Performances

There are some rumblings on the performance front - this summer and next year. I'll post details when they are confirmed.

Also, the WCNY broadcasts are coming in April. I'll post a schedule closer to the time - the first is April 14.

On the composition front, I've been tidying up what I have - adding more articulation and dynamics. I've also composed a little more of the soliloquy as well as filling in some of the ending. I've got a lot of typesetting work coming up, so things might slow down a little. Can they get any slower? Must keep the momentum going, though.

Even closer

I have been looking some more through that old wind ensemble proof of Chaos, and have also found more pencil annotations, one of them completing a section that I thought I still needed to fill in some orchestration. I'm going to go back and look more closely at some other sections of the proof and see if there is more. Yesterday's discovery finished off the better part of about 30 bars, and I still have two more pages of annotations to input before I start piecing together the ending.

I'm starting to feel the excitement of being close to the finish line. I'm sure that mood will change when I start writing the piano soliloquy. I might write the free/quasi-improvised part of it first, since I've always been uncomfortable writing for solo piano.

I've also had some thoughts about the future - what to do next. I must have about 40 partly-written pieces, including:

Partly written:

1) Song cycle based on some of my own poetry.

2) Another piano concerto (the first one I started several years ago years ago). It was too difficult for the Scarborough Symphony, and it was for chamber orchestra (poss. sinfonietta), so I never considered finishing it for the commission.

3) A large orchestra piece, heavily-sketched with beginnings to each movement, and three interludes complete. I tried and failed to convert it to the first piano concerto.

4) WE arrangement of Paradisio.

5) Sinfonietta reduction and arrangement for vc of From Her Husband's Hand.

6) WE arrangement of From Her Husband's Hand.

7) Night Vision, various versions including a jazz combo and nonet version. It includes the original source material for Remembering the Night Sky, but there is a lot more. It was originally supposed to be an hour long entertainment.

8) Riding the Crimson Sun, for nonet, beginning, plus sketches.

9) Typesetting of last movement of Sym. No 3, plus filling in a few final notes.

10) Revision of String Quartet No 2.

11) Another hulk of a piano concerto.

12) A trombone feature piece, either with electronics or orchestra. I've written some sketches, but never recorded any of the electronic stuff. Is that a sign?

Needs typesetting with some revision:

1) Concerto for Euphonium and Strings (significant revision, actually). Second movement is done, since it was fine as it stood.

2) Symphony No. 1, esp. third movement, which could stand alone, if I ever got around to the revision.

3) All three string quartets

4) Saxophone quartet

5) Three pieces for Chamber Orchestra (just typesetting)

6) Chamber version of Purgatorio.

7) Symbols and Signs (just typesetting, originally performed from ms)

8) Inferno (WE version, just typesetting, originally performed from ms)

Pipe dreams:

1) Must write some chamber music.

2) Must write some longer piano pieces (i.e. not miniatures)

3) A fourth symphony (3 in the first section might be it, but I'm not sure it really is a symphony. It's more like a concerto for orchestra). Won't start it until Symphony No. 3 is premiered.

4) Some brass music. I haven't written that much for my own instruments.

Any request? Comment below. Commissions gratefully accepted.

Suddenly I'm that much closer

Yesterday, I was about to post an update when I noticed that the proof of the wind ensemble version of Chaos ended 100 bars short of where the computer file did. I rooted around in some "older" proofs and discovered one that had an ostinato all the way to the end of the piece. As that ostinato generates all the music around it, that puts me withing striking distance of finishing. I still have the rest of the piano soliloquy to write, but it means that I should meet my self-imposed deadline of finishing by the (cancelled) premiere date, perhaps even much sooner.

My next task will be to get a performance and/or a recording. I have two basic options: 1) ask the SU orchestra to record a demo and possibly perform it, or 2) pay a professional orchestra to do it, either Symphoria (formerly the Syracuse Symphony) or perhaps ERM Media, who do that sort of thing. I looked into costs several years ago, but I don't remember. I think it was about $1000 per minute of music, plus the expense of going to Vienna or wherever it is recorded. That's steep for an 18 minute concerto, so I might have to resort to some "cloud funding" to raise the cash.

I've also been thinking about the program notes for the piece, so I'll post those soon. I don't ordinarily write the notes before finishing a piece, but this has helped me crystallize the rest of piece in my head.