12 August 2018

Avant-Florida

Some new titles for future use (some of them, old posts which a body forgets):

  • Steely Élites
  • Three Senior Moments in Five Minutes
  • The Fourth Thing I Forgot Yesterday

Listening this morning to “Papa’s” String Quartets Op. 9 № 4 in d minor, and Op. 17 № 6 in D Major, played by the Festetics Quartet.

Driving home on the Mass Pike yesterday, there were stretches when the sky opened up, and the downpour was of such fury that visibility suffered greatly.  Could not stop (which I might have done if I were on, say, Pleasant Street), but happily the motorists ahead of and behind me slowed down, too, and we all continued to maintain safe distances.  Stayed alert, and luckily no accident befell me.

This is the week when the Rapido! contest announces the decisions.

Something like four weeks late, the ACO decision was announced, Friday, or Saturday, I do not know.  We composers whose work was not selected did not receive the courtesy of an email message.  Rather than any complaint at this, it seems of a piece with the degraded professionalism of the endeavor.  The word that comes September from another call, will be courteous, but (I expect) not any more encouraging.

As ever, I need to forge my own encouragement at the furnace of my work.

A week from today, I shall be in Florida, hearing Mei Mei Luo & Paul Cienniwa perform Plotting.  It is a great gift that they are reviving the piece, that I have been made welcome to share my thoughts about the piece with the audience before the concert, and that there will be a “Meet the Composer” reception afterwards.



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