The Fabulist CD is meant to be fun… That’s all, just a good time. So don’t take it so seriously, it’s only music.

fab·u·list

ˈfabyəlist/
noun
  1. a person who composes or relates fables.
    • a liar, especially a person who invents elaborate, dishonest stories.

This second studio album is a collection of stories or fables – diverse musical stories that are highlighted and are brought to life by the oboe. It continues some of the storylines that originated on the first album, then begins new themes that open the door to new styles and instrument complements. It is a fun and theatrical oboe CD made of original Canadian commissions. I have brought back a number of the main characters from the first CD.  Composers Rebecca Pellett, Aura Pon and Mark Camilleri and musicians from Quartetto Gelato and the Misguided Band.

The title track of the album “The Fabulist” is a brilliantly composed archetypal story that captures incredible images of a hero and his journey. What exactly the story it depicts is for you to imagine 🙂 On this piece I play all the music as “The Colin Maier Orchestra”. 13 instruments and 35 multi-layered tracks on the oboe, clarinet, bassoon, English horn, saxophone, flute, violin, bass, guitar, balalaika, banjolele, mandolin and percussion.

If you are wondering about the images on the inside of the CD, think of it as opening the door to an old kurios shop. There are hidden meanings throughout, like a big search and find. Happy hunting 🙂

Thank you to this wonderful group of fabulous executive producers!! Your support towards this project is humbling; Pat and Don Maier, Blaine Wicentovich, Karla Chambers, Richard and Elizabeth Yacyshen, Nathan Woynarski, Jospeh Banke, Troy Davis, Twaine Ward, Doreen Hyndman, Gary Armstrong, Greg Quinn, Brigette Campbell, Warren Brown, Lesley Duff, Victor Lough, Amy Melnychuk

* If you are interested in getting the sheet music for any of this music, it is available! Send me an email.

For a physical copy, contact me directly. (I accept cheques and email transfers.)

CD Track Listing

1. “Gaining Ground” – by Mark Camilleri

Colin Maier – Oboe Piano – Mark Camilleri Drums – Mark Inneo Jon Maharaj – Bass

2. “Ricordo di Napoli-Scherzo Brillante”- by Antonio Pasculli

Colin Maier – Oboe Alexander Sevastian – Accordion

3. “Getting Dark Again” – by Buddy MacDonald

Colin Maier – Oboe, Vocals, Guitar Mark Camilleri – Piano Mark Inneo – Drums Jon Maharaj – Bass

4. “My Romance” – Music by Richard Rogers, Arranged by Mark Camilleri

Colin Maier – Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon

5. “Angakkuq” – by Vincent Ho

Colin Maier – Oboe Peter DeSotto – Violin Liza McLellan – Cello Alexander Sevastian – Accordion

6. “SawsAgé” – by Colin Maier & Mark Inneo

Colin Maier – Oboe, Vocals, Guitar Mark Inneo – Drums

7. “Songs of the North Woods 2” – by Aura Pon

Colin Maier – Oboe, Vocals Mark Camilleri – Piano Mark Inneo – Drums Jon Maharaj – Bass

“Oboe Sonata” – by Francis Poulenc

8. Élégie

9. Scherzo

10. Déploration

Colin Maier – Oboe Erika Reiman – Piano

11. “Home For a Rest” – by John MMann & Geoffrey Kelly

Colin Maier – Oboe, Vocals Mark Camilleri – Piano Mark Inneo – Drums John Maharaj – Bass

“The Fabulist” – By Rebecca Pellet

12. The Trance

13. The Tale

Colin Maier – Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet, Flute, Bassoon, Alto Sax, Violin, Bass, Mandolin, Banjolele, Balalaika, Percussion & Musical saw

Executive Producers

Joseph Banke Karla Chambers Troy Davis Pat & Don Maier Blaine Wicentovich Nathan Woynarski Richard & Liz Yacyshen

Photography by: Brian Telzero

Album Design by: Scott Galley

CD Art

COMPOSER NOTES AND BIOS

Vincent Ho

Bio

Vincent Ho is widely recognized as one of the most exciting composers his generation. His many awards have included Harvard University’s Fromm Music Commission, The Canada Council for the Arts’ “Robert Fleming Prize,” ASCAP’s “Morton Gould Young Composer Award,” four SOCAN Young Composers awards, and CBC Radio’s Audience Choice Award (2009 Young Composers’ Competition). He received his Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) in 1993, his Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary in 1998, his Master of Music degree from the University of Toronto in 2000, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California (2005). His mentors have included Allan Bell, David Eagle, Christos Hatzis, Walter Buczynski, and Stephen Hartke. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Schola Cantorum Summer Composition Program in Paris, where he received further training in analysis, composition, counterpoint, and harmony, supervised by David Diamond and Philip Lasser from the Juilliard School of Music and Narcis Bonet from the Paris Conservatoire.

Composer Notes

When Colin asked me to write a new work for his upcoming CD, I was thrilled at the opportunity. I’ve known Colin since our college days and have wanted to work with him for a long time. So when it came to composing a new piece, I thought “how can I create something that would fit his personality”? In addition to being a terrific oboist, he’s also a trained dancer. So with that in mind, I decided to create a work that had a dance-able quality tempered with rich lyricism, and and improvisatory character so it could be in contrast to everything around it (he is the star of the show after all).

One of the ways I usually try to kickstart my creative process is to improvise or brainstorm with the person I am writing for. So that was exactly what we decided to do via Skype. Our first session was terrific! He gave up all the energy I needed to be inspired – carefree, rhapsodic and spirited. The first thing that came to my mind from that session was a simple chord progression (played by the accordion) with an oboe Melody dancing over top of it. A jaunty, spirited theme that fluctuates between triple and duple time, cast in an optimistic pentatonic harmony played out in counterpoint to the somber minor harmonies moving below it. This theme would continually evolve as more instruments joined in with each repeat. Once I had the opening worked out, the rest of the music floated with the greatest of ease.

Mark Camilleri

Bio

When Colin asked me to write a new work for his upcoming CD, I was thrilled at the opportunity. I’ve known Colin since our college days and have wanted to work with him for a long time. So when it came to composing a new piece, I thought “how can I create something that would fit his personality”? In addition to being a terrific oboist, he’s also a trained dancer. So with that in mind, I decided to create a work that had a dance-able quality tempered with rich lyricism, and and improvisatory character so it could be in contrast to everything around it (he is the star of the show after all).

One of the ways I usually try to kickstart my creative process is to improvise or brainstorm with the person I am writing for. So that was exactly what we decided to do via Skype. Our first session was terrific! He gave up all the energy I needed to be inspired – carefree, rhapsodic and spirited. The first thing that came to my mind from that session was a simple chord progression (played by the accordion) with an oboe Melody dancing over top of it. A jaunty, spirited theme that fluctuates between triple and duple time, cast in an optimistic pentatonic harmony played out in counterpoint to the somber minor harmonies moving below it. This theme would continually evolve as more instruments joined in with each repeat. Once I had the opening worked out, the rest of the music floated with the greatest of ease.

Composer Notes

“Gaining Ground”

Mark’s theatre credits include Music Directing and performing in “Cats” (NuMu Productions), “The Toxic Avenger” (Dancap Productions), “Mamma Mia”, “Dirty Dancing” (Mirvish Productions) “Cinderella” (Ross Petty Productions), “To Life” (HGJTC) “High School Musical” (Drayton Entertainment) and the World Premiere of “Queen for a Day” (April 30th Productions).  Mark has Music Directed many concerts including the “Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Galas”, the “Canadian Screen Actors Awards”, “The Canadian Tenors PBS Special”, “Canada Eh” with Steve Patterson (CBC) and has shared the stage with Il Divo, Celine Dion, Sting, Eric Clapton, Seth MacFarland Andrea Bocelli, Paul Anka, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, David Foster, Annie Lennox, Audra McDonald, The Canadian Tenors, Herbie Hancock and most of the major symphony orchestras across Canada. Mark was also a featured pianist at the Pan-Am Games cultural concert and has toured as a Concert Artist for Yamaha Canada. Mark owns and operates his own recording studio IMAGINE Sound Studios and his Recording/Producer credits include his own CD “Mark Camilleri and the CT Project” as well as working with Jeff Healey, Jason Priestly, Quartetto Gelatto, Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Thicke as well as various CDs for Somerset Entertainment.  T.V. and Radio credits include composing and recording commercials and corporate videos for Cosmopolitan Magazine, Johnny Walker, General Mills, Microsoft, General Motors as well as scoring documentaries for the History Channel and TLC.  Mark was also part of the creative team for both seasons of “Triple Sensation” (Produced by CBC/Garth Drabinsky).

Aura Pon

Bio

Aura Pon is a Calgary-based composer, oboist, music technology researcher, former naval officer, hiking and architecture enthusiast, eternal student and new mama who still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. Her compositions, which include instrumental chamber music, electroacoustic music, and intermedia, have been performed in Canada, United States, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, and Russia, by artists such as Quartetto Gelato, Rubbing Stone Ensemble, Vox Tactum Ensemble, Colin Maier, Michael Hope, and Marco Fusi. Her latest composition, for violin, brainwave sensor and computer, premiered this summer at the Composit New Music Festival in Rieti, Italy.  She is currently undergoing a PhD in Music with a specialization in Computational Media Design at the University of Calgary in which she likes to explore new and wacky ways of making and experiencing music. When not composing or undertaking her studies, she freelances as an oboist and digital instrumentalist with Symphony of the Kootenays, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Aspect Ensemble. Her music and research seek to explore new means of expression and interactivity in art music. She takes herself way too seriously, most of the time.

Composer Notes

 Songs of the North Woods, No. 2 “Crúiscín lán,” for oboe, bass, piano, and percussion 

Songs of the North Woods is a growing collection of pieces based on rare Canadian folk songs archived in a book of the same name assembled by Edith Fowke. These soulful little tunes, many originating from the late 1800s (that’s old for Canada) in Northern Ontario or the Maritimes, or brought from motherland Europe by settlers, were sung while logging, mining, fishing, drinking, and other alimentational or recreational activities of the day. The first of the North Woods chamber music pieces, commissioned and recorded by Mr. Maier, was a fantasia based on two contrasting songs, “The Lass of Glenshee” and “Chapeau Boys.” This latest addition was seeded by an obnoxious drinking song called “Crúiscín lán,” (pronounced “Kroosh-keen lawn”), a Celtic word for full, small jug. The composer took liberty to elaborate on the original inebriated songster’s tale of delighted abandon with this temperamental, melodramatic soliloquy for – who else? – the  oboe,  to frame the original song and lyrics, revealed towards the end. Added piano, bass, and percussion try to keep things moving along, like slightly-more sober wingmen.  Overall, No. 2 offers a varied melodic discourse that is part Celtic, part Classical, all oboe-emoting, and features Mr. Maier’s multi-talents for cross-genre oboe-playing, singing, and drinking songs.

Thank youz… MY CREATIVE TEAM:  Mark Camilleri, Rebecca Pellett, Vincent Ho, Aura Pon, Ryan Enn Hughes, Brian Telzero, Scott Galley, Todd Noel, MY MUSICIANS: Mark Camilleri, Mark Inneo, Jon Maharaj, Peter DeSotto, Alexander Sevastian, Liza McLellan, Erika Reiman

HUGE thank you to FACTOR and the generous support from Kickstarter. Without your support, this project would not have happened. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters.”

“The Fabulist” was produced by Colin Maier.  Recorded, mixed and mastered at www.imaginesoundstudios.com by Mark Camilleri.

With additional editing by Kenny Luong.

 

XCMM Records, 2014

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