Category: Creativity

Creating something every day for 365 days

3 Old Men: the skirt (day 4)

Posted on by Dale

So I rebuilt the sashes, and they work much better.

The new layout:

I laboriously cut the monks cloth along the weave, serged the edges, and basted it onto the lining.

I gave myself a broader strip in which to enclose the piping.

Et voilà!

They’re much cleaner with no loose edges to torment me.

In other news, I took a deep breath and finished the waistband and attached it to the skirt.  I’m all done except the center back seam, which I will do today.

However.

I pinned together the waistband in the back and tried the thing on.  I am not at all pleased with the results.  The waistband is a marvelously beautiful piece of work, but it’s too bulky.  I’m going to have to play with it more, especially this weekend when the Old Men meet to put together the labyrinth for the first time and test drive the ritual.

And no, I am not posting photos of the skirt in situ, as it were.  You will have to attend a Burn to see that.

update, 9/12/14: After working with a couple of entirely new designs, I revisited my finished skirt and decided to try just cutting off the top three inches of the waistband, i.e., the floppy, un-rollable mess.  Et voilà, it worked.  The result is clunky in a really groovy neo-Phoenician way.  I think the team is going to approve.

Behind on everything

Posted on by Dale

As you can tell, I’m running behind on everything, so no time to blog with any thoughtfulness at all.

So, to make up for all the time you’d otherwise waste reading a week’s worth of blogposts here, have a link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/500-years-worth-book-illustrations-have-just-been-liberated-print-180952621/

WARNING: Do not click on that link. And if you do, DO NOT CLICK ON THE FLICKR LINK.

Just don’t do it.

In other news…

Posted on by Dale

I recently renewed my membership in the American Composers Forum and immediately began looking over the Opportunities available to members.

So far today, I have submitted the following:

  • Fresh Squeezed Opera Company: They were looking for new arias, etc., so I submitted “My mother, bored and pampered,” promising to orchestrate it for their small ensemble if they select it.
  • Denison University Tutti Festival: I submitted two works, the Pieces for Bassoon and String Quartet, and “Blakes Leads a Walk on the Milky Way.”

I’m also considering inquiring about the Sacramento State University’s odd little posting about premiering works and students studying the history of such premieres.  I mean, why not?  Who says I can’t whack out a new piece for chorus and small ensemble by “early November”?

I’ll keep you posted about further submissions as I continue to explore the Opportunities.

I’m bored.

Posted on by Dale

Having finished orchestrating Dream One and practically finished laying in the flagstone around the fire pit, I have written all the letters I can stand to write at the moment, so I am casting about for something to occupy myself.

I suppose I could tackle Five Easier Pieces, but I’m not that bored.  I think what I shall do instead is tinker with Dream Three, the libretto of which I don’t technically have but the tone of which I think I can work on without too many issues down the road.  Specifically, I’m going to take the Minotaur’s first speech from Scott’s script and pretend that’s my text.  Even if that’s not what we end up with, I will have the opening to the scene regardless; words are easy to adapt if you use a crowbar.

Dream One, “And what of us?”

Posted on by Dale

I think this worked out quite well.

Dream One, 4c. “And what of us/Let us joyfully gaze” | piano score [pdf] | orchestral mp3

While working on this bit, I dug into Finale and figured out lots of keyboard shortcuts for the things I do the most.  It’s incredible how well hidden some of them are.  I learned two or three versions ago to buy the Trailblazer Guide to accompany the software.  It’s not very in-depth, but it does have a lot of helpful hints on how to approach your workflow.  I got a lot more efficient with this piece—which is good, since I have six more Dreams to go!

And in case you hadn’t noticed, Dream One is now completely orchestrated.

Dream One, “My mother, bored and pampered”

Posted on by Dale

In the best tradition of artists everywhere, I am declaring Ariadne’s aria abandoned completed, at least until I have to fix it for good.  It kind of works, and right now that will have to serve.

Besides thinning out some of the accompaniment in her big moment, I also finally got Finale to pay attention when I asked it to slow down the tempo.  Something got borked in the tempo marking itself; I deleted it and created a new one.  Who knows?  Finale’s technical support (staffed ENTIRELY BY UNICORNS YOU GUYS) certainly doesn’t.

Dream One, 4b. “My mother, bored and pampered | piano score (pdf) | orchestral mp3

I am hoping that the last section, “And what of us,” is going to be clear sailing, since it’s all motifs from earlier—Daedalus’s fly/fall motif and the machine music—and then the end is straight up copy/pasting from the opening number.

A new understanding of “Fly and fall”

Posted on by Dale

I’m going to brag on my music, which I don’t normally do.  Bear with me.

Last night, in the labyrinth, I put on my headphones and gave a listen to “Fly and fall” (mp3) because I wanted to hear what it sounded like under the full moon, which was doing this incredible Dance of the Seven Veils with clouds and fog after the storm earlier in the evening.

Here’s what I heard:  it sounds like—I suppose because it is—a commercial for a new luxury car.  Daedalus is very proud of his achievement in sending his son skyward every year, and it shows.  Icarus is sleek, gleaming, fast, and sexy.   The monitors onstage would show this neatly packaged vision of the Event.

For example:

Cool, huh?  Yes, I spent time on that image (Icarus image credit here) instead of hammering out orchestration issues in “My mother, bored and pampered.”  Or napping.

Only at the end, in the unexpected key lurch, do we hear Daedalus’s actual excitement and pride—and with “just as surely fall,” his fear—for his son.

I do hope that I get hired to direct this thing.

In other news, Scott, make a note: I just noticed that in this annual Event, Daedalus is no longer making the flight himself.  That’s probably a point for Icarus to make in the great debate in Dream Four.

Dream One, “My mother, bored and pampered”

Posted on by Dale

Okay, the bothersome passages are getting there, but I’m still quite unsatisfied.

Part of the problem that interests me is the shift from the cheesy, honky-tonk, and really kind of funny tone of the first part into the “woman scorned” fury of the second part.  What I have at the moment is tremendous, sound-wise, and I think what I’m trying to suss out is what kind of motivation I’m trying to assign to the mezzo.  Does she really need the snare drum roll and the explosive tam-tam to make this work?  Does it work?  I don’t know yet.

Anyway, I’m posting what I’ve got.  It’s not right, and it’s not finished.

Dream One, 4b. “My mother, bored and pampered” | piano score [pdf] | orchestral mp3

In other news, I will probably finish the flagstone around the firepit today.  Photos later.

Fireside additions

Posted on by Dale

I think it’s absolutely insane to compose in the morning and then get out to work in the labyrinth after lunch when the day is at its hottest.  Don’t know why I do it.

At any rate, I’ve been slogging away at putting down flagstone around the fire pit.  I’m about 80% finished:

It’s going to be a nice touch.  Going barefoot won’t meant stepping on unexpected gravel any more, if by “barefoot” you mean “with no clothes on” and OF COURSE I DON’T MEAN THAT WHY WOULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING EVEN?

Those who visit on a regular basis will be relieved to see that I am leveling out the area on the right, where it’s still a pile of dirt.  No more feeling as if you’re falling over backwards.  Well, not from the horizontality of the chair, anyway.

It looks as if it’s going to be one more trip to the flagstone store, and then I will be done with that project.

Still struggling with the orchestration of Ariadne’s big outburst. It’s getting better. I’ve added a snare drum, a tam-tam, and the xylophone to the big moment.  Probably too much, but I’m going to let it sit there and annoy me for a while.  I keep avoiding brass for the simple reason that we’ve just heard the brass underscore Icarus’s big moment, and I hesitate to repeat the motif.

In general, I feel as if I really need to start exploring percussion more—it is a 21st century opera, after all.  I can kind of hear all kinds of wild rhythms on the quad toms, but I have no idea how to do that.  (Spoiler: just start slapping notes up there, idiot, just like you do with everything else…)