Starting Work on the Songs: March 29 - April 13, 2007

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Starting Work on the Songs: A Composer’s Journal Entries: March 29 - April 13, 2007

Thursday, March 29

Took out the scores to the Songs Cycle, written for the harpist Myra Kovary. Changes are needed before rehearsals can begin. Some of the effects I had imagined in the harp are not possible. I had thought that a flute or clarinet played into the harp might set off an interesting reverberation - which is not the case, at least for the flute. This reverberation was meant to evoke a backdrop for the first two songs of the cycle: The Forest and The Crescent. In The Forest, the reverberation was to evoke the laughter & also the sound of the falls; in The Crescent, the stars, the sound of the universe. Therefore, some sections need to be rewritten. I hope I can find effects similar to those I had imagined inwardly, rather than writing more pitches in the winds & strings. I suspect it will be a combination of both - finding an effect in the harp & also embellishing the other lines.

These three Songs were written in June of 2001, before I had worked with Myra, rehearsed with her. The rest of the cycle, The Storm, Sailboats & The Feather were written in August & September, 2001. Together they form a cycle of six songs for baritone voice, flute, clarinet, two violas, cello & harp. The last two Songs are scored for Baritone & Soprano voices & most of the cycle is dedicated to my singer, Louise McConnell. I sent Louise the words to some of the songs while she was in the hospital, not long before her death. It has taken me all this time to even think of looking at the scores again ...

I found new ideas for the first song, The Forest, expanded the wind & string parts a bit. I worked on this song for some time today & did manage to scribble my way to the end.

Friday, March 30

Decided to wait for Myra’s next visit to Ithaca to work on The Crescent. At the moment, the score is very bare, which fits the imagery of the moon in the night sky. But only if I can find sounds in the harp to evoke the wonder I was feeling when I wrote the words. Worked on the third song, The First Snow, & made only a few small changes, a note here or there.

My physical state is so difficult at the moment I have decided to wait until I feel better before I look at the other Songs in this cycle. The first three songs in the cycle are not that many pages of score, but the last three songs total well over a hundred pages.

Sunday, April 8

Myra called, she is back from NYC. If I am feeling better tomorrow I will go to her apartment & try to find some good effects for this cycle of Songs, effects on the harp that can approximate what I am hearing in my mind.

Thursday, April 12
midnight

Just got back from a session with Myra, trying to find new effects on the harp for The Forest and The Crescent, the first two songs in the Songs cycle. We worked mainly on waterfall effects and stars. Some of the sounds emerging from the harp were so celestial that as I closed my eyes I was thrown into a meditation. Since these songs were written in the French Impressionist style, we stayed with the whole tone scale. The task now is to take what we worked on, discovered tonight - and somehow insert those passages into the score. I also decided that even though the flute effects I had originally envisioned did not work in rehearsal with Laura Campbell - the clarinet effects might. So we need to find a clarinet player. I have not played clarinet since my car accident so many years ago. In fact, I don’t even know where it is.

Tomorrow I will Xerox the Images scores. It should take a few hours to Xerox 6-7 copies. Then Visions, to send off to Paris.

Friday, April 13
6 p.m.

JF stopped by earlier; we worked on the New York Times crossword puzzle together. Myra dropped me off to Xerox Images, did an errand & then helped me finish the task. It took almost three hours to make seven copies: for the four musicians, a rehearsal copy for me - and two extra. I probably should have made more. Gave Myra a copy to take home. Well over a thousand sheets of paper, quite a stack. The woman at the shop gave me a big discount, so instead of $100 or so it was only $63. She also gave me a free pen with orange ink.

If Xerox machines did not exist, I would not be a composer. Imagine copying all those scores out by hand ... No wonder so many composers died young. They died of sheer overwork. And writing and copying all those notes by candlelight ...

I had to collate by hand, the shp’s machines do not collate. But I must say that it was a pleasure to see my scores, the calligraphy, strewn over two tables. The scores are now resting comfortably in thin paper bags organized by Image, each copy facing a different way so I can easily sort them out later. Next: putting them all in folders for the musicians.

Myra has a rehearsal at Ithaca College on Tuesday, she might be able to test the clarinet effects then. If they work, I will leave them in the score. But I will also use what we worked on last night, perhaps write a small cadenza for the harp.