Don't get Creative

That isn't what it means on the surface. Several years ago, I bought a Creative X-Fi Fatality Platinum sound card, with the breakout box, so I can plug into the front of my computer, and have great sound as well. For a few months it worked fine, then my motherboard failed. That had nothing to do with the card, but I took it as an opportunity to upgrade to a higher spec system, 64-bit, and Windows 7. I checked the Creative website, and they had a Windows 7 driver. No problem, right?

Wrong.

I installed everything, no problem. Sound card worked fine.

Then I restarted my computer. Snap. Crackle. Pop. Static. I checked the Creative website again to see if I could sort this out. They recommended updating the driver. Nope. Didn't work. I contacted customer service. They told me to try several things that I had already tried. Eventually, I Googled the problem and found something that led me to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. 

It seems that that 64-bit computers allow the addressing of more than 4GB of memory. Yay! Unfortunately, Creative X-Fi sound cards don't. It isn't a physical problem, as I discovered when I first installed the card. It worked properly until restart, then something kicks it. I informed Creative of the issue, but they weren't interested. They don't even have it mentioned in their support forum. Basically, they are looking the other way.

To get around it, you have to limit your MAXMEM in your bootloader to under 4000 MB ... not 4GB which is 4096 MB. For a while I was working at 3996, but at some point I changed it to 3800. I can't remember why.

On comes Sibelius 7. For months, I've been trying to figure out why the really nice Sibelius 7 sounds don't work ... well ... one does. The piano sounds fantastic, but in my Piano Concerto, that is all I get. I have to resort to Sibelius 6 sounds.

You can see where this is going.

Sibelius 7 sounds require 4+ GB of memory, and that is 4 GB just to play the "lite" sound set. You really want 8 GB for the whole set. 3800 MB seems to be just enough to load the first sound.

I figured that maybe I'd have a look back at the Creative website. Windows 8 is now out and you would expect them to update the driver for their flagship sound card. They did, however they only added Windows 8 support. They did not fix the problem, and they still have nothing about it on their site.

I did some more digging and found this discussion from 2011: http://forums.creative.com/archive/index.php?t-577245.html, which was eye-opening in a way, but only confirmed what I already knew. Creative just didn't care.

Now I'm in a quandary  Do I deep-six my $200 sound card and add some memory to my system, or stick with the inferior Sibelius 6 sounds? What would I replace it with?

Think February 2014

I'm not entirely sure which piece, but I think I have a big(-gish) performance coming up in February. It is likely to be one of three orchestral pieces, two of which would be a first performance, the other would be a US premiere. The orchestra is set, but it depends on the artists (two are concertos). The least likely would be my third symphony, but I would reveal any more than that.

The more current news is that I'm on spring break and had planned to finish Chaos, but I've just received a pile of typesetting work, which is more urgent (partly because it pays). I hope to get a jump on the typesetting so I can spend at least a couple of hours on the concerto each day this week. I have done a little since my last post, but I think I might have to rewrite it. I forgot that the tempo was slow, so  when I played it back, it sounded like I was going half speed. I'll have to remedy that. I would at least like to fill some partial gaps near the end, and probably fill out the ending.

Another thing I am considering is adding an improvisation/cadenza between what is essentially the second and third movements. It's not really in three movements, but there are three distinct sections. The soliloquy may comprise a fourth sections, but I'm hoping that it is perceived as part of the middle section.

Don't forget WCNY on April 14. I'll post details what they are playing when closer to the date.

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.

Latest on the Concerto, and more news

This week I've spent some real time on the concerto. What I've been doing is catching up the Sibelius file with the handwritten stuff. I'm not totally up to date, but I have bridged the second gap. The first gap requires some composition, but the second was already composed. It just needed some arrangement from the wind ensemble version. I've left out a couple of things but that is essentially complete. I also need to add a few things near the end.

The big question is what to work on next. It seems weird to me to write the ending and then go back and bridge the first gap. One advantage is that it might give me a better idea what to put in it. Originally, it was supposed to start with a written cadenza and then progress to some improvisation with the orchestra. I've come to the conclusion that I may have a "written-out improvisation" as a recommendation for the pianist - which, of course, everyone will play instead of improvising (if it is ever played).

I could just go back to plan A and just close the gap with the original wind ensemble material. That would require deleting the newly composed piano stuff and deleting all the blank bars and smoothing over the transition.

That sounds like a cop out, and frankly, it feels like one. The argument for it, however, is that the piece is feeling more like a concerto for piano and orchestra, rather than a piano concerto. That may be splitting the hairs a little fine, but the piano is really part of the ensemble - yes, it's out front, and when it plays it is usually the focus, but it doesn't really drive the argument. I generates it ... and sometimes comments on it. Most of the piece is derived from the piano music, but the piano (other than the unwritten section) never really dominates. That was why I balked at the wind ensemble piece. The piano/harp (line) had taken over, but it was never really a concerto.

OK, now for the other news. A series of my pieces are going to be broadcast on "Fresh Ink" (WCNY Syracuse) beginning on Apr. 14 (Oyre's Garden). There will be one almost every week for the next six weeks or so. (There are a few weeks that I'm not on.)

I'll post details closer to the time.

Another re-think

I pulled out Chaos to work on it this week with the intention of reverting to the wind ensemble version. I listened to the playback in Finale of the original version as it stood before changing the orchestration. I wasn't exactly happy with it. Then I listened to the orchestra and piano version in Sibelius. I liked it a lot.

While part of me sees the advantage of preparing a wind ensemble piece (more chance of performance, etc), I think I've become invested with the piano and orchestra version. I think it works better that way, and I've become accustomed to the orchestration. I guess I'll stick with it and hope that it doesn't go the way of Paradisio, a chamber orchestra piece that I wrote to finish my Dante set, but never had a sniff of a performance, even after spending three years on the SPNM shortlist.

To satisfy the urges to write for wind ensemble and resurrect Paradisio, I've decided that I might kill two birds with one stone: arrange it for wind ensemble. It makes sense. Inferno was originally written for wind ensemble and has had three performances in that version, while the orchestra version, like Paradisio, has never been played. That leaves the question of what to do with Purgatorio. That was a chamber piece, and it was expanded slightly for chamber orchestra. I don't know whether it will work for wind ensemble, but I might as well complete the set eventually. I'll arrange Paradisio, and then see what happens.

In the meantime, I had a hard disk failure a couple of days ago, which means my installation of Finale is broken, so I can't work on either of my current publishing projects - both of which were set in Finale. I was going to translate A Point of Amber Light into Sibelius, but I can't do that yet. Oyre's Garden will stay in Finale, since I already have a complete set of parts for it. I thought about changing it to adjust some of the formatting, but it might just be opening a can of worms, and frankly, I should be composing some new music now.