That’s the sigh of a composer who just finished (I think…) a commission that has been in the works for so many years I can’t even remember. My friend Steve Lawton asked me to set a portion of a John Donne text “when I had time- no rush”, years and years ago. It kept getting put off until a year ago when I finally forced myself to set a deadline. (Steve was too kind in his patience!) I’ve been wrestling with it on and off for the last many months, but it finally came together in the last week or two. I actually had two separate settings of it going simultaneously for a while, trying to decide which to pursue. In the end, Steve gave me permission to pursue the one that I thought really spoke best, even though it was not the more easily singable one….he’s a commissioned composer’s dream come true! 
I sent him the music tonight- we’ll see how it goes…
Especially nice to have this done (hopefully) before my trip to Kansas next week for the premiere of Over Havet. It will be nice to drive without the burden of text-setting haunting me. My next three projects are all orchestrations- two for Beckenhorst and one for Hinshaw. I can think “color” instead of “text” in my spare time now…
My dear brother and sister-in-law have now had their Ethiopian children for one year, and my brother made a beautiful video documenting their story. The end of the video also contains the backstory regarding Etsegenet, the little girl they were supposed to adopt, who died before they could get her- and whose story inspired my piece, Good Night Dear Heart.
You’ll enjoy the whole video, but check out the end especially, which includes the piece as part of the soundtrack, and shows a tiny grave that they found in Ethiopia, marked “Etsegenet Forrest”.
Please click here to watch.
…and as with all the rest of life, there’s a Facebook page for it! Click here.
We’ll be in the Kansas City area for the week, and I’ll be visiting Staley High as well as the KU Concert Choir. Additionally, in true Tracy Resseguie form, he has lined up a PBS documentary about the story behind the text, the music, etc, which includes taking the cameraman to Norway when Tracy’s choir sings Over Havet in the island church where his grandfather was baptized, as well as on Ellis Island…
More about Over Havet in the days and weeks to come…
Congratulations to my student Mark Buller, whose Master’s recital in composition tonight was stunning. The audience was stunningly quiet- wow! The Sonata for Double Bass and Piano was riveting, the String Quartet was exhilarating, the Quodlibets for Wind Quinet (!) were HILARIOUS, and the Five Motets for Choir and Piano were haunting, and deserve to be published!
Thanks to all the performers- this was, in my estimation, the best performances I remember on a graduate composition recital- just fabulous. We’re SO blessed to have musicianship of this caliber available to us!
For more info on Mark’s music, check out the pages on his website at www.markbuller.com
Time for a long-overdue update on various fronts:
- BJU’s theory revamping has kept me busy but is coming together pretty well. Looking forward to the fall when, Lord willing, everything will be in place.
- Have been working on mixing and detail work on the upcoming SoundForth CD, “Promises”. I produced the choral sessions and wrote several orchestrations but wasn’t a part of the orchestral sessions, so now I’m going back and adjusting a lot of things. We’re almost done though…
- Have been editing and proofing anthems for Beckenhorst this spring- more on those, later.
- Have been arranging one piece and orchestrating three for a client for an upcoming recording. Got to write some fun stuff for a large orchestra- hopefully the recording will come out well.
- Am in the midst of trying to set a choral prayer for a church here in town- a beautiful John Donne text. It’s proving difficult to find the right style that meets the style of the text and the requests of the commissioner, though. Still wrestling…
- Soon to write a brass accompaniment for my forthcoming O God Beyond All Praising (Hinshaw), an orchestral accompaniment for my just-released “in paradisum…” (Hinshaw), an orchestration of The First Noel (Beckenhorst last year), and Beckenhorst’s all-time best seller, “Every Valley”.
- Starting to make trip plans for our early-April trip to Kansas for the premiere of “Over Havet”. Tracy Resseguie is still raving about the piece- I hope he’s being objective! It’ll be premiered by his Staley High School choir combined with the University of Kansas Concert Choir. Can’t wait to hear it!
- Still working on plans for premiere and recording of my Te Deum.
- Have also been working on some of the details for some summer workshops and conferences I’m involved with…
- Have nailed down details for a couple other commissions in the last few weeks as well- one for the University of Utah and one for the Williamsburg (VA) Choral Guild. The Williamsburg piece will be premiered in…well, Williamsburg. The University of Utah piece will be premiered at the World Choral Symposium in Argentina (!).
- Back to work!