Daniel Powers

Archive for September, 2008

I finally took the plunge and created an account at Soundclick. I’ve started the process of uploading music to it, and I expect it will take a few days to get it finished.

I’ve been wanting a way to let people preview my music free without downloading it, with an option to buy a download. I’d been trying to figure out how to do it on my own website without resorting to a third party, but the process is just too complicated for me to figure out, and I don’t want to take the time to do so just now. So I think Soundclick will be a good option for now.

It’ll be time for a new update soon, but until then, I thought it would be interesting to list a few ideas for possible future projects.

“Chamber Music” for tenor, viola, and piano: a song cycle on poetry of James Joyce. This one actually has a chance of getting done. I have the beginning written of a setting of “Strings In The Earth And Air,” which would be the first song in the proposed cycle. Assuming I see it through, the complete cycle will consist of eight songs. The idea is at least 30 years old. As an undergraduate composition student, I picked out the poems and started a setting for baritone and large ensemble, but never got very far with the project. Something recently reminded me of it, though, and now I’m reimagining the idea.

A couple of years ago, I wrote The Rain Is Full Of Ghosts, a cycle of three songs on poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay for mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano. If I’m able to finish the Chamber Music cycle, I will have written a total of eleven songs with viola, which as far as I know, will be a new world record! (If I’m correct, Loeffler holds the current record, with nine.)

“Death Carol” for chorus and orchestra, a setting of part of Walt Whitman’s When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d. I have wanted to write this for years, and actually have a section of it sketched. But I don’t know when or if I’ll have the opportunity (or the time) to finish it.

Tone poem on “Gilgamesh.” I got interested in The Epic Of  Gilgamesh last year, and read several treatments of it. I thought of writing a large-scale tone poem on it, and sketched out a theme for the opening. Currently I have no other ideas for it, and I doubt that this will ever see the light of day. I may eventually use the theme in something else.

“Atmosphere,” electronic music. Several years ago, when I was first getting into software instruments, I started what I thought would eventually become a CD-length composition. I managed to nearly finish recording about 10 minutes worth of it, and wrote out another five minutes or so, but then the project fizzled out. I still think about it from time to time, and may eventually return to it.

Still-untitled CD project. Since this one is actually very likely to come about, and I don’t want to give it away yet, I’ll keep the details to myself for now.

It’s a bit later than I like to post these things, but here’s what I’m working on right now.

New arrangements: I’ve begun work on a series of orchestral arrangements for Steve Lippia. When we talked on the phone a few weeks ago, he mentioned a total of seven possible titles, mostly taken from the Great American Songbook. I’m currently at work on the first one, Beyond the Sea. (I don’t remember the composer just now, but the song was made popular by Bobby Darin.) Nearly done with it, and planning to begin Stardust next. Looking forward to that one. Stardust has always been one of my favorite songs, and I’ve always wanted to arrange it. I’m happy for the opportunity.

New compositions: I now have a couple of new pieces in the beginning stages. The proposed trio for clarinet, bassoon, and piano is apparently a go, so I’m devoting some thought to it. I have a few pages of sketches for a possible three-movement work, but nothing really concrete just yet. And I doubt that I’ll have much time to work on it till the spring, so I have plenty of time to think about it.

Also, I started scratching out an idea that’s been lurking in my conciousness for quite a while now; a setting of James Joyce’s Strings In The Earth And Air (the first poem in the Chamber Music collection), written for tenor, viola, and piano. This is kind of a revival of an old idea, going back 30 years or so. The poem was the text for the very first song I ever wrote, back when I was 18. I planned for it to be the beginning of a song cycle, which would include 8 songs altogether, but I never got very far with that idea. I’m now considering reviving it. I lost the old setting of the poem a long time ago (not a great loss, from what I can recall of it). The new setting is entirely new, though I may quote a phrase or two from the old setting, just for the sake of nostalgia, if nothing else.

I had a good time writing my previous cycle of songs with viola, The Rain Is Full Of Ghosts, so I’ve had the idea of a new set for a while now. Assuming I see my plan through, I will have written a total of eleven songs with viola, which as far as I know will be a world record! (Loeffler wrote nine.)

New publication: In Praise Of Folly for trombone, euphonium, and piano, arrived from the printer last week, so it is officially available even though I still haven’t finished updating the Swan’s Wing Press website. Concerto Piccolo will be next. All that’s left is the cover, so it should go to the printer in a few days.