Almost there....

The....website....reboot....is....almost....ready....

Meanwhile, the engraving of the guitar piece is done. Here's a picture of the last page, which is a nice segue to the last blog post in which the same material appears in manuscript.

The work continues....

Double bars, and sketching a score...

In music notation, a double barline signifies the end of a piece or a movement and it is a particularly satisfying symbol to draw. One slim, vertical line is followed by a bolder, thicker one immediately adjacent to it. Working with pencil, it takes several strokes before the shape is revealed. It's a lead eating beast, forcing every finish to be a flourish.

I still really like making my manuscript with pencil and paper. Whereas I always "engrave" the final copy of the score in notation software, this manuscript phase is an important stage in composing that teaches me too much to even consider eliding. It is direct, but takes time. It forces me to be organized, but allows me freedom to explore, to make mistakes, to adjust. I make sure that the manuscript is more than just a sketch, too: it is a fully realized score with straight, ruled lines, and well-formed noteheads. Hypothetically, one could perform from the manuscript. Yet it is still an intermediate stage in the composing process, and the final, engraved score almost always has some (at least minor) editorial changes.

This is where I find myself with my current project, a solo guitar piece for the amazing Pablo Gómez Cano. The double barlines have been drawn on the first movement (which I think can be played alone), and I will start the engraving process soon. But not too soon. It's nice to revel in the moment.

Absence, for guitar: 1st movement, last page

And now, back to the guitar...

Here is Pablo playing the introduction of Murail's Tellur. It's pretty amazing.

Now, about that recording...

I'll have more to say about this in a future post, but it appears that the recording made during the San Diego Symphony's reading of In Winter will be blasted with a white noise track in order to render it "unsuitable for broadcast." Of course, I already signed an agreement stating I wasn't going to try to broadcast or publish the recording anyway -- I'd just like a copy for personal use: study and promotion. So this doesn't affect you, the listener, but the implications for composers and performers are unfortunate, as this seems to place a wedge into this critical relationship.

At any rate, there will be more later. However, since this treads closely to a very interesting blog post by Nico Muhly that got a lot of press coverage, I'll just link to it here. The comments are worth reading, too.

On Being an Orchestral Composer....

One could get used to this.

It was an absolute joy to hear my piece In Winter and to interact with the incredible musicians in the San Diego Symphony. It was a remarkable experience to see what they were capable of accomplishing with this music in such a short period of time. It was such an honor to be a part of the EarShot program and to work with the distinguished members of the Symphony, maestro James Feddeck, and mentor composers John Corigliano, Robert Beaser, and Rand Steiger. Congratulations to my fellow participant composers in the program: Chen-Hui Jen, David Kirkland Garner, and Paul Frucht. It was a pleasure to meet all of you, and to hear your music come to life.

Prior to the readings, I shared a few thoughts about the occasion in this interview with Dirk Sutro at UCSD's department of music.