Music for Harp and Flute: A Composer’s Journal Entries: March 7- 13, 2007

Wednesday, March 7
4 a.m.

Started cutting & pasting together the main revised score for Brownies Dancing in the Setting Sun. Finished ten pages. Below zero tonight. A brilliant moon. I am - tired.

Thursday, March 8
5 am.

Below zero outside. Continued work on Brownies Dancing in the Setting Sun, copying out the main score. Did errands with JF; feel less sick; tried to catch up on some house chores. The sketch is very accurate & complete. Revising this Image now is a true test of the imagination - it is a summer scene, outdoors.

I have written in many double stops, which will be a challenge to the string players. The eighth notes in the harp hold the piece together - the other instruments float above them, around them, arrive & leave, interact & then part. Towards the end of this Image, the other instruments begin to double the harp part, chiming in. It is a playful piece - which gathers intensity as it goes. It is playful in more than one sense: Mozart would enjoy this Image, the fast changes in mood & the humor, musical humor, each instrument a player onstage, an actor.

Like the painters, we composers add lines & shape them. Instead of paint, we use sound, pitches, tones. But the same rules apply to all the art forms: beauty, meaning, order, structure - form.

Friday March 9

Worked on two pages of the score today; a struggle to find the piece & my thoughts. Got caught up on e-mail; watered the plants; talked to the cats. Finally the notes fell into place.

Monday, March 12

Over sixty degrees today. JF & I went to Stewart Park & walked by the lake. The willows are starting to bud. Finished copying out Brownies Dancing in the Setting Sun; the main score is 29 pages long. Tomorrow I will put in metronome markings & rehearsal letters. I am pleased. Next: A Feather. Myra & Kate are back from Paris.

Tuesday, March 13
4 p.m.

Put in the metronome markings to Brownies Dancing in the Setting Sun. Decided against rehearsal letters, for now. Walked into town; over seventy degrees out. The walk back was seemingly endless in the heat ... Will start work on A Feather, copying out the main score.