Another year
I’ve just finished the first draft of Katie Crook’s commission, ‘Wild, wild the storm.’ And what a relief! I always had thought that writing a fast, loud piece would in a sense be easier than writing a nice, slow melody. In a sense, it is certainly more invigorating when listening to the final results; the purposeful lack of refinement (I suppose it’s some sort of postmodern take on Bartok or middle Stravinsky) is a welcome change from the norm. But the problem is, scribbling so many notes on the page takes far longer than I had planned! In any case, this evening, in a sudden burst of productivity, I finished it. The work weighs in at a grand total of four minutes and should be quite fun. It’s full of rapid figurations in each hand, fast repeated notes, crashing (and quite dangerous!) octaves, and slight pauses, full of tension. I’m convinced Katie will do nicely with it.
In two weeks, it’s back to South Carolina to begin work on a composition degree with Dan Forrest and a whole new set of experiences, most of which I’m excited to begin. The year brings with it several more commissions, including music for Doug Westcott’s staging of ‘The Screwtape Letters’ and two hymn settings for Suemi Harrison and Sarah Graf (both sopranos). And there are a few things in the works performance-wise about which I’ll hopefully be posting soon–cross your fingers! 