Way back in the early 90’s, I got a commission for a grade 3+ band piece from a high school in Oregon. That was my first actual piece for band. It was short, and too difficult, as I had no idea what “grade 3” meant. I never heard a recording of the performance, and the reading that I heard at my college was awful (the kind that makes you think, “wow, I wrote a big ol’ piece of crap,” just because what you’re hearing is so bad — even if it sounds nothing like what you put on paper), so I essentially forgot about the piece. Last night, though, I got an email from the conductor who originally commissioned the piece. I hadn’t heard from him for over 10 years. He wants to arrange that band piece for his community orchestra. I gave him permission, and I’m very curious to see what he comes up with. We also discussed the possibility of me writing a choral piece, which I’ve been wanting to do for ages.

Since I had thought the original piece (called “One Part Invention”) would never be heard again, I took the theme (there was only one motive; thus the title) and reworked it as the slow movement of “Mood Indigo,” a piece for drum set and piano that I wrote back when I was a student at Juilliard. I just posted that movement, “Sour Heart,” on the “Mood Indigo” page, complete with a PDF of the score. Happy downloading.

Had a nice night out with Newman & Steve yesterday. Nothin’ beats dinner & drinks at Dallas BBQ — especially when Texas-sized Blue Hawaii’s are involved. I think my head has finally recovered…

It’s been hot and sticky for the past few days in New York — a typical NY summer. It’s weather like this that makes me want to move to a nicer climate.

In the past few days, I’ve learned of two exciting upcoming performances — both with H. Robert Reynolds! Bob is going to conduct “Redline Tango” with the National Honor Band at Carnegie Hall next Memorial Day weekend, and on October 6, he’ll conduct the piece with the Oberlin Wind Ensemble. I did my undergrad at the Cleveland Institute of Music, just up the road from Oberlin, and AEJ’s brother attended Oberlin, so I have a definite place in my heart for that school. I’m sure it’ll be a hell of a performance. It’s amazing to have Mr. Reynolds as a champion of my music.

I can also think of some of these performances in a different light: performances by rivals. As a student at CIM, Oberlin was kind of a rival school, only because it was a major conservatory just a few miles away in the same state. (I kind of suspect that it was the one-sided type of rivalry, though — kind of like my “rivalry” with Steve Mackey, whom I consider my nemesis, simply because we share a last name and we’re both composers, but I’m relatively sure that Steve doesn’t concern himself too much with what “the other Mackey” is up to.)

Another rival performance this fall is at the University of Michigan. Don’t tell my friends from Columbus, and especially don’t tell those who attended Ohio State, as there isn’t a bigger college football rivalry than Ohio State – Michigan.

I kind of think, though, that if CIM and Oberlin had football teams (or sports, for that matter), their football rivalry would challenge any other.

Just to update from the earlier post… I installed DP 4.6, and all seems to be well. Maybe I’ll actually get some writing done next week.

I found some Tool albums online that I hadn’t heard before, and I’m listening to them now. It’s not the most tuneful stuff, and the lyrics are not my style, but I’m consistently intrigued by the music itself, and something about their meter choices make me wish I’d written almost every track. Right now I’m listening to “Forty Six & 2” and trying to figure out what meter these breaks are in.

Oh. My. God.

The end of this track is perfect. I’m blown away. I am SO going to rip this off. It’s largely in 7+7/8 — sounding like half of the band is in regular 7/4, but there’s a repeated ostinato in 7/8 on top of it. Then it does this sweet thing at the very very end that took me about 5 listenings to decipher. The guitars are in a syncopated 4/4 (sounding, over two bars, like 7+9: 2+2+3+2+3+4), and the drums and bass are doing hits in 4+3+3+3+3 against it, ending with the entire band playing hits (with the drummer hitting choked crashes) in that rhythm.

If I listen to enough of this stuff, I’m going to write one messed-up piece for the SEC. (I already blame Tool for the last movement of Juba.)