Groundwork for the Opus 200

 From the Department of Gawdelpus: “N.’s music is, in the deepest sense, a spiritual journey.” Dial down the unctuousness, please. More matter and less phosphorescence.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

You know, a lot of people don’t bother about their friends in the vegetable kingdom. They think, “What can I say?...”
— Zappa, “Call Any Vegetable”

I may or may not have duly reported the following in a timely fashion, so this is Old News. I met Matthew Marsit, Music Director of the Charles River Wind Ensemble on the occasion of a performance of the same in Lexington. He was (and always remains) gracious and welcoming. I mentioned a variety of scores I already had in my portfolio, such as Out in the Sun and In the Artist’s Studio, but he gently advised me that in the case of this group, he considers only pieces for the full ensemble, so that there should be musical occupation for everybody. Fair Enough. On returning home, therefore, I began work on a piece for full symphonic band, The Nerves, which I already planned for the first movement of what would become my Symphony N° 2 for Band, Karl’s Big (But Happily Incomplete) Map to the Body. Here is a blog post from that era. Matt & yours truly had a very nice refresher conversation at the latest CRWE concert. I am in some hope that he may consider programming the Opus 148. The principal concern, so to say, simply being that a 35-minute Symphony is perforce half a program. My takeaway is that in all events, I should have in my portfolio some pieces (yes, I’ll use the plural there) of shorter duration for not only Matt’s consideration, but for that of any other Band Director. That is where the Opus 200 will come in. Now (id est, at this time) of course, I am perforce happily pre-occupied with adding a bassoon and clarinet to a number of pieces for the present Henning Ensemble concerts, but a corner of my musical mind wished just to plant a stake in the sonic ground, so I have just done (what I seldom do in my advanced compositional age) some “pre-compositional” work, nothing as yet elaborate, just a bare outline with verbal cues for my musical mind. As in the past, having a sense of overall architecture can be an aid, always with the understanding that when I do set to work, I may modify or stray from the schema as the music itself may please. My present thought is a twelve-minute piece, and whether the piece says what it needs in twelve, or stretches to 15, we shall see hereafter.

Today, however, it’s more work on Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road.