Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and string quintet is now available on CreateSpace.

Symphony No 3 now availablle

You can buy it on Createspace here. It should go live on Amazon.com in up to 3 days, and on Amazon partners in a week or so. If you have a choice, buy it on Createspace. (I get a larger royalty.)

My proof copy of Chaos Theory is on its way, so that should go live in a week or so.

Chaos Theory

It has all gone very quickly. I have notes in every bar from beginning to end, which means that I have written all the new material that spans the last gap in Chaos as well. Basically, all I need to finish is the typesetting and the reduction of the Chaos second movement material that closes Chaos Theory. With luck that means I'll finish two new pieces in the next couple of weeks - 3 in January 2015.

That means I'm nearly there, so we should be able to start rehearsals on it right away to record it ASAP.

Better get back to it...

Two birds, one cadenza

A day after my last post, I completely changed my mind about what to do for a new piece to record for grant applications. I was looking through my Chaos materials and was thinking that maybe I should write a piano piece. (But wait a moment...) The largest missing section of Chaos is actually a large piano cadenza. Granted, I was almost up to the point where the piano stopped playing alone, but I thought, "Why not compose the cadenza as a separate piano piece and then take the best parts and use them in the concerto?"

That idea didn't last long. It meant writing a whole new piece, which was something that I wanted to avoid. Rather than compose a whole lot of music that I wouldn't ultimately use (something I have done a lot in the past 20 years), I decided to go ahead and write that missing cadenza and the accompanying instruments in a chamber version, then re-score the rest of the middle movement for that ensemble, using the instruments I knew I would have available to record it. All I would have to do would be write a beginning for the ensemble - which I may adapt from another "beginning" that I have never used, but really like, for a piece provisionally named At the Ends of a Double Rainbow. It's just the right length, and I could easily adapt the pitch material to lead into the beginning of the second movement of Chaos, then bring back some of the free stuff as the accompaniment to the freer portion of the concerto cadenza. Not only would it be a strong opening, but a source of material for later in the movement. Not only that, it's almost the identical instrumentation to what I had planned for the chamber version of the movement.

That all ought to give me a substantial movement of 8-10 minutes for piano and chamber ensemble, which I will probably call Chaos Theory, more from its derivation from the Chaos source material than actually Chaos Theory, although this piece will have had a fractal development. First, a wind ensemble piece, then a piano concerto, incorporating a piano cadenza and a chamber orchestra piece. Hopefully, it won't accumulate more, as this giant snowball continues downhill, since I had already planned to use At the Ends of a Double Rainbow as part of a second piano concerto with a chamber orchestra. I can't use the same movement in two piano concertos - can I?

NO.

Let's see what I come up with when I continue working on it today.

Next on the list ...

I sent off my file previews for approval today, so I should be ordering the first print proof of Symphony No 3 tomorrow.

Next on the list is the syllabus for my Eartraining class this term, which won't take long, and then I might have a go at finishing Chaos by the end of next week, just to get it out of the way.

I have decided to keep my next project small. As I mentioned before, I need to record something new to send off with grant proposals. I've decided that, rather than attempt to finish something that I've started, I'm going to arrange my second string quartet for sinfonietta. It was never performed, and may have been unperformable without a conductor anyway. I think it will work as a larger piece, and will at least give me a chance to do something that I have done a lot of lately and can do quickly - and that it orchestrate/arrange. Re-arranging Chaos for wind ensemble is still a possibility, but I'll need to un-make it a piano concerto - and reintegrate a larger woodwind section, while removing the strings. Ultimately, I think it would be too difficult to put together in a few rehearsals, which is all I will have - and it would need way too many players.

I'll post availability of the new Symphony when it happens, probably in a couple of weeks.

One cork blown

Finally, today I finished typesetting the first proof of my third symphony. I still have to proof it, and I know there are things to do, like have a serious look at the percussion. In the 25 years that it has taken for me to get to this point, I'm bound to have been inconsistent about who is playing what in the percussion section - and I'm certain player 2 is playing the tomtoms in the first movement, and player 3 is playing them at the end. I am also considering changing the notation to single line percussion when possible.

And of course, I'll have to check through and make sure all the harp tunings are possible.

At least the hardest part of it is finished.

The Cork in the Bottle(s)

As you have read, I've decided to finish typesetting my third Symphony. Why? It is probably the least critical on my list of things to finish. I don't have a performance lined up, although the dedicatee has hinted that he might program it.

It's first on my list because it is the cork in the bottle. I've been unable to finish pieces because this one remains unfinished. I'm progressing well. I have only 16 pages left to set, which in the old days, I could do in two, but I imagine I'll finish early next week.

And then I'll progress to the other cork in the other bottle, Chaos, which again is nearly finished. I've been setting it as I worked on it, so just fill the cadenza gap, and a couple of spots where the scoring is a little thin, and that would be done, too.

Then I can concentrate on something that matters, like my double concerto, or more importantly, something I can record to submit as recent work to fund the double concerto.

It never ends.