A new day

Amazing what a difference a good dose of rest will make.

Ready to get to work, and now only lacking the time (in the short term) to plant the ideas onto paper. (C'est-à-dire, life has returned to normal.)  Ideas flowing both for the piece I've been asked for, for violin and harpsichord, and for a hitherto-unimagined jeu d'esprit involving a sequence of musical quotation.

But for now: off to work with my splendid little choir.

The bus, the train, the composer

Didn't do any composing as such on the morning commute. Read through the hard copy of both the Credo so far, and just what everyone was expecting. Very well pleased with the instrumental duo...in some respects, I think it some of my finest writing.

In a way, I'm not sure just what I think of the Credo. I composed far the greater part of the present draught at the piano, and I know I was happy with it at the time. My feeling, then, is that I should respect that, leave that bit intact, go on and set the remainder of the text, and then worry about it. And perhaps at that stage, any propensity to worry shall have evaporated.

This first week back into the routine, after the vacation, has been somewhat rough. But now, I have the evening off...I expect just to shut down, and leave off any intellectual effort until tomorrow at the earliest.

Enter the subtitle

Inspired by my morning commute these past couple of days, I've discovered a subtitle for Feeling the Burn (Bicycling Into the Sun).

Author's error?

In Poe's story "The Gold-Bug," the first excavation site is a failure. The mistake in locating it is attributed to Legrand's servant, Jupiter, not knowing his left from his right; and that error sets them strolling at an incorrect angle.

However, a few pages earlier, when he asks his servant if he knows left from right, Legrand himself confirms that Jupiter is left-handed.

A duo done

Yesterday, I finished (at long last, we might even say) the clarinet and marimba duet, just what everyone was expecting, five-minute jazz-ish (I have to add that -ish, lest I field accusations of trying to practice jazz without a license) flurry of energy for the two players.  The piece had lain largely finished since mid-September, at which time I needed to concentrate not only on practicing for the October recital at King's Chapel, but on writing a short piece for Peter & myself to play.  As I was writing that piece (Zen on the Wing) I formed the idea of a trio (title yet to be settled upon), concluding a set of three subset duos, the four pieces all together to comprise the Op.114.

So (you see where this is going), if four notes be a start, I have started a flute/marimba duet, Feeling the Burn, a piece with as yet no home.

This morning I've been revisiting (again, at long last) the Credo, which probably I had not touched for a year.  Plugging the existing manuscript into Sibelius, and at quite a relaxed pace (for I am enjoying this vacation thing).

Drama

A funny thing. Well, in a way.

Two men, both with a background in Literature / the Arts, both of them with a lively appreciation of Shakespeare. No question, then, not only of the importance of Hamlet to world literature, nor of enjoying it personally. And on the personal level it is of course not a question of mere enjoyment, but of enrichment.

Two men, brothers in fact, and in spite of any difference in years, both of them at an age where they are more apt to appreciate a witty comedy than the heartstring-straining heights of tragedy.

(And this is not about Hamlet, which awaits another time.)

Notwithstanding a general indisposition, let us call it, to tragedy at this time of their lives...enjoying together the poignancy, and yet the light footprint, of Reign Over Me.

Pour les vacances

It is a task which has been executed in two states and across an expanse of 900 miles, but I have done with the new Sibelius file of the woodwind-quintet-&-piano scoring for (c'est–à–dire, the original version of) Counting Sheep.  That process was valuable, too, as a proof of the new, "Pierrot-plus" ensemble version of the score, which (to tell the truth and shame the devil) was purt near riddled with errata and omissions.

Angling towards (at last) completing just what everyone was expecting, which has lain one minute (a scant 60 seconds) shy of done since mid-September.  However, the recent Reinhardt University Percussion Ensemble performance of Journey to the Dayspring has inspired me to get a fresh perc. ens. piece started:  My Island Home.

(Somewhere, I probably no longer have either the Finale file nor the hard copy of a start I made long ago of the piece . . . so I am reviving the title without worrying about any of that antique music.)