of images taken around Shawnee. The images
begin with nice houses and buusineses, then become more disturbing with
images of seedy bars and old buildings.
The original was performed by students, recorded and played along with the slides.
The recording here was performed with sampled instruments using MuseScore.
A short piano piece from about 1977. Performed with Notelist synthesizer.
And two more just for fun: a Prelude (Score)
and Invention (Score)
in baroque style, written for a class in counterpoint.
Albums (collections)
[Rethreaded] Ecstacy in Yellow, Sunflower Sonata, Pretty Flowers,
A Resting Place, Pulse, Where Audelia Runs Out
[Ambian] WhirledWind, Bounce, Charism, Music for a Wedding,
See Sawing, Sticks 'N' Stuff, Plead For Persuasion, Sub(dis)dtraction,
Father's Tune, Eine Kleine Geburtstag Musik
[Some Tunes] Jitter Creep, Dance On an (Electronic) Moonbeam, Rainbos,
A Chance of (Electronic) Flurries, Scattered Changes Matter, An Arc in the Road, SynthVerse 2
[Meditations] Watching a Mile Long Train, Watching Fireflies, Evolving Streams of Conciousness, A Slow Flowering,
What is the Point?, Hummingbirds Feeding, Walking a Labyrinth
[Orchestra In A Box] Some of my pieces played on sampled instruments.