UPDATE (28 Feb 2014):
Digitization completed. The file is available here, along with my comments on the software and more.
UPDATE (27 Feb. 2014):
Well, I’ve finished the first movement, (sparse) dynamics and all.
When I’ve finished all three movements, I’ll update again, combine the PDFs into a single file, and add it to the page where the audio is posted. The second and third are much shorter and simpler than the first, but it may take a little while for me to get around to it.
(And not that I expect it’ll ever get performed, remixed, or anything else, but if anyone’s interested, feel free: there’s no charge. While I retain copyright over the piece, any not-for-profit use is fine with me. All I ask is that you send me a recording of the performance. I haven’t thought about Creative Commons licenses, but I may release this under one. Until then, though, feel free to download, print, and perform it to your heart’s content.)
Original Post:
I’m working on a few pressing things now, so I’ll just say that I’m still sometimes grabbing an old manuscript and attempting to notate it in Musescore, which I’m finding far easier to learn how to use than Finale ever was. (Finale may be more high-powered, I’m not sure–I have a few scores I think will be difficult to notate with either software, so I guess we’ll see eventually–but Musescore is handling everything I’m doing much more gracefully than I found Finale to do back in the day.)
Anyway, the piece I’m notating now is one I have a recording for, and also not my best composition, but it’s fun. It was a piece a friend (Lana Fribance) commissioned for one of her recitals, I’m not sure which: I wrote a bass clarinet duo for her, and each movement was named after a friend in the department. The first movement was titled Grace, for the inimitable Grace Yip.
I’ve only input the notes so far–no dynamics, no slurs or breath marks, no performance instructions: it’s just a half-hour’s work–and as with the last piece, I’m just inputting the notation as it was when performed.
I may make changes it at some point, though I don’t think the piece is really worth trying to edit into anything better than it currently is (it’s kind of awkward and amateurish, in part because I was just starting out) but anyway, at the moment the purpose is just digital archiving of this piece for which I currently only have a single hard copy and a scan. Here’s what I have so far…
I wonder if any of the people who saw it performed back in, I think I was 1995, remember it at all… but probably not. It was pretty simple and forgettable. Were I asked to write something for bass clarinet today, it’d be very, very different!
I remember. And I remember a lot of the other stuff you wrote — so no, you’re not forgotten.
Hope you are well, and hope life is treating you the best ways possible.
Carrie
Wow! Carrie, how are you? It’s been ages.
Thanks, that’s nice of you to say, though I’d say a number of my pieces were mostly pretty forgettable, really, including this one. (I unfortunately lost some of the recordings of better favorite pieces, so manuscripts is all I have for now, though there may be something on an old videocassette, if my sister didn’t toss them years ago. Of course the recording of this piece is one I do have… I have it posted elsewhere on this site.)
As for life, yeah, I’m doing well; there’s been little speedbumps associated with adjusting to leaving Korea after eleven years, and switching to novel-writing, and freelance work, but lots of good stuff too… got married last year, started screenwriting, lots of things to be happy about.
I hope things are going well for you too. What’s new? By your email address, it looks like you’re still active in music, which is good. I’d swear I tried to look you up on Facebook but turned up nothing, a few years ago. Have you resisted succumbing to the social network beast? (If so: wise move. It’s a real time-gobbler.)
Oh, and it’s ironic you remember (and found my website): somehow in my head, your family name became Riley. (I had the wrong family name for your credit as a vocalist on “Yudhistira’s Dice” on my music page.) Sorry about that… I guess I’m getting forgetful in my old age, especially since I forgot to bring along the recital sheets from my mother’s house last time I visited. Which was a donkey’s age ago…