Fall Projects Update

I have been looking at my list of pieces I would like to compose.  I have also been thinking about my next project.  In an earlier post I wrote that I will be doing an orchestration of Playing in the Shadows for the call for scores for the 2010 New Music @ ECU Festival.  The deadline for this call is coming up in a couple of weeks and I realize that I do not have enough time to meet this deadline.  Therefore, I have decided to put this project on hold.

My first priority remains the Dream Cycle.  I will be resuming work on Mutability this week.  On Tuesday, I finished editing the score for I Dream'd in a Dream.  I have decided to include A Clear Midnight as the fifth song (but not necessarily fifth in order) of the cycle.  As I get closer to finishing Mutability I will start thinking about the order of the songs.

I am not sure what my next project will be after I finish Dream Cycle.  I may try to find an outlet for the complete version of Off you go... and work on the rest of that piece.  I am also planning another collaboration with Micheal Vickers.  For this I have been brainstorming ideas for instrumentation, but I have not yet settled on anything.  I am leaning towards something with winds and strings as opposed to a standard quartet or quintet.  I am open to the idea of a "standard" ensemble, but I am not sure of what I want right now.  There is a lot I would like to compose, I just do not know what I would like to do next.

A look ahead at some Fall projects

In trying to get motivated to compose again after a long, busy and sometimes stressful summer, I have been thinking ahead to what projects and pieces I will work on in the coming months.  The first thing I am going to do is complete Dream Cycle.  In previous posts I have noted that I am currently setting the text Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  In the cycle I have already set A Dream by Edgar Allen Poe and Echo by Christina Georgina Rossetti.  I am also considering 2 additional short texts by Walt Whitman I Dream'd in a Dream and A Clear Midnight as interlude songs, songs to fit in between the 3 main texts.

My next project will be an orchestration of my large chamber ensemble piece Playing in the Shadows.  The idea for this project came from a call for scores for the 2010 New Music @ ECU Festival.  Normally, I do not compose anything for a specific call for scores.  To me it does not seem like a good idea.  If a piece I am composing or want to compose happens to fit a call for scores, then I will consider submitting it.  For example, there is a call for scores that would be good for Dream Cycle so I am going to consider submitting to that call.  Also, I want to do this orchestration project because I have been wanting to revisit this piece and this is a good way for me to do so.

There are other projects/compositions I am thinking about working on.  Right now these are the two that I will be working on in the immediate future.