Catching Up...

It has been a busy few weeks here at Daniel-land. You can google it for a map, but I don't think they have yet located which brain cell is at work inside my head.

The last PeriODDically... post was about the video challenge. I asked for people to create a video using my Taking Tea With Lady Grey trio. Although I have only had one response so far, despite Tweeting it, I have had a great submittal. You should take seven minutes time to relax and go view the video created by Lanie Leigh of LLeigh Productns (yep, spelled like that). It is posted on YouTube and you may view it here.

I was introduced to Yegor Lanovenko this past week. He is a Ukrainian award winning poet/songwriter. He has agreed to help me in the prose/libretto/poems/text/lyrics needed for the music composition Tears For Earth that I am presently scrambling to release from its space in my brain. I wrote the text for the first movement, and Yegor has written text for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th movements. You can read the initial draft texts at Tears For Earth. At the same time, for the first movement "Bones of Earth" I have been calling for help in collecting "bones of Earth" phrases in many, many, languages. Not faring well on that task yet, but I am continuing to collect data. The current list is at the same link under Bones For Earth Chorus of Speakers menu selection. To look at more information about Yegor Lanovenko you can start at this page.

Also, this past few weeks my Twitter friend @MazzaClarinet, who is an international performing Clarinetist, has taken two of my solo pieces and performed them, videoed them, and will soon have them posted to YouTube. As soon as they are available I will update this page to include the link. One of the pieces is entitled "Last Shepherd" and was written and dedicated to her in her worldly name: Marion Harrington. The other title I'll hold for the update to this message.

Additionally, an author requested permission to use two other solo works for the book trailer to be created for her upcoming publication.

A week ago, Rob Graham (@pensake) interviewed me for his blog "The Write Knight." That interview of a freelance editor is easily found at Hay On Blog link. While you are there you should read Rob's other materials as there are some great articles and interviews. Tell him I said, "Thanks."

Plans for the summer were semi-solidified this past week when the papers on my Idaho gold mining claim were filed and mailed. I am expecting to be driving from Spokane, WA to Sioux Falls, SD area to pick up the stuff I left in storage when my truck broke down last October. Then back to Pierce, ID area for a summer leisure (if you call hand shoveling 10-12 tons of rock leisure). I might even find a few flecks of gold.

Last, perhaps, but not least, I maintain two separate subscriptions list. The first is a subscription to each piece of music I create for solo instruments during the year and is suitable for most orchestral instruments in the strings, woodwind or brass groups. They are sent via email as pdf files. The second is the mp3 files for ALL compositions I create during the year (solo or other chamber works). You may play my music (or a child/grandchild/friend) or you may listen to it. For more information visit danielhaycomposer.

This is a rushed entry for PeriODDically... and I'm hoping there are no glaring or blaring errors. However, if you see any I always appreciate corrections emailed to me.

Lady Grey...

My favorite Internet haunts are overflowing with inane comments on what is happening at the Oscars. Like most programs on television, I figure if I wanted to know what was happening I'd turn on a television. The fact that I don't own one anymore is a moot point, I could easily buy one or just visit somebody who already has it on (or never turned off).

Instead of growing irritated at the flow of messages that I can't filter out without turning off the people I normally enjoy reading, I'm sitting here drinking a huge mug of Lady Grey tea and listening to the "Taking Tea With Lady Grey" trio that I wrote a short time ago. I am both writing at projects and composing another piece of music in snippets at a time.

As Lady Grey comes to a close I click on replay, click on the tab for the score, contemplate a few notes, click on the blog screen and enter a few letters, then back to the score, the blog, the score, the blog, and eventually to a moment of pause and bliss. Those moments are when I sip tea and consider the mood that the music just provided.

Listening to one piece of music while writing another one is a challenge. The first challenge is to make sure I don't mimic the aural sounds with the new written sounds. I don't want a clone of Lady Grey. I found her to be both tasty as tea, and delicious as music but do not need to create a copy of her. She is there for my enjoyment as desired.

Just a moment, click, click, click, click, the process had to be started over. When I tire of the same music I'll simple click on the mp3 player and have it randomly play through all of my music. Music from solo to an eighteen voice brass ensemble. Trumpets, trombones, timpani, to piano, strings, woodwinds and brasswinds. And because I play Recorder many of the pieces are computer-voiced as Recorder.

It makes for a pleasant time without the repetitive voice and commercials on television. It lets me do what I want to do while I plan for a move across country to a house with space for my studio. And it lets me still enjoy the onslaught of Internet activity - I just bypass the parts I don't wish to view.

So all is fine in the world when taking your tea with Lady Grey...

To Tell a Tale of Three Trios...

The last three trios, in reverse order, Op 477 Romance Turmoil, Op 472 Taking Tea With Lady Grey, and Op 470 Shasta Snow Light. While picking pieces for the Cello music collection I realized I probably have a collection of trio. Problem is they aren't all the same trio configuration.

Regardless of the instrument configurations I went through the list this early a.m. and find the second piece I wrote and the last piece I have written are trio works. The first, Two Flutes and a Cello I wrote at Blair
Academy and there it had its only performance thanks to Louise Ewing and Donald Blocker on flute and myself on cello.

I seem to have migrated to more Oboe and Cello groupings because I play Recorders and the Finale Allegro voicing for Recorder is poor - but the Oboe is great. The Cello voicing is great, but the Viola isn't. Its a shame since 477 is for Oboe, Viola and Cello.

Oh well, some day I'll have the extra cash to upgrade the software, (and then the hardware, and then the brain surgery too).