Some things

I have just been made aware that the Baroque recitative I've written is very Romantic. I did borrow a short chord progression from Fauré, which should perhaps have alerted me.  Quite a large proportion of it is in tempo (arioso), so I need to write some simpler stuff for marks. So, the first Romantic recitative? Still, with a bit of re-scoring, I can use some of the material in an instruments-only section at the beginning.

Take that, Middleton!

On Saturday, there were Morris Dancers in Chamberlain Square (central Birmingham) and some knights on REAL horses. Something about a bloke called St. George, I think. My Romanian friend Teo does some, and was wearing a magnificent hat.

I've done a bad sketch (on poor-quality lined paper) of the monument in the square; if I ever get around to doing a fair copy, I'll attempt to scan it and past it on this blog, as well as deviantArt. The other picture is of the square still in sunlight, with a backing of dark clouds that followed me home and dribbled periodically. They then presented me with a wonderful double rainbow (all the way across the sky, I'll have you know) as I arrived at my front door. I've got a picture of that too. When I can be bothered, I'll write a post about my trip to France with my choir. I had much good bread and pastries and cheese and coffee and and and other foods, and enjoyed myself immensely.
Now I'm going to go away and compose a Minimalist Cantata for cornetto, viol d'amore, bazooka, and big band. Possibly also with a beatboxer, if just for the alliteration.

Later: Feeling a little anxious (and hungry), I've come to a coffee shop to relax, but there are people talking quite loudly, so I'm just more agitated now. I'm not going to bother logging on to a computer to rearrange the photos, y'all'll (you all will) just have to deal with a photodump at the bottom.
Much Later: On second thoughts, I've gone and rearranged this thing, becau- OH, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, STOP ADDING TO THI-

(Over-)Enthusiastic Musician present

This is the first photo I've taken in RAW, edited, converted to JPEG, and had printed

Goodness, what has got into me? It seems that on top of the usual happening with people asking me to sing or play for various things, I have now taken it upon myself to add yet more stuff to my calendar! Still, it is all good experience...

One of the more interesting things I'm gearing up for is the new Peter Donohoe competition in the Conservatoire. The watchword is 'versatility', and among the entries suggested was accompanying oneself singing - perfect for me! I'm quite the Peter Warlock fan, so I'll pick a few songs that I like  - including a solo version of the popular 'Bethlehem Down' - and get to learning them as best I may. Another awesome thing is that I'm playing a piano concerto! Well... a theme and variations, at least. Ernst von Dohnanyi's wonderfully cheeky set of variations for piano and orchestra on the 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' tune often involves 'wrong' notes, arguments of key (not bitonality, just blatantly silly writing), and even goes whole-tone at one point. And then, a lot of semiquavers, and then, an amusingly abrupt ending. Up until yesterday I was using music from the library, but as they only had one copy I've had to buy my own music so that my accompanist, with whom I'm currently living, can learn it. I'm intending on entering the Concerto Competition, which should be enjoyable.

On a more vocal note, I've done a silly amount of singing in the past few days: a rehearsal on Tuesday evening with the City of Birmingham Chorus, with whom I will be singing Britten's War Requiem in Belgium three times; a rehearsal this morning with the conservatoire Chamber Choir, an All Souls service tonight at St. Albans singing the Fauré Requiem, and to top it off, another rehearsal tomorrow with the conservatoire's Camerata! Still, I will get paid for tonight's gig, which is always good for morale.

Now that I've procrastinated for a wee while on my computer, I need to head to bed, although only to rise again (hopefully) in less than eight hours time. I'm just going to add a picture, because I like pictures.