hpmoon: Recent Episodes
hpmoon
H. Paul Moon (http://zenviolence.com) is a filmmaker whose works include short and feature-length documentaries, dance films, and experimental cinema, featured and awarded at over a hundred film festivals worldwide. He teaches documentary editing at Docs In Progress as an Adobe Certified Expert, and serves as adjunct professor at George Mason University's Film and Video Studies program. He also manages a network of online communities at http://focuspulling.com that keeps pace with new camera technologies. He worked as a small camera specialist for a Paramount feature film starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, and as cinematographer for director Josephine Decker’s film in "collective:unconscious." Recent works include "Sitka: A Piano Documentary" (http://sitkadoc.com) about the craftsmanship of Steinway pianos, and "Quartet for the End of Time" (http://quatuor.xyz) about Olivier Messiaen’s transcendent WWII composition, that premiered on the commemorative date and at the place where the imprisoned composer first debuted his work. Moon's first feature, an award-winning documentary about the life and music of American composer Samuel Barber (http://samuelbarberfilm.com), recently premiered on PBS, and he is currently finishing another documentary feature about Western folklife, cowboy poetry, and the American frontier (http://westdocumentary.com). Excerpted poetry films from that project have appeared in museum exhibitions, and numerous film festivals, leading up to the feature film's completion. His latest film is an operatic adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" (http://scroogeopera.com), awarded "Critic's Choice" by Opera News as a "thoroughly enjoyable film version, insightfully conceived and directed" with "first-rate and remarkably illustrative storytelling."
James F. Lowrie, celloElizabeth Cottrell, clarinetJoy Risher, fluteArranged by Christopher L. Saraga for the original soundtrack to the stage play "Reformation" by H. Paul Moon (1993)Khristofor Saraga wrote this music in his early 20s. It sounds weird at first, even weirder when you know the original tune, but in his formal counterpoint there's a haunting prescience and melancholy that divines some other world of harmony. The last twenty seconds in particular take a modal turn that feels weirdly conclusive even if it's wrong. Chris knew how to play with boundaries, though he was usually going for the joke; I could lose track of time, listening to him improvise when issued the challenge to riff on the Dies irae or some John Williams "Naughty," as we'd call "Johnny Boy's" endlessly recycling leitmotifs. Chris learned these skills in community with pipe organ pedagogues like Herbert Geisler and Rudy Inselmann, and our mutual friend James Lowrie who's now greeting Chris in Heaven, but all these men were divining progenitors like Bach with the weekly work ethic of ornamenting church music.Khristofor Saraga did not write this music with a scowl or some evident sadness. I remember the night well; I'm pretty sure it was even a foggy night of that inland coastal Irvine clime. I had been nagging Chris to finish writing his portions of the incidental music score to my overambitious frosh turn as a playwright, not least on behalf of musicians Joy Risher, Elizabeth Cottrell and James Lowrie so that they could bloody rehearse in time for opening night. Chris might have been avoiding me that day in truancy, but as I walked up to his dormitory window, there he was, hunched over a tiny kitchen table with staff paper and pencil. And: no piano at all to plunk it out. These were notes in his head. Next, he had to endure my wailing praise about genius talent, but he only giggled back about merely writing a ditty, and scooted the paper across the tabletop.Khristofor Saraga left too soon, just like James. I've hardly met anybody since then with whom we could ramble on about music for hours without any of us checking our watches. Something I love about music, though, is that it never dies. It is patient and kind, and it doesn't concern weight problems and family problems and having money and being cool. Chris: I'll see you again after a few more measures of music. For now, thanks for your ditty.
Original music composed by Jon Deak for the end credits of H. Paul Moon's film adaptation of "The Passion of Scrooge." Performed by Lisa Emenheiser, piano, at her studio on October 14, 2018. For more information about this film project, visit: www.scroogeopera.com
Recorded and mastered by H. Paul Moon | Zen Violence Films | www.zenviolence.com
created and performed by Black Saturn production and additional mastering by Zen Violence Films for the documentary “95 Theses” at www.95thesesfilm.com