Something Kinda Midnight Or is a piece for Bassoon and Piano that I wrote for my bassoon playing younger sister’s final University recital.
It’s the only instrumental piece I’ver composed that has actually been played by other people, and it’s one of my musical accomplishments I’m most proud of.
I’m possibly maybe thinking of arranging a full band version of this: bassoon, piano, guitar, bass, drums, electronic noises. Possibly. Maybe.
Here are the silly things I wrote for the programme:
“Something Kinda Midnight Or was inspired partly by a melody I wrote for a compositional exercise at university, and partly by my lazy decision to steal ideas from all the music I had been listening to.
This included, in no particular order, a piece by Hindemith, the heavy metal band Megadeth, and several progressive rock pieces.
The piece has a vaguely rondoish form that intersperses an accessible, regular melody with episodes of angular silliness. In keeping with the progressive rock songs I ‘borrowed’ from, the episodes include frequent time signature changes, and chromatic ‘power chord’ like basslines, the aim being to create accessible music from unusual rhythmic ingredients.
The title doesn’t mean much, except that it made me laugh.
Tom Slatter, 2007, Madagascar.”
