I supose I've been true to my word. I've taken a break from composing, and I've been able to focus on a lot of other things going on in my life, most prominently, getting myself situated at Bowling Green.

But I do have an update on a particular compositional happening in my life. My cousin's wedding is today, and, as promised, she and her fiancee have been working on Common Ground. They had sort of a pre-wedding party last night with lots of friends and family, and when I arrived there, they immediately wanted to play it for me. They did a beautiful job.

There was a knot of their music major friends that was hanging around to listen to them play. I think the most gratifying moment was the first abrupt switch from white keys to black keys. The character of the piece up to that point is lively with lots of staccato, and then, right at the key change, it turns fluid, lyrical, and soft. This transition merited some intrigued surprise from the music-major corner of the room. Just the reaction I was going for. :)

I almost feel a little guilty to be having such a gratifying composer-moment when I haven't been composing lately. But I have no reason to complain.

Again, haven't updated in quite a while. I had my Origo Mundi presentation a few weeks ago, and it went very well. Granted, I had no instrumentalists and I had to get "recordings" together with GPO (and Garageband percussion, because as it happens, GPO percussion SUCKS), but my Latin prof was there to recite the excerpts from the text, and I think that made up for it. I had a lot of fun talking about my creative process, and everyone who attended seemed to think I gave a good presentation, so yay! :)

Now that I'm done with school, I've been working on Common Ground more in earnest. I've made a lot of progress, and have discovered that a lot of what the piece is about is a contrast between black and white keys. Basically, this came about because the beginning was entirely in C major. No accidentals, no nothing. It also had a playful, staccato character to it. A little ways in, for no reason at all, I switched to G flat pentatonic (in other words, all black keys), completely legato, with lots of pedal. I think the effect is pretty cool, and as a result, the remainder of the piece has been focusing on this black key/white key contrast, and seeing how abruptly I can switch without sounding too crazy (this is, after all, going to be played for lots of people uninitiated into New Music).

I've pretty much just got the ending left to write at this point. I'm trying to figure out a good way to complete the idea organically. I've come up with a cool chord I'd like to use at the end that integrates the black key/white key elements, and is punctuated with a G-flat-to-C stinger in the bass (it sounds surprisingly conclusive in context), but I need to figure out how to get from where I am right now to a place where that chord will have the effect I want it to have. I think a few days of thinking on it should get me there.

I have to say, I've really enjoyed writing something small and light. After the monstrosity that was Origo Mundi, I really needed it.