Music for Choir and Orchestra: A Composer’s Journal Entries: January 27 - 31, 2007

Saturday, January 27
1:15 p.m.

Wrote a choir line. Looked out the window at the newly fallen snow & shoveled the walks. Warm today, over thirty degrees. After that chore was done, finished the choir part for these three new pages of sketches. Thought ahead a bit. The St. Anthony prayer might begin with solo mens’ voices, without the orchestra.

I continue to reread the prayer, for the music will radiate from the saint’s words.

10 p.m.

A light snow. Dinner in town. Perhaps later a walk. An e-mail from Tabula Rasa - I should send them the score of Unsung Song No. 1. Their Board meets next week, to decide on future programming. Put the score in an envelope; will mail it off Monday, after my doctor’s appointment.

Snow continues to gently fall, & I have no ideas for the next section. Maybe later I will begin to scribble some notes down, & see where they lead. If an inner Door opens - I will walk through it.

No: I will write the harmonies first. Bold changing harmonies. That is the frame I am seeking for these next pages ... Stuck a small yellow post-it note on the empty page of manuscript paper: ‘Harmonies’. Later.

Sunday, January 28
10 p.m.

Sick; feverish again tonight. Sketched out a few more pages. Cold outside, a light snow. Close to zero degrees.

Monday, January 29
12:30 p.m.

Slept late, feel better today. Began sketching out the new section, St. Anthony’s prayer.

5:40 p.m.

Did a few errands with JF after my NAET session. I am breathing better. Shoveled the walks. Wrote a few more pages, sketches in frail pencil covering a few more pages of empty manuscript paper. Have reached a new section which will eventually lead back to the initial pages of Movement III. Still will need to write an introduction for Movement III - right now the piece begins with the main theme.

Tuesday, January 30
3:05 p.m.

The cleaning ladies came this morning; survived the noise of the vacuum cleaner. Wrote a few more pages of score after they left. Outside, cold; a light snow.

Still making my way through the St. Anthony prayer, & as often happens at this point the piece is almost writing itself. So many ideas now; I am scribbling ideas to myself on the small prayer card taped to a sheet of ms paper on the piano rack. The overall form for Movement III is emerging now.

Unfortunately, in my haste to write ideas down - I do not always leave enough room for all the inner voices. So the sketch will end up crammed & messy in several spots, in spite of my best efforts. I will not copy those sections out more neatly now, I have too many ideas for what comes next - I do not want to interrupt the flow of ideas, the flow of the music itself. Basically, Movement III is already written, it is just a matter of writing the notes on the page.

11 p.m.

Went to the piano to write & discovered that I had misplaced a page of the score; eventually found it in a folder of blank manuscript paper. A small mystery how it got there. Made and labeled a manilla folder for Movement III & put all the pages I have written in it.

Wrote a few more pages, a rough sketch only. I am approaching the final pages now, & will use either new or old material, have not yet decided. The music now both fills & surrounds me, & the feeling is one of exhilaration. To compose music is often like opening an inner Door.

Sometimes when we open the Door - there is nothing there. But in these past days & weeks I have found many guests in the inner rooms: some sad, some gay, some imperious and some noble... And many melodies & harmonies.

As often happens, I cannot write the notes down on the page quickly enough. Thus the continued disorder & disarray of my pencil sketches: stems missing; note heads crammed into small spaces, almost unreadable; rhythms askew & often unmarked, missing altogether. But at these times, creating - it is like swimming in the ocean & trying also to do something that can only be done on land. If only I could magically wave my hands to have the notes magically appear & perfectly arrange themselves, perfectly notated, on the blank manuscript paper. As it is, it is more a mad scramble to get them all down ... I am not Mozart, who could keep his creations all in his head, indefinitely. Not would I wish to keep them all there - I would rather allow new music to come through me, unimpeded, alone.

11:47 p.m.

Wrote a bit more. The rough sketch to Movement III is done. I will add instrumental & voice lines to what I wrote tonight later, or tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 31
2:20 p.m.

Sketched out the introduction to Movement III. The introduction is the main theme with changes in the lower lines; added voice lines to the original first page of the score, since now it will follow the introduction. The introduction will not have voices; when the theme enters again it will have a voice line for the baritones or tenors.

Some pages of the score are still just a rough outline; tonight I will fill in more lines and voice parts.

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