Divers Erasures

The title Harsher Erasures is too good to discard, so I shall reserve it for a future orchestral tone-poem (or Overture, possibly).  In the present case, I find that the adaptation of Discreet Erasures for the present call requires no such invasive surgery as I had at first imagined, so we shall instead call it a version 2, and designate it Op.99a.  What needs to change?  The scoring for the call permits only one percussionist in addition to the timpanist;  and where the Op.99 is scored for triple woodwind, the call allows only double.  In fact, though, with judicious reassignment, the alternative scoring can be accommodated with negligible loss.  Yesterday’s work was largely a matter of the percussion reassignment.  The only other change is actually an addition:  the original piece has only two trumpets, but the Op.99a will find employment for a third.

Intrepid mezzo Megan Ihnen has responded with highly gratifying warmth to the now-texted Considering My Bliss Options.  A new task on my slate is the happy one of furnishing a sound file as a Guide to the Pronunciation of New Jersey Municipalities.  It’s a Jersey job, but someone’s gotta do it.