It's nice to have some input from the director with the direction she'd like the music to go. And by input and direction, i mean I have complete control over everything I do with only minor suggestions as to what she'd like the start of two of the three pieces to be like.

I like that.

So, now I know exactly what is expected of me, and that's making the polishing/fleshing out stage easier. I need to get my ass in gear though so I can start rehearsals later this week. She's given me plenty of time to finish, so I've relaxed my schedule a little bit...

She gave me about three weeks longer than I had planned on, so I gave myself 1 extra week. 2 weeks of buffer. I think I'm in the clear, even if I screw off a little. Also, I'm playing in an orchestra again right now, and playing makes it easier to write.

Also, I finally (two weeks, i was in no hurry) got around to having a pad replaced on my alto, so I'm practicing that, playing bass, and learning to play (French) horn. My house is far too cold though for practicing comfortably, so I'm not happy about that. But I'm a poor musician, so I'm lucky to not be trying to practice my expensive saxophone in a cardboard box outside.

But, that's besides to point. Composing these pieces is going well, but I have to get information to musicians soon, or they're gonna start backing out on me because they're all getting busy. I have to officially keep their time so they don't schedule over me. I'm probably going to just send them a rehearsal schedule and bust my ass to keep to it.

Happy Finale'ing to me!

Ugh.

I've been busy lately, both with composing and other stuff. Now, back full into composing.

I just had my FIRST meeting with the director of the production I'm writing music for. I had been under the impression that she wanted music by this meeting. turns out, she just wanted to meet to go over what she's looking for. I'm 'way ahead of schedule' as far as she's concerned. Which is good, because I got behind on MY schedule.

Anyway, need to finish drafting so I can hold a first rehearsal by the end of this coming week.

Holy crap. Haven't gotten much done in the last few days...working my ass off to get these rough drafts done by Monday.

If I don't get them done, I'll work on them at the damn auto show.

Bye everyone! I'll be back when I'm done!

Distracted

Ok, yeah, I didn't get anymore done tonight. I got distracted and researched some cars.

However, here's the instrumentation for the new music ensemble I'm creating to rehearse and record these pieces:

Flute/Piccolo
Oboe/English Horn
Clarinet
Bassoon
Trumpet
Trombone
French Horn
French Horn
Percussion
Harp
Piano
Violin
Viola
Cello
Bass

The number of strings will always fluctuate, but right now one of each is all I need, maybe two violins. I will always believe you can never have too many french horns, but then again, I do subscribe to the 1950's Hollywood horns film score idea...I can just hear those 1940-something Conn 8D horns now. Aren't they lovely?

Anyway, this is my ideal orchestra for these specific pieces, but the harp may be the first casualty. Since it's for a recording and no one will see the orchestra live, I may grab hold of a nice synthesizer and make the piano player cover harp for me. I want it to be a large part of one of the three.

SOOOooooo SLOOOOooow

This is taking me forever now...I did fine for a few days, and then BAM- no motivation for the last couple of days.

So, today I ran errands and did some stuff. Tomorrow I get to pick up a new air filter for my car and hopefully get an oil change.

Then, nothing but work.

Which is what I'm doing tonight, too.

Compose.

Dopler effect from an impending deadline

No, no, I haven't already screwed up a deadline, but I've given myself such a short time to get these done that I can feel it creeping up on me. The things is, I only need to have one of the three pieces roughed out in the next week and a half, so the fact that I set my own, more agressive schedule is my own fault.

I want to have all three roughed out by January 19th. I've got the scores set up for all three, and have ideas in place for 2 of them. My own idea was 3 days a piece. 2 days to rough one out, and a day to take it easy and do some minor polishing. As it turns out, I screwed that up on day 1 and/or 2. Part way through the day I realized I'd lost focus on one of them, so I moved on to the next to put some ideas into Finale.

Turns out, small bursts of creativity without saying "this will be done at this time before moving on to this" work out much better. Now, the overall idea is just to have the three roughed out by next Wednesday, take Thursday and Friday to fix a few things, Saturday to come up with the 1 minute reprise for each (I'm gonna be lazy here), and Sunday for last minute stuff.

Then, that next Monday, I'm off to the auto show.

There's no way I'm going to be thinking about work while I'm at the auto show.

I've lived within a couple of hours of Detroit my whole life, and even had tickets offered to me on several occasions, but I've never made it to the show.

I'm excited.

But for now, back to work.

Ugh...

Seriously, nothing ever goes the way I plan when I start working on it.

Especially writing music.

First of all, every time Finale is updated, I want to use it less and less. I used to love Finale, but now, it just gets harder for me to use...even though things have improved...odd, I know, but there are things that I don't care for now, and things I used to get a lot of use from that are gone now.

Finale really isn't that bad though, and I get used to changes quickly, but I wonder if newer versions of Sibelius have gone the other way and gotten better as far as things I want out of it. I should give Sibelius another try.

Aside from the technological issues, I can never figure out exactly how to get what I hear in my head into the score. I hear it, I can conduct it and sing it, but I can't figure out exactly how to write it. This is why I miss my midi keyboard/processor. All I had to do was sit down and screw around with it and when I knew what it was, press record. Presto.

The three pieces I'm working on right now for an original stage production are not turning out the way I hear them in my head. I'm roughing them out the way they're oozing out of my mind right now, and then after I get them down this way, I'll go back and edit them to what I really had in mind, or I'll just try again if they're gonna take too much editing. Hell, I might even get an extra couple of compositions out of it this way.

The problem is that I love what's going into the score, I just don't see them working for the production I'm writing them for. Otherwise, they're fantastic.

Anyway, back to work for a few more hours. Maybe later tonight I'll write about my "process." But, I don't want anyone stealing my ideas, 'cause, you know, my ideas are so coherent. You'll see.

Steve Reich influences

Since I'm officially working on my first official set of compositions of a full scale (meaning original compositions for a large group, not large scale as in full orchestra), and because they need to be recorded (being used for ballet in an original play), I've started putting together an ensemble to rehearse and record them.

Many people signed on so far to play for me are my friends and Brothers, all of which are still in college, many music majors, and most have a year or two left at least before graduation. I've decided to keep this group together in some form, replacing member as need be and altering instrumentation as composition sees fit. The group Steve Reich and Musicians, the "new music ensemble" that regularly performs and records the music of composer Steve Reich, is my biggest influence here, in case you hadn't guessed.

The first incarnation of this group is a small chamber orchestra, and so far my biggest worries (horns and flute/piccolo) are taken care of, and now I just need to fill out the strings and find a harpist. Or, I may drop the harp from the score. Or, I may play the harp part myself. The fact that I could record myself playing each instrument on separate tracks and combine them later on has crossed my mind, but screw that. Besides, I sold my flute, had to return my horn, and all of that percussion would be hard to sneak into my house.

Before I forget to mention, I'm also using this as a vehicle for my conducting, something I've wanted to make a bigger focus in my life for quite some time. I'm serving as the ensembles musical director, rather than a performer. There will be times that I will play, either out of necessity, or should I write a concerto, such as for saxophone, that I want to perform myself. We'll see.

I realize I've done a decent job of keeping myself from naming names and such in this blog, and that's partly because I'm new to this world and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I will be posting a roster soon, and an instrumentation will be coming first in the coming days.

Finale 2009

Ok, seriously, why would you remove the mass edit tool for Finale 2009? Honestly, finale has gotten harder for me to figure out in recent editions, not easier...I'm about ready to give Sibelius another go.

I know this seems like a silly thing to rant about, but the mass edit tool has been my favorite and most used tool since I started using the program with Finale 2001d. Now, I have to find where what menu option went and then how to use it, and the select tool is a bit too...exact...for me. I don't like not automatically selecting the entire measure.

Oh well...time to relearn.

Also, I still can't make VST/Garritan work for me. I miss my old midi setups, with my processors and boards. Now, everything is cumbersome. Maybe I will give Sibelius another shot.

I've got soemthing that I've wanted to do for a LONG time, and that's set poetry to music, like so many composers have done before me.

Now, I just need to pick the poem, or at least poet.

Please, suggestions are welcome.