just a note

Today I’ve entered the names of the sections of stars & guitars into the Sibelius score. Playback for this piece has been a strange affair, as the sound library loaded in the program doesn’t recognize the octave transposition of the bass flute down below the range of the standard flute . . . so I took ten minutes or so to create a duplicate file, and add a clarinet staff to take up the “missing” notes. The playback is a useful tool for making sure (a) that I didn’t make any typos entering notes in, and even (b) that errant key-strokes have not messed up the odd measure at unawares (and indeed I found that what ought to have been — and what in fact I had originally entered as — a whole-note, had somehow morphed into a quarter-note plus quarter- and half-rest).

When I stopped playback to restore that whole-note, my mom-in-law complimented me. “It sounds very beautiful.” Now, one may think that this is simply a kindly relative (and she is that, to be sure); but Mom is a fine artist herself, and does not sling the adjective beautiful casually. And the composer thought, in gratitude, if it sounds that good in the mechanical MIDI, how much better it will sound in actual performance.

Still need to finish composing the final section, the alborada.

[ click on picture for larger image ]