ForrestWorks

Tom Pryde took the time yesterday to post some thoughts about music style and composition, as well as some free advertising and kind words for Dan Forrest, on his blog. Thanks, Tom! Click here to read.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I sent files of Three Nocturnes and Arise Shine to Hinshaw on Saturday. Today, I got an acceptance email for all four pieces! They loved the pieces, and have scheduled them for 2008 release. It’s a new record for fast turnaround time from a publisher- about 40 hours. And it’s a lot of music- 15 minutes of chorus and percussion, and 7-8 minutes of chorus and orchestra!

Suddenly, I have more pieces accepted with Hinshaw (11) than Beckenhorst (10): Five Words From Paradise (2006-7), Basque Lullaby (2007), Three Nocturnes (2008), You Are The Music (2008), and Arise Shine (2008).

I’m glad to be able to honor the commissioning choirs of these pieces with inscriptions on these pieces, too, in appreciation for their commitment to sponsoring/performing new music!

The Lord has done great things, whereof we are glad…

Winter has arrived in the Midwest- almost all the leaves are down, and things are grey, brown, and bare. I like it in a certain way, though- there’s something that appeals to me about it. Perhaps it’s being cozy in a warm house while all is chilled outside, or perhaps it’s the Divine clockwork of times, days, seasons, years- all is in order and right; stark winter has its own beauty, and it also belies the fact that new life is around the corner in spring…

Spring being around the corner is exciting for me as I look to teaching Post-Tonal Theory for the first time, and as I look forward to several exciting trips which culminate in moving back to Greenville in May. In the meantime, though, lots is going on:

• Three Nocturnes for Chorus and Percussion is finally finished. Paul Yoder and I finished going over edits and changes, and I extracted choral parts and percussion parts, and sent all the final copies to him this weekend. I’m really excited about these pieces, and so it Paul- in fact, he called the second movement “pure genius”. That’s definitely not a description of my intellectual ability, but hopefully the piece itself does have some charm. The most important thing is, my commissioning artistic director is happy, and that’s a good thing!
• I also finished finalizing the chorus/piano version of Arise, Shine, and submitted both it and the Three Nocturnes to Hinshaw for publication consideration- check another long-standing “to-do” item off my list! I’m not sure what Hinshaw’s reaction to either piece will be, but there’s only one way to find out!
• DE PROFUNDIS: While the second movement was “basically done” at the end of October, the first half of November hasn’t seen much progress on the third movement- I’ve been continually tweaking and adjusting movements one and two. I do have a couple ideas for three, but I’m not positive they’re right yet. We’ll see…
• JW Pepper has posted their editor’s choice awards (actually they’ve been there a while but I haven’t mentioned them) for Fall 2006- three of my pieces received them- Be Thou My Vision (Hal Leonard), Before The Throne of God Above (Soundforth), and Nearer Still Nearer (Beckenhorst). Several of my new releases this fall have been designated for Editor’s Choice next year, but they won’t be posted until next year. The list of my pieces at Pepper is available by visiting jwpepper.com and searching by composer for Dan Forrest. (Note that there are two pages of titles, once the search comes up.)
• I’m periodically working on “Carol of Joy”, a new Eileen Berry text that paints analogies of winter scenes and spiritual truths- a striking text, and I hope to do it justice.
• The Kids 4 Truth Songbook will be printed and available VERY soon- I think we’ve signed off on the “final” revisions 5-6 times now, but I really do think we’re done. The time spent revising and editing is indicative of the type of attention to quality and detail that permeates all of the K4T endeavors, and we’re very excited about the forthcoming songbook. We’re currently looking for donors to sponsor a recording of the 12 original songs in it, to be done with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and studio orchestra at Aire Born Studios in Indianapolis hopefully this next summer. We have a lot of money to raise, though!

That about wraps up this installment- as you can see, not a lot of big exciting news- just continuing to plod along on many compositional fronts- still a happy chore!

Once again, my apologies for such sporadic posting. Things have been too busy! A few updates:

• Dissertation: First movement is basically done, coming in at almost 11 minutes. Second movement is nearly done, although the little work that remains has had me “stalled” for a couple days- I’m really wrestling with one section. Second movement is almost 6 minutes- so I’m over 15 minutes just with the first two movements. I really want the whole thing to not go over 30 minutes, so I plan to keep the third movement short. Also, I think I’m going to combine my ideas for fifth and sixth movements into one bi-thematic fifth movement.
• Anthem publishing: Both Beckenhorst and both Hal Leonard anthems are out now- hoping they’ll sell well.
• Helvering Recital: My friend and fellow DMA student Doug Helvering gave a stunning recital last night in Lawrence. His “Quiet Layers of the Night” piece for choir was magnificent. Also, his Delphic Variations for violin and ‘cello were performed STUNNINGLY by two members of the Kansas City Symphony. The recital was held in Corpus Christi Catholic Church here in Lawrence- an incredible piece of architecture and acoustic, both. It was a delight to the eyes and ears. The string playing in that acoustic space was unlike anything I’ve heard before.
• SIMEON Trip: I’ll be flying to BJU in early December for the premiere of SIMEON, Dr Dwight Gustafson’s new opera. My officemate and dear friend Brian Bondari is going with me- we’re looking forward to it immensely.
• No WILDS Conference: I’ve regretfully had to cancel my reservation for the WILDS music conference this year; dissertation is just taking up too much time, and I can’t afford to be gone that long. I look forward to attending regularly again in the future. I’ve still made arrangements with all my publishers for all of this year’s anthems to be distributed in the packets at the choral reading sessions, this year, though.
• Proofing Season continues: I’m proofing the remaining 4 Words From Paradise, and A Basque Lullaby, for Hinshaw; all 5 will be in print in late January.
• Arise, Shine!: Rehearsals have begun, I’m told, but I haven’t attended any yet. I hope to, sometime this month or next. We’ve got our plane tickets and fancy hotel all lined up in NY, compliments of Shawnee Mission East’s Booster Club- many thanks to you guys!
• Three Nocturnes: I’m editing and going over details in the score with Paul Yoder, as he prepares to start rehearsing these pieces. I’m really excited about them, and can’t wait to hear them!
• Kids 4 Truth: The long-awaited K4T songbook is in the very final stages of editing and proofing, and should be in print within a few weeks, I think. Addy and I attended the Passion Awards in KC a couple nights ago, where K4T was honored with a First-Tier grant for their work- it was a really wonderful night, seeing all the ministries that are working for the Lord’s sake in KC. Also, the fact that the dinner was catered by Fiorella’s Jack Stack didn’t hurt- I ate the biggest BBQ rib I’ve ever laid eyes on!
• Many other little projects are in progress, as well, but this is getting long, so I’ll close. Two more little tidbits will suffice: First, we’re moving to Greenville in just a little more than 6 months, Lord willing. Wow! We’ll greatly miss the Midwest, KU, and our friends, my dear young theory students, etc, but we’re excited to be returning. Second, can I admit something personal? I absolutely love Indian food these days. I used to hate it, and now I’m nuts over it. *Dreaming of Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Massala* Thanks, Brian, for convincing us!