Haven’t really done anything today, but I do have a rant to share.
I’m considering making a bumper sticker that looks like this:
Musings (Day 82/365)
In the white heat of work… or what passes for it… I find that my posts have been simply, “Look, here’s today’s results.” I haven’t been very interesting in my writing, I’m afraid.
It’s not there’s been no struggle in getting William Blake’s Inn orchestrated. There’s been plenty. But it’s nothing to write about. Choosing whether to use the trombone or not is not exactly an existential dilemma. (For the record, I prefer the double bass.)
However, I feel as if I’m at a place where I need to pause for a moment and look about, to see where I need to go next. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Cancer Ward that you had to beware the “final inch,” that point at which you’re nearly finished with a project and you begin dragging your feet in order not to finish it. There is something terrible about being done with a project, and most creative types relish the creative frenzy of starting a project than the tedium and finality of wrapping one up.
Not a lot (Day 81/365)
I didn’t create a lot today. I designed and started a spiffy display in the display case at school for the 100 Book Club, but nothing on William Blake or anything like that.
Since Grayson is home for fall break, we went to the Georgia Aquarium and then to eat at the Pleasant Peasant, so that’s where that time went.
The Georgia Aquarium is quite spectacular, although design-wise I much prefer the Tennessee Aquarium. Georgia’s big show, the whale shark tank, is huge, and I like the fact that you get multiple views of it, and that there are places to sit and just watch, something that Tennessee really could use for its biggie, the Gulf tank. Tennessee has more written material with each exhibit, but Georgia uses staffers (mostly volunteer) to answer questions and to engage the audience.
The main design issue with Georgia Aquarium is the great atrium. It really does look like a food court, and I don’t think the colorful facades of each attraction “pod” are going to age well. It’s also very loud.
Still, it’s worth the trip, because aquariums are always beautiful.
Tale of the Tailor (Day 80/365)
After I posted Sun & Moon Circus last night on the William Blake page, I realized that I had never posted an mp3 of the piano score of the final piece, 15. Blake Tells the Tiger the Tale of the Tailor. So I whipped one up and posted it.
Now the collection is complete, for those of you who want your very own copy of the piano scores and a CD to go with them.
I keep saying Tale of the Tailor is the final piece, but it’s not. There’s an epilogue, and it must be set to music. But I’m going to write it later, probably during rehearsal. It’s going to be a quolibet of themes, ending as it began with the opening number’s music.
So there it is. Thirty-four minutes of music.
Now what?
Sun & Moon Circus (Day 79/365)
I worked on cleaning up 4. The Sun and Moon Circus Soothes the Wakeful Guests. It’s OK, but I’m betting we revisit it in rehearsal. There are a couple of hiccups where my little laptop just didn’t have the computing power to get all the beats into each measure.
Here’s the piano score and orchestral mp3 of 4. The Sun and Moon Circus Soothes the Wakeful Guests.
I also updated one choral part in 10. Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way.
Now I burn this CD and pop it into the mail with the score.
Tiger, Tiger (Day 78/365)
I’ve always liked 14. The Tiger Asks Blake for a Bedtime Story. It’s such a sweet little scenario, the tiger with his tummy-ache asking for Blake to soothe his pain. Of course, Blake responds with the gleefully perverse Tale of the Tailor, but that’s another posting.
This is one of those pieces I composed very early, so it’s at least twenty years old. It was always very, very simple in its approach. However, as I was scoring the section where the tiger admits his fault and appeals to Blake, I discovered some interesting harmonies that I suppose were implied. They’re there now. Maybe later in rehearsal we’ll throw them all out and just use the bass line, as in the piano score, but for right now I’m kind of digging them.
Herewith, the piano score and the orchestrated mp3 of 14. The Tiger Asks Blake for a Bedtime Story.
And here concludes all the work I can do using the Garritan Personal Orchestra within Finale. The four remaining large pieces will have to be done using the Softsynth instruments, which are certainly not shabby in the least. However, they’re not as lively, and I will be missing some instruments and some control. Who knows? Maybe I’ll splurge on a new computer.
The other milestone we’ve reached here is that I can finally get the CD and score mailed to Nancy Willard. I promised it to her some weeks ago; after telling her I wanted to clean up some of the piano score sound files, I got wrapped up in the actual orchestration. Oh well, this is certainly better.
Not a lot (Day 77/365)
Mondays are Masterworks Chorale nights, so I never get a lot of my own work done.
I did open up an orchestral score file of the last piece, 15. Blake Tells the Tiger the Tale of the Tailor, to find that I had already done a lot of work on the first half of it in the SoftSynth instrumentation. I don’t like it, it doesn’t fit what I’ve been hearing recently in my head as I listen to the piano score in the car, but there it was.
It also drove home that I will most sensibly score my larger pieces using the SoftSynth option.
A Postcard (Day 76/365)
This one took a lot of work, and I’m not sure I’m through with it yet. The King of Cats returns with his second show-stopper, 13. The King of Cats Sends a Postcard to his Wife. I’m not at all sure that the KoC is not the “old man’s lunatic cat” referred to by the Bear in 3. A Rabbit Reveals My Room, and the music of this piece reflects that.
Here are the score and the mp3 file. There are some weird tempo issues near the end that I can’t get the computer to correct.
A dance to mend us (Day 75/365)
This morning, I orchestrated 12. The Marmalade Man Makes a Dance to Mend Us. This is one of those slight cheats, since the original piano score was easy enough to do with the eventual instrumentation: flute/pizzicato cello. As you’ll hear, the completed orchestration is not much more complex.
Here’s my question: does it need to be more complex?
Here are the piano score and the orchestral mp3.
I have two more smallish pieces to do, 13. The King of Cats Sends a Postcard, and 14. The Tiger Asks Blake for a Bedtime Story, and then I’m faced with a dilemma. Anything even approaching a full orchestra simply overloads my laptop. It doesn’t have enough memory. It’s clear that I’m going to need a new computer before going much further with this project. The remaining pieces, 5. The Man in the Marmalade Hat Arrives, 9. The Wise Cow Makes Room, Way, and Believe, 10. Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way, and 15. Blake Tells the Tiger the Tale of the Tailor, all of which are huge orchestrally-speaking-wise.
So can I get another laptop, which would be my preference, or will the memory requirements of Finale 2006/7 and Garritan Personal Orchestra force me to buy another desktop computer, which will be a great deal of money more than I want to spend? This will require a lot of research and a couple of extended visits to the Apple Store at Lenox.
A little something (Day 74/365)
Since we have another full evening, I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to do anything real today, so instead I’ve gone back and taken the SoftSynth orchestration of 1. William Blake’s Inn for Innocent and Experienced Travelers and converted it to the GPO version. It’s a bit glitchy because of my poor laptop’s memory issues, but it’s a nice setting.