A while ago, I posted a blog entry which outlined my intended goals for the summer of 2013. With the Summer drawing to a close and the beginning of the last year of my undergrad swiftly approaching, I feel that this is a good time to reflect on what I have done and still need to accomplish before school starts.
Goal number one: Compose/arrange twenty minutes of music
Mission Acomplished! However, the pursuit of this goal had some mixed/unintended results.
1)Orchestrating the rest of Of Wizards and Dragons For Wind Ensemble-and in the process learning how to orchestrate- This piece is now about 65% done. In the process of playing with this piece and having received valuable guidance From Scott Pfitzinger this summer, I have learned so much about this process, but there is still so much that I want/ need to learn still. There are so many possibilities that I want to exploit before releasing the final version.
2)Working on Music for The Adventure Path series, and hoping to write a blog post about it soon-More Music has been written. However, before I can post a blog entry, I must get permission and clearance from the producers. Development for the series is now in progress and it sounds as though it will be awesome when it’s done. If you are interested in learning more about the series, click HERE for a link to their Facebook page.
3) Writing an accapella vocal piece per request of my teacher– This work is now in progress!
4) Correcting old scores, touching up Hoover’s Paradise, and finishing my just for fun band arrangement of Ghostbusters– Hoover’s Paradise has been improved/ reworked (and will hopefully be premiered this School year!) However, I have yet to finish the rest of this goal due to some of the pieces that have popped up. To Elaborate:
a) A Fanfare that I had hoped would be played sometime during a YSU Football game this season. It blends elements of YSU’s Alma Mater ( a melody from Brahms Symphony no 1) and the Fight Song. There is also an audience involvement cheer as well. At least the experience of having written it will hopefully help prepare me for if I ever get a commission to write something akin to it in the future.
b) Characture, a woodwind quintet that I had begun in early spring has been expanded an completed (outside of the edits that are sure to appear in my lesson). The piece illustrates the situations and people that one may encounter on a daily basis.
c) A just for fun brass trio about cloud-sailing pirates. This has been put away for the time being but will likely be picked up on a day when the orchestration for ‘Dragons isn’t flowing.
d)The Essay-UPDATE: due to a last minute situation with personnel, we were unable to perform it as planned. However, the professor has offered us the chance to come in and perform it in one of his fall classes. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned but I am elated that he is giving us this chance. I am currently in the process of negotiating a time/date for the performance. Also, if anything, the piece will be performed live at my upcoming senior composition recital (Date TBA).
Goal Number Two: Get as much trombone performance and practice in as possible
This goal is a never ending work in progress. Currently, I am working on the audition excerpts even more so after a lesson that turned simultaneously into a confirmation that the work has been paying off and a wake up call that I need to learn the excerpts much better than I felt that I had them.
I feel that joining the YACCB for the summer was the best decision I made for improving my playing because of the ample performing opportunities and, the commitment that I had made gave me even more incentive to pick up my horn and practice. Also, as an added bonus, the Trombone section had the privilege of playing the Star Spangled Banner at a Scrappers baseball game this past Sunday, This is an opportunity I would have missed if I didn’t join.
Goal number Three: Learn something new
I have definitely accomplished this goal and then some. Camping at Pennsic was the best thing that I did for this. During that wonderful week in the current middle ages, I was taught (rather unexpectedly) how to tell a story as people might have done back then (and told to stand up and do it myself- and I enjoyed it too), the history, identification and application of henna, tips for performance in front of an audience, the art of filk and folk songs of the SCA, and a host of other miscellaneous facts.
Also, I learned that:
Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family
Pirates and sailors used limes, not usually oranges, to treat scurvy.
Pirates would use rum for a variety of things, most notably to sterilize water (or to drink instead of water because alcohol kills germs and was deemed safer than water) and to get a person who needed a limb amputated , possibly from gangrene, so drunk that he wouldn’t really care that he was in immense pain.
There is a proper method to choosing and tying a leather belt.
The Ghostbusters theme matches the medieval dance “Black Nag”.
Celtic/ Indian history fascinates me.
Goal number Four: Make sure that I spend some time with Friends every week and do something non music related with them (at least 3 hours per week).
I feel that I have done a good job in holding this goal up. Also, in keeping with learning something new as well, I have begun taking weekly driving lessons.
Now my new goals to accomplish before I run out of time are to send out the rest of my letters, get the rest of the portfolio ready to send out, and to get some new music posted to the site for some feedback.