Vestiges, mvt. 3, and wrapping up 2014

Hello friends!

The year is coming to an end, and as promised I am checking in to post about my progress this past month. I have worked on my song cycle for 29 of the 31 days of this month, and I am really enjoying my daily music writing practice. I hope to keep up daily writing in the new year.

As for the song cycle I am writing, it now has a name: Chansons Innocentes, after the set of five poems written by E. E. Cummings, which I am setting for soprano, clarinet, and piano. I am very excited about this work. I am not quite finished with the first complete draft of the entire cycle, but I am pleased with the progress I have made toward its completion in the past two months. In December, I wrote most of the remaining song called "little tree," which will be the third of five songs in the cycle. I am eager to share my sketches with Emma Rose Lynn, for whom I am writing these songs.

Finally, before I sign off for 2014, I received in my email inbox today a link to an audio recording of Vestiges, third movement, which was performed back in October by the Saint Helens String Quartet. I was delighted with the musicianship of the performance, which I was unable to attend in person. I uploaded the audio to youtube so I could share it with you:

This movement is the third of four, which I wrote for Robert Lombardo, in memory of his late wife, poet and playwright, Kathleen Lombardo.

Checking in: Weeks 3–4 of NaMuWriMo

It is the last day of the month, as well as the last day of NaMuWriMo, the challenge I set for myself to write music EVERY DAY for at least 30 minutes. Traveling around the Thanksgiving holiday threw me off more than anticipated, and I must report that I have written music 28 days out of the possible 30--missing two days. Still not bad--and certainly GREATER THAN ZERO!

So I now have sketches for the following parts of the song cycle I have been writing:

Prelude (partial sketch)

I. "in just" (about 2/3 completed)

II. "hist whist" (complete)

IV. "why did you go (little kittens)" (complete)

V. "tumbling-hair" (complete)

Postlude

So to complete the cycle, I have to finish composing the prelude and first song ("in just") and write the entirety of the third song of the cycle ("little tree"). This is not a bad level of productivity for just one month of composing, almost every day for short periods of time. In fact, I surprised myself in being able to write as much as I did. Cool!

Other lessons I have learned through this challenge:

• Writing something is better than writing nothing. GREATER THAN ZERO!
• Sitting at the piano and writing nothing is better than not trying at all.
• I had very few days that felt entirely uninspired, and even on those days I managed to scribble down a couple of half-hearted measures. I never wrote NOTHING (how's that for a nice double negative?).
• I do best when I write in the morning before I go to work.
• I really do enjoy writing music. 
• I shouldn't let fear of criticism prevent me from writing music.

So what is next now that this challenge (and month) is done? Well, for starters, I still need to finish writing this song cycle. I have set a reasonable goal for December to finish my rough sketch of the remaining movements, put the entire cycle into music notation software, and revise it a bit. Then I will send it to the soprano for whom I wrote the piece and see what she thinks. Hopefully, she'll like it, and we will be able to make some plans for a future performance. I'll post again before the end of the year to make good on my goal and STAY ACCOUNTABLE. And who knows what challenges the new year will hold!?