What a couple months...

I disappeared for a while. For good reasons, I promise. It's been a crazy month...well, a bit over a month. The basic break down

1) Doctoral Comprehensive Exam- This ate 2 weeks of my life in early October, plus a few weeks prior studying

2) Fulbright application- Turned this puppy in DURING my comps. Yep, I finished my 48 hour essay, had a week of studying for my comprehensive listening test (meaning any piece from any time period, drop the needle style) ahead of me...and what did I do instead? Spent hours almost every night editing and rewriting a Fulbright proposal.

3) eight blackbird side-by-side concert- I organized this bad boy: Found the space, took all the submissions and organized sending them out, did initial judging of each selection (21 entries, done in one night), found the space, negotiated price of space and dealt with logistics, attended rehearsals, helped show 8bb around to all their various coachings (man, their schedule was NUTS!), loaded all the equipment and moved it to the space in a 24' box truck, set it up, tore it down, and then drank...This was a huge project that took lots of help from faculty and students (Shout-out to Joseph Kern for all his work with Musica Nova!)

Won't be doing that again for quite some time!

4) concert with KcEMA at La Esquina, Perceptions and Realities...this was an "easy" one

5) Installed an interactive installation designed with Bobby Zokaites called "The Machine the Sneetches Built," ran the opening, and had to set-up all the tech each morning, then chilled in the gallery in case anyone had questions. This was another huge opportunity thanks to ArtSounds, UMKC Conservatory, UMKC Community Music and Dance Academy, Kansas City Art Institute, and Charlotte Street. It was a resounding success in the community, especially on opening night! There will be photos and video up soon, hopefully.

So, I've been busy. All of these things deserve their own blogposts, and I think I'll get on that. Thanksgiving break starts tonight after we tear down The Machine, so maybe I'll write a bunch and time the posts, or something fancy like that. I mean, that can't be any harder than dealing with WiiMotes

ah

finished mvt III. it was nice to finally have it done

I followed through on the plan, melody, high WW play a note, it gets passed to low brass, the melody has that note taken away.

worked out quite well. I varied a bit, at the end, to create a sense of finalization, playing around with an [ 0 2 5 ]. it appears mostly as a m3 M2 order, but occasionally i switch it up. there's actually a great deal of [ 0 2 5 ] in the piece, which is funny, because it is, primarily, modal. yep, it's written in dorian mode and my main chord revolves around playing with m3rds, M2nds, and P4ths. fun times.

Oh, the whole piece is in Bb but i run through the modes. Though, really, it's hard to tell the main tonal center. I set out to do mvt. III in dorian mode, but it kinda ran into myxolydian quite a bit. happens

anyway, onto 4, which i've swapped places with 5. lol. a nice trumpet fanfare to start, i think. lol.

it's really cold here. really really cold. kinda sucks.

and i have yet to successfully snipe an auction. lol. i have doubts i'll be able to pull it off. I'll prolly just haggle like crazy at a store and see what happens