Code Aquamarine

This site showcases the music of CodeAquamarine

The single artist behind CodeAquamarine is a software developer by day and a musician by night, and was understandably very interested in the merging of computers and music. He started working with MIDI back in 1990 and found it to be an invaluable tool for writing music. Advances in computer hardware and music production software have enabled this artist and thousands of other "desktop musicians" like himself to produce full audio renderings of their music using only their computers, MIDI controllers and any "realtime" instruments that they play. And the high-bandwidth Internet of today allows them to easily share that music with the rest of the world.

THE NAME

Welcome & thank you for your interest in my music.

Creating music is very enjoyable, but knowing that it's touched just one other person makes the effort truly worthwhile!

My music is available for purchase using SOUNDCLICK and payments are securely handled by PayPal .

Rock

Count From Zero

Nice pop-sounding rock tune, inspired by the concept of new beginnings and the positive feeling of optimism and great possibilities that a new start can engender. The title was originally intended to be a working one, but a better one was never arrived at. Most software developers nowadays use programming languages in which things are indexed counting from 0 instead of 1, and counting from the start is what this song is all about.

The name CodeAquamarine is derived on three levels. At the lowest level, the artist writes software source "code" as part of his profession, and aquamarine is the birthstone for the month of March, in which he was born. At the next level, the name, having been born in a much later instance of March, came about in a time of terror alerts in the U.S. and the impending waging of an unprovoked war by that country. "Code Aquamarine" is meant to signify a condition that is in diametric opposition to the mood of anxiety brought about by these kinds of events; a condition of relaxation and good feeling that listening to this and all positive-sounding music should bring about. Which brings us to the highest level, that being that all digital music is essentially represented as binary code, and the binary code here renders into the kinds of sounds that the artist hopes will bring about a harmonious Aquamarine condition for anyone who listens.

Funrunner

Hard-driving fast rock tune inspired by thoughts of a long night of party hopping in which the freeway drives in between are more fun than the destinations.

Sonora

This song was written for the third round of a MIDI collaboration project back in the '90s called "Dare To Fail", hosted by Steve Gronseth. It was entited "Sonora" after the desert in which the composer makes his home, and the mariachi-like harmonies of the trumpet-tenor line in the song's chourus sections are reminiscent of the culture of the country containing most of that desert.

Jazz

Unselfish

Some truly smooth jazz. This song was originally written as a short (about 2 min.) theme to play as an embedded MIDI on the website MoreThanMyself.com, a web site whose purpose was to inspire its visitors to charitable giving and provide links to various charities to get them started. The artist liked the tune so much that he decided to extend it to be another full-blown production.

Slowwalk

Inspired by cool sound of the jazz organ-tenor-guitar combo. The song might sound a little like how the group Fourplay might pay homage to that sound if they added on some saxes.

Predawn

Thoughts of wakefulness during the predawn hours inspired this song. It can be thought of as a follow-on to Funrunner. It's 3 or 4 AM, all of the parties are winding down and you're on the final leg of your drive, this time destination: home. But maybe there's just one more stop along the way -- perhaps a smoky roadhouse lounge with a jazz band that includes a couple saxophones wailing into the late, late night. Finally, you do make it safely home just as the day breaks -- only to do it all over again the next night….

Amanda's song

An nice New-Agey sounding smooth jazz tune, dedicated to a beautiful cat, the first one that the artist and his wife had together.

A Different Kind Of Life

Orchestral-sounding intro. Smooth Jazz tango in the main part. Then, a surprise ending. This song is dedicated to each person who has found happiness in living the life of his or her own choosing, unfettered by societal norms and expectations. It is inspired by just such a life shared by the artist and his beautiful wife.

The Infinite Search

A foray into full-fledged electronica. We're all searching for something, be it happiness, fulfillment, inner peace or intelligent life in the furthest (or nearest) corners of the universe. Do we ever truly find it? The song seems to say we that we ultimately do, but, then again, who really knows?

Electronic

Jazz

Rock

Electronic

Blues

The S.M.R. Theme

Slow 12/8 blues, originally written as the theme song to the "Spence's Musical Realm" website, which featured MIDI versions of some of the songs in this collection.

Blues

Mr. Congeniality

This song is either about the feeling of comfort one might get from someone who is pleasant and easy-going, or the angst one might feel from someone sarcastically referred to as "congenial"…you decide which is the case.