Dreaming

Last night I dreamed of a performance of the first movement of a string trio version of my planned Double Concerto. It was much as I have been planning it, except for one chord, which I apparently will use from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. It made a lot of sense in the dream, so I may go with it. I'm not sure how it will reduce to three strings, but I'll give it a try. Also in the dream, I explained how (and why) the third player would not have any of the quartertones at the beginning. Oddly, in the dream, it was the violinist (who was Harumi Rhodes), but it is more likely to be the violist, since violin is one of the concerto instruments. That will be the case unless Jakob (the cellist) decides that the double concerto should be viola and cello. It don't remember who the violist was in the dream.

News and delay

Well, the great news is that I have an important commission for the 2015-16 season. I don't know if it has been officially announced yet, so I won't say who it is from. There aren't any details yet, i.e. instrumentation, length, performance date (likely Jan 2016). In a perfect world, I would like to write a double concerto for two performers I have worked with (one directly [cellist] and one indirectly [violinist]). I would use a sinfonietta-size orchestra. But since I the commissioner may not have the financial resources to make that happen, I'm thinking that I'll write two versions, the second being a chamber version, either a piano trio, or something slightly larger. I've got to start soon, since I compose slowly, due to lack of time. The delay? I have been too busy teaching to finish the piano concerto. I was going to dedicate it to an old mentor of mine, but it won't be finished in time for his retirement do, which is in two weeks. Then I thought I might finish typesetting my third symphony, but there are 50 pages to go, and that isn't likely to get finished in time. I'm going to talk to him about it, and see which he would prefer, when I finish them, but I don't know when I'll be able to fit one of them in. If I had a solid free week, I could finish the concerto, two solid weeks for the symphony, but when might that happen. Your guess is as good as mine.

Chicago fans, get ready