Neoromantic Contemporary Music
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A new symphony, and a venture into the Flute Ensemble

News 12.10.2012 01:01

What a crazy month.

I finally wrapped up edits on my second symphony (shockingly titled Symphony No. 2) and posted here prior to publication. This one is definitely not "stream of consciousness" style that dominates any of my other pieces; no, we have a lot of melodic side-trips in this one. Solos for oboe, English horn, violin and trumpet eventually made their presence known and turned this one into a pretty colorful and less stylistically focused work. A good thing, I think, because I was starting to feel the tug of becoming to attached to signature gimmicks. Dangerous territory for writers of any kind! It's a great practice to make yourself "kill the buddha in the road" now and again, so your creative chops stay fresh and open.

The one area in Symphony No.2 that carries a bit of a question mark for me is the percussion solo. I would love a timpanist to review this part and let me know how viable they think it is.  Or isn't.

I also had the honor of being petitioned by the Orange County Flute Ensemble to arrange one of my pieces for their flute choir. They chose my "Etude No.1 for Woodwinds" and I dove right in, clumsily ignoring some flute facts in the meantime, which their most talented and patient leader Mary Titus walked me through on edits. I had to do some real juggling of parts, as the original was for piccolo, flute, oboe, bassoon and English horn. In the end, the parts all nicely found a new home with the Flute Ensemble, made up of piccolo, three concert flutes, alto flute and bass flute. I cannot wait to see this performed by this wonderful group (check out some of their videos on YouTube.  You'll be glad you did).  And, I'll finally have an excuse to visit the Irvine CA area. Cool beans.

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