Daniel Powers

Archive for August, 2008

It isn’t time for an update yet, but several things have happened in the last few weeks, and suddenly a lot of opportunities are knocking. None of these are actual projects yet, but it looks like they’ll become projects soon, so here’s a preview.

I mentioned several posts back that I had been approached by Robert Riseling, a clarinettist, about writing a piece for clarinet, bassoon, and piano. At the time, it didn’t look like anything would come of it, but I heard from him again a few days ago, and the idea has been revived. I had met him a year or so ago, and given him a copy of my first CD. He liked the first piece, Prelude and Bacchanal for violin, horn, and piano, and has requested that the new trio end in that style. The proposed piece is a three movement work, approximately 15 minutes long, and while no deadline has been set, I am tentatively planning to have it done next summer sometime.

Among other projects, it looks like I will be doing some orchestral arrangements for Steve Lippia for upcoming appearances with the Carmel and Columbus Symphonies. Titles are still being discussed, but “Unforgettable,” “Beyond the Sea,” “Mack the Knife,” and others have been mentioned. I will have to start soon, as the performances are in February, I think! Can I do it?

From out of nowhere, I got an e-mail from Jack de Mello (the link goes to one of his CDs, he doesn’t seem to have a personal site that I could find), who is interested in having me do some orchestral arrangements of Hawaiian music, and realizing my arrangements for virtual orchestra. He wants me to try out for it, so I’m putting together some audition material, and we’ll see what happens. (I’m hoping this goes somewhere; I’ve spent enough on virtual orchestra products, it would be nice to actually start making some money with it!)

Today I wrote a 1-page piece for solo flute, called Arabesque. The Terre Haute Symphony is having auditions soon, and David Bowden, the conductor, wanted me to write some new sight-reading material. Arabesque is the first piece in that project. It turned out pretty well, and may become an actual piece.

Finally, I thought of a better title for that trio I wrote last year for trombone, euphonium, and piano. Euphoria was already taken, but I couldn’t think of anything better until recently. The new title is In Praise of Folly. I don’t know how much better it is than the original, but it has the advantage of not having been used before, that I know of. It has gone to the printer, so it’s too late to change it anyway.

Between Spring and Summer for saxophone quartet is now available in print. It’ll be up on the SWP website as soon as I’m finished updating it.

A full update will follow in a week or so.

I’ve reserved the ISU Recital Hall for a composition recital on January 28. It’ll be my first recital in over 20 years!

Now I just have to decide what to put on it.

A new version of www.danielpowers.info has been uploaded. It’s still interim and lots needs to be added. The next step, I think, will to add some kind of music player (yet to be decided) and upload a lot of audio files. Once I get all the content up, I can work on the appearance.

I should probably update the Swan’s Wing Press page before doing anything else, since I haven’t updated it since April.

At least there’s finally some movement on the website projects. With Expression Web I felt like I was just spinning my wheels; no matter how I tried, I couldn’t figure it out at all. Front Page may be an uncool program, but at least I know how to use it. (Anoter case of the old person vs. new VCR syndrome? Let’s hope not!)

Yes, I am a serious artist! Really! I do it for art, not fame or money (which is good because I have neither!).

But I admit it; it’s fun to win stuff. Even if it isn’t money.

Last week I won a little contest on the Northernsounds forum (see this thread). It was for patriotically-themed music, rendered with Garritan products. I won with this piece, a mock-up of Dudley Buck’s Festival Overture on the American National Air, “The Star Spangled Banner,” which I mocked up mostly with Garritan Personal Orchestra, with a few winds from Garritan Concert and Marching Band.

I started this mock-up last year, when I published my edition of the piece. (You’ll find it on the Swan’s Wing Press site. I’m not putting a direct link right now because I’m fixing to upload an entirely new site as soon as I finish it, and I’m afraid the link will be messed up when I do. But it won’t be hard to find.

The original version from last year wasn’t much to hear. I just took the audio output directly from Finale, unedited, and posted it. I always intended to get back to it and work on it eventually, but didn’t get to it. There seemed to be little reason to. Other projects, with deadlines and eventual paychecks, took priority, so I left the Dudley Buck piece on the virtual back burner.

When I found out about the contest, it seemed that here was a reason to get back to it and polish it up a bit, so I opened it in Sonar and spent a week working on it. A week wasn’t enough. I was able to get through the strings and percussion parts, but the deadline came up before I could touch the winds and brass. Maybe I’ll finally have time to finish it next year.

I guess it was good enough, though. After forum members voted, I won. My prize was a free Garritan library, and since I already had everything else, I chose the Garritan Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand, which arrived in the mail this morning. Hopefully I’ll be able to install it later today and start working with it.

It’s a good start to the day.

No posts at all last month! Must have been fairly uneventful.

But not completely. Here’s an update on various things.

New compositions. Still nothing on the table, but I’ve made a few sketches for a new project that I hope to begin soon. Need to finish the other things first. Gotta pay the bills.

New arrangements. Also known as “The Things That Pay The Bills.” The arrangement of I’m Gonna Float My Boat Right Back To Terre Haute is done (except for making a vocal score for the soloist). Currently working on Shall We Gather At the River, for the same concert & soloist. Probably about 75% done on that, but haven’t yet figured out how to end it. Still, it’s going smoothly and should be done by the end of the week.

One thing I need to do soon is copy the orchestral score to Deep River into Finale. For some weird reason, I thought I’d already done that, but apparently all I did was write out a draft score. I guess I got distracted and forgot about it. Maybe I’ll start doing that as soon as I get the other things off the table.

New publications. OK, I’ve pretty much dropped the ball on these. Several pieces are ready to go to print, but I just keep getting caught up in other things and forgetting to finish up with them. They’re done, except I still need to get the covers and program notes, etc., done. Better get these done soon.

New websites. A source of unending frustration all summer. Two problems keep getting in the way. First, that I’m not a web designer, not really. And second, I’ve been trying to use Expression Web as my website designing program, which is a new program for me and one I just can’t figure out.

Anyway, I’m giving up on it and going back to Front Page, which is a discontinued program and no longer supported by Microsoft, but at least I know how to use it. So as a stopgap measure, I am slapping together a couple of websites in Front Page, which I will upload when they’re done. It’s going a lot smoother now, and I hope to get them up soon.

Once they’re up, I think it would be a good idea to stop trying to do things I don’t know how to do. When I can, I’ll shop around for a professional to design my sites (at least the Swan’s Wing Press one, which is more of a business site and needs a professional touch).

Other. Program notes for Carmel Symphony and Terre Haute Symphony. Coming along, but behind schedule. Updated Basic Scoring Book. Haven’t started yet. School starts in three weeks! Help!

A few more things to relate, but they’ll have to wait till tomorrow.