Jim's Music Downloads
 
Most songs copyright @1976 - 2009 Jim Bumgardner.

Windows users: You can right-click and select "Save Target As..." to save the track to a local file on your machine.

Etude in G Minor (MP3)

I recently embarked on a project to record all my old piano pieces. This is one of the better ones. "Etude in G Minor" was written around 1983. During this period I was experimenting with some impressionistic piano techniques. These recordings were made in January 2009, in my living room, on my creaky old piano. Here's a few more of 'em:

Hymn (1977) (MP3)
7 Pianos Theme (1982) (MP3)
Jam in C Major (1983) (MP3)
One Zero One Zero (1984) (MP3)
Happy Song in C (1985) (MP3)
Janet's Blues (1986) (MP3)
Sedley's Lament (1994) (MP3)

Crooked Waltz (1994)

"Crooked Waltz" is a semi-improvisational piano piece from around 2000. About half the piece is in 3/4 but a number of bars are in 7/4 (or 3/4 followed by 4/4), which gives it a slightly crooked feeling. The sheet music is a somewhat simplified version missing some crucial ornaments, dynamics and phrasing. Freely improvise on the repeat.

"Another Sad Song" was written in the early 90s and is typical of my sad C-minor piano pieces (generally played in a semi-improvisational manner). I've written a handful of these, and play them on moody days. A fairly accurate transcription of the piano part is also available as a PDF file should you desire to play it. Oddly, I can *improvise* this piece, but can't play the sheet music note-for-note for the life of me. It just sucks the life out of the piece when I play it off the page. This is a MIDI recording I made a few years ago. A few more are further down the page.

Kasparov vs. Deep Blue, Excerpt

An excerpt from my experimental chess-inspired piece, based on the famous match in which the human world champion was first beaten by a computer. The music you are hearing was constructed by analyzing the moves of the game with a chess engine of my own design, which has been modified to output musical (MIDI) events. The music is a relatively literal translation of what is happening inside the chess engine as it thinks about which move to play. This piece was performed live at a concert in Los Angeles, June 26th, 2009. Here's a video of the performance.

Whitney Music Box (Link)

"Whitney Music Box" is an experimental set of variations I developed around 2006, based on the work of computer-animation pioneer John Whitney. There are some versions for piano, but I can't play them, because it requires too many fingers (and too much mathematical precision). My favorite variations are #3, or #4 and #11. This is probably my most successful formal composition, and it has inspired a commercial product from Native Instruments, based on the idea. It's also perhaps worth pointing out that the part of my brain that makes experimental music is separate from the (older) part of my brain that plays piano and occasionally sings. It's like two bushes growing together in the same garden, but not quite connected.

Here's a fun 20 minute video that ends with me demonstrating an audience-participation version of the Whitney Box at the GEL conference in NYC.

Dark Side of the Whip (MP3)

A mashup I made in 2008, mixing Pink Floyd's "Breathe" with Devo's "Whip it." Just having a little fun. More info here.

Kontact Improv (MP3)

"Kontact Improv" is a quick recording I made when trying out some new piano sounds I had recently downloaded for my sampler. A fairly accurate rendition of what I sound like when I'm just screwing around on the piano with nothing particular in mind. Like many of the recordings here, the piano sounds are not recordings of me playing an actual piano. Instead, I am playing an electronic keyboard which is triggering recorded samples of an actual piano.

Bagels from Heaven (MP3)

Well, you made it this far. I guess you're ready to hear my wobbly voice. "Bagels from Heaven" is about a bunch of zombies in a shopping mall, ala George Romero's Movie, Dawn of the Dead. I wrote this in the mid-80s, when I had a crappy tech-support job.

This, and the following 2 tracks are from a set of home-recordings I made a few years ago that I'm not particularly happy with. Too much reverb on the vocals, bad MIDI drumming, and so on... There is much to be said for playing live with other human beings on real instruments, which I didn't do in these recordings.

Into the Mountain (MP3)

"Into the Mountain" was written shortly after I began reading "Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset in late spring 2003. Early in the novel, young Kristin has an encounter with a "dwarf maiden" who attempts to lure her into the mountain - a bit of Norwegian folklore I found evocative. The song as recorded, is just a basic sketch, and will probably be filled out with a bridge or a solo (although there's something to be said for keeping it short).

Nola Can't Stop (MP3)

My, you're a glutton for punishment aren't you? "Nola Can't Stop" was written shortly after the Iraq war started in March 2003. Although it is not about the war, it was probably influenced by my mental state after watching 24 hour news for a few days. The melody seems very familiar to me, but I can't quite figure out what I'm stealing.

That's it for the songs-with-singing. There's a couple more, not as good, which I'll send if you email me. One of these days I will find some live humans and make a better set of recordings.

Crazy Mahatma (MP3)

"Crazy Mahatma" is a short piece for headphones (not really music), that juxtaposes two bits of audio from the 1930s. The speakers are Mahatma Gandhi and Orson Welles (reading material adapted from H.G. Wells). With headphones on, it causes a kind of angel/devil on the shoulder experience. I may eventually incorporate this into a music piece, but it's interesting on it's own.

In C - Terry Riley (MIDI)

A MIDI version of Terry Riley's seminal piece 'In C'. I created this recording using KeyKit, a MIDI programming language by Tim Thompson. The Keykit source code used to make this file (much shorter than the actual midi file) is here.