My visit to my alma mater last weekend changed a few things. It was my intention to dedicate either my Sym No 3 or Piano Concerto (Chaos) to Dwight Oltman, who was retiring after over 40 years at BW. I thought I would dedicate whichever was finished first, and present it to him then. However, neither was in a final form by the time I arrived. Essentially, the symphony has been done for years, but I never typeset the last 30 pages of final version. (I was awaiting the possibility of a performance before I did any additional work.) There are a few notes missing, and lots of pencil annotations. Surely, a few things will change, and I'll give it a new 2014 date. Chaos is about 80% complete. I need to bridge the cadenza to a new improvisatory section, and then fill in some sparse passages, especially near the end. Since it was originally a wind ensemble piece that I promised him (in 1999), but never finished, I thought he would prefer that. I had about 3 minutes of it complete then, and proceeded to write the middle movement and the beginning of the last before stalling (since it had almost already become a piano concerto then). Maybe that is why when I asked him which he would prefer, he chose the symphony. (Nearer to being done.)
Actually, if I could spend a solid week on it, I could probably finish Chaos. Finishing the setting of Symphony may take longer, since 2/3 of it is set in Score and the other 1/3 is set in Finale with pencil additions. I could convert both parts to Sibelius and join them, but that is probably more trouble than it is worth. I'll just finish it in Score. Those 30 pages will probably be more like 40 when all is finished, so my plan is to set two pages a day (minimum 1) and get it done over the summer.
Also at BW, a friend asked me if I would consider writing a piece for his middle school band. I've been thinking about it and probably will do it. We just have to iron out some details. I suspect it will need to be short, and he wants some aleatorics, which don't take me that long to write.
Then there is that pesky piano concerto and my SNM commission. I might spend some time on those while I am in England this summer. Hopefully, I'll have my main summer typesetting work done by then. It's a big job, which I will start hopefully on Friday. It should take a month, if I don't have too many interruptions.
I think my summer is going to be busy.
