To my old friend Michael, I wrote this morning:
Late last century (i.e., long, long ago now) I wrote a piece for orchestral winds (plus percussion), for Clemson University. In the texture, I applied rhythmic patterns inspired by an African drumming seminar taught at the University of Virginia by the Professor of Jazz Studies, Scott Deveaux. A bit whimsically, I sent my score and a soundfile to Scott, asking him to confirm that I would not be liable to charges of Practicing Jazz Without a License. He wrote back to assure me that I was safe – “although it does have a groove; how unimaginative of you.”
While I am perfectly content with Rejoice as it stands (and we are preparing it with four players using mallets, each player managing three bells) one of my most reliably faithful ringers is rejoining us in rehearsal this coming Sunday, and I do not want her to be left out. So this evening my work will be to add an ‘extra ringer obbligato’.
The flash of [recycling-]inspiration this morning is, to take the Organ Sonata (which has not, to my knowledge, seen any performance yet) and – taking a cue from William Schuman’s arrangement of Charles Ives’s “America” Variations – arranging it for large symphonic band, with A Particular Local Ensemble in mind.
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