watch this space

The complete terror of committing to a project combines nicely with the putting-your-money-where-you-mouth-is-ness of getting a job done.  The task - 7 minutes of ear-splitting beauty wrapped in the philo dough of Edgar Allen Poesian mystery and mayhem.  No problem.

I've seen libretti before, and plays in written form, so I have and idea of how they're supposed to look on the page - CHARACTER NAMES are in all caps, stage direction in italics 

and sung texts

are written 

with poetry-like spacing.

But the ugly head of grammar rears it's...um, ugly head. Past perfect? Participles? Greek to me.  My teacher would tell a story of an attractive older woman who took a shine to him when he was an undergraduate.  To make him palatable, she demanded that he act like a gentleman, including learning to speak proper English with a clear understanding of the correct parts of speech and how to use them.  To the point, he did.  It's amazing what incentive can do.

While the prospect of a full production is alluring, I don't see myself going on a sentence diagramming spree.  I do wish, however, that I would have paid a smidge more attention in my high school English classes. Incentive... 

News flash with eminently debateable significance

in my busy-ness, I forgot the following:

3) Readings!  Band pieces and piano preludes!  I posted a Seth Godin-ism from this morning on FB that seems to have hit a nerve with a few folks.  Here's the whole post; here's the quote:

If your business or your music or your art or your project is truly worth your energy and your passion, then don't sell it short by putting its future into a lottery ticket.

Here's another way to think about it: delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly about finding a path and walking it one step at a time.

4) England tour with the Choir of Trinity Boston.  On said tour - the UK premiere of one of my motets!  Watch out, English choral tradition!  How bout some minor ninths up in yo grill!

5) I'm actually getting the sacred choral music into the hands of choir directors successfully.  Do you have a church choir?  Do you know and love a church choir director? Wanna put in a word for me?  Wanna read that Godin quote again? 

First of all, stop what you're doing and subscribe to the RSS feed from Seth Godin's blog. Now.  I'll wait...

Ok

Speaking of too much to do and not enough time to do it, the following projects have, quite literally, waltzed into the transom of my scatteredness:

1) Rapido! - People asking what "Miniatures" in my FB status meant will soon understand.  Can Frank write 4-6 minutes of music and have it postmarked before leaving town on Thursday?  

2) Bent Wit - Mark yo calendars for August 8th!  10 minute opera based on this Poe story in the works!  Click here for additional amusement. Props to the Identity show, btw.

Where do you put the tired when it's most of what you gots?

See, that's what the ICS needed - a conductor.