There was a time when I would have scoffed - SCOFFED - at being asked to arrange a Stevie Wonder tune.  But, for both of you who have kept up with this blog know, it has been a long and lonely road paved with getting over my bad self in order to reach the promised land of embracing my mad creative skills.  One such embrace took place in my car on the way home last evening.  Harmonic changes, meter alterations - one cloth right there under weeks of dusty reiteration of the recording settling on a transcription, not an arrangement.

These are the moments I long for, which is not dove - possibly the Pereclete - appearing on my shoulder whispering sweet somethings special, but finding the tool at the bottom of the bag on one last try after skinning my knuckles repeatedly on that same damn Philips head.

Less fervor, more practicality? Less zealotry, more honesty; less sweating, more sensibility?  The honeymoon begin over, the real work begins; a good day being when I revise one bar instead of writing two more?  The long view?

China, China, China. Chinese composer (studied in the west), Chinese librettest, Chinese folk tale, Chinese singers. Supertitles in English AND Italian...kidding - Chinese. 

Here's the rub for me: the composer had three seperate writing styles all in seperate boxes: 1) what sounded to my ear like traditional Chinese writing, or at least, Chinese stylized writing made playable by a western orchestra; 2) very lyric, very tonal, Puccini-esque writing with soaring, beautiful melodies; 3) Atonality with Sprechstimme.  No shit.

Which brings me to the idea of the mashup.  What would have happened, I thought as I left, if he had more aggressively worked to combine the three, or even two of the elements, into a unique voice for this work? 

My teacher told a story wherein he had an opportunity to lunch with Olivier Messiaen.  As the story goes, my teacher asked Messiaen what he thought about Jazz, to wit, he replied that he "...destested the intermingling of cultural musics, which could only lead to the weakening of both."  As my teacher would later put it to me in his own words, "When you mix water and wine, you get neither."

Not so sure.  A big fan of Multiculturalism I am not, (and I'm not exactly talking about this) but there's got to be a line between originality in terms of combining influences and trying to please everybody in a way that's like forcing together two colors of play-doh.  There's a slippery slope for me here, however, which leads down the slip'n'slide to the mud puddle of, say, using folk music, poly-tonality and electronica in a single piece, or, for that matter, having classical players try to pull off swing.  Is the difining charactistic creativity?  Maybe!

To show that I'm not really a poop.  I found this via this guy (I know, right?).  Can't say I understand the aesthetic, but I appreciate the creative amalgamation of sound.

This year, the bidding to a Holy Lent also coincides with not getting a position, the 1st anniversary of my friend's death, and a major medical showdown for a family member, so, it's generally been really easy to focus on writing.  I was listening to a radio interview with Walter Kirn, who wrote the novel which was turned into the movie, Up in the Air, which I haven't yet seen, so don't blow it for me.  He was talking about how, after he had written the book, he met with the same experience he wrote about, except that he was being terminated from a job by a guy who came in special to do it.  When the host asked if he had said something kitschy like, "Hey, I wrote the book on this!" (radio laugh track), he chuckled and said, "Well, art may imitate life, but when life happens, the last thing you think of is Art."

Walking out on the portico, throwing your arms as wide as can be and welcoming the universe in to uplift your greatness is cute.  This, however, (and among other reasons) is why I love Lindsey Vonn.  She skis on a bum leg, takes shit for posing in the SI swimsuit issue and STILL wins the gold by a half second.  Why? All she does is prepare. Evan Lysacek, too. And Ohno and Davis and White - who had the gold in hand and STILL went out and stomped the 1260- and, for that matter, Twyla Tharp, who I'm re-reading.  From the porch, I saw the preparation horse in it's stall.

There are so many road blocks it's easy to just say that the roadblocks are part of the process, but allowing them to be so is a little like saying that the war could be won if only not for the other army coming down the hill.

I was asked at a party last night what I was working on and it took me a while to come up with a coherent, engaging answer.

But it's not about the socks.  It's about square one.  Which is where I'm at.

Via Ian David Moss at Creatquity, some very interesting thoughts (his blog in general is rather interesting) about the plight of American playwrites or composers for orchestra as an excellent example of "how hard it is out there" and why.  What I learned - unions suck and I meet the demographic requirements to write for orchestra! Hooray!

In Richmond, VA in early February?  Go see my friend Bryan and his ensemble at RVAJazzfest 2010.

Rumor has it that WGBH in Boston will be braodcasting the Metropolitan Opera Council New England Regional finals on sunday 1/24. You should listen.

Right before the new year...

1) I received an offer to become a staff singer at this lovely sanctuary, which I accepted.

2) These nice folks picked up my String Quartet, putting it a step closer to potential programming.

3) I got an invitation to interview for the interim Artistic Director position with a group to be named later.

Right after the new year...

4) The nice folks at this lovely sanctuary told me they will be doing a motet and four movements of my choral Mass at a service early next month.

Well, then!

I like to make lists fo stuff I've done, particularly at stock taking times like this one.  Quite a busy boy I am!

First, the sacred stuff:

One motet - a 4 and 6 part O Sacrum Convivium

A set of Communios for lesser feasts - Epiphany, Transfiguration, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday

One more Southern Harmony song - Resignation which I wrote for my friend, ML who still hasn't done it yet, dammit.

A Unision Mass for Grace Church, Newton, for which, the Sanctus needs reworking.

The last in a set of four pieces, also for Grace - a Stabat Mater for two voice parts and organ.

I started a Magnificat last Sunday and will likely finish it before the new year.

Remember when I said I wasn't going to write any more sacred music?

And now, the not so sacred, in no particular order:

A string quartet, premiered in June

A set of songs for baritone and cello, also premiered in June

A set of four pieces for wind ensemble

A set of pieces (three complete to date, the fourth one started) for solo Trombone and voice (at the same time, by the same player, cuz he's cool like that, or because he has ADD or something)

Two piano preludes (C and Db Major, you know where that's heading...)

A piece for percussion ensemble (in progress)

Two arias and a scene for my mad libretto opera project, premiered in October.

Here's to another productive year (and to other people doing my work), the ICS project, professional developments (more on that later) and to a slew of other shit.

Signing off until the next decade!

So, take that, and add my unhealthy, one-sided relationship with pomplamoose and my general awe and wonder at their music making, which is done entirely in-house and piece by piece, and you get...

The Interwebs Choral Society.

With a little help from Garageband (and Apple computers, that are, unfortunately, required for participation) I will make available on this here website pdf scores and Garageband files, on which will be MIDI reductions of my choral works.  Singer friends who are so inclined to help can record themselves singing their voice part using the MIDI as a guide, then send it back to me for mixdown.

Wanna help?

I'm going to let you read this, (from a website launched 4 days ago) which was sent this morning to all 2,500+ members (including me) of this facebook group.

A few questions: 1) Can composers be friends? 2) Can composers engage in constructive dialogue with each other? 3) Does the fact that thousands of composers swamped a facebook page seemingly in the spirit of congenial solidarity, only to pound the group's wall with advertisements for their own material show a bit of desperation?

I'd quit the group, but I want to see how this turns out.