The Birthday Project- Four....Three Blake Songs/Shadow Play for Flute and Pan

So after struggling to come up with a musically satisfying setting of The Blossom I have decided just to make the piece a three song collection rather than create something I am ultimately unhappy with. I have submitted the first draft of the final score and await comments from my vocalist.

Now that the first piece in the Birthday Project is all but finished I am looking forward to writing my first purely instrumental piece in three years for my close friends Jason Baskin and Beaux Lux. The piece is tentatively entitled Shadow Play and will be for Flute and Lead Pan. The term shadow play refers to many facets of creating art with shadow ranging from photography, dance, and Balinese shadow puppetry. I want to incoporate musical ideas inspired by all of these elements in the work as well as using Jungian concepts of the Shadow in the piece somehow. That being said I am just in the very beginning stages so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.The deadline for this piece is March 6th, the latest of the two birthdays in the duo.

The Birthday Project- Four Blake Songs (Part 4)

I just finished The WIld Flowers Song from Four Blake Songs and sent it to my singer. For whatever reason this piece had a difficult birth. It will be interesting to see how it fares with the rest of the work as a whole once it is finished. Three of the four songs are done with only five days left (if you include the 1st which at the rate I am going I probably will have to). The Blank Page Syndrome will rear it's ugly head tomorrow but tonight I am going to the movies.

The Birthday Project- Four Blake Songs (Part 3)

Just finished another of the Four Blake Songs (The Laughing Song). I was kept indoors due to a ice storm and made the most of it by getting halfway through this project with 10 days to go. It will be a tight deadline but I am on track to have it done by the 1st. I do find it funny that the text talks about green meadows and the sounds of nature in full bloom and I wrote it during one of the most desolate winter days so far in Illinois...

The Birthday Project- Four Blake Songs (Part 2)

Here's a quick update on my progress for Four Blake Songs. Just finished the first song (Soft Snow) and sent it to Christopher Smith to look over. I am 60% finished with The Laughing Song and hope to finish that in a few days. As I reflect on how this project is affecting me as a composer I am noticing several interesting things:

1. I have never had to work so quickly to finish a piece. I have always had the luxury of taking my time because I have never had a hard deadline prior to this piece. As a result I am noticing that I am spending significantly less time in the sketching phase and writing more intuitively, following my gut so to speak.This is also true for the revision process, which has been cut drastically. For me this is a biggie because I tend to rewrite and revise alot.

2. Having a "day job" has seriously inhibited my usual creative tendencies. When I was in school and had the luxury of time I would set aside at least an hour everyday (usually in the evenings. NOT a morning person) to write and I would always write in the same location. With my job I simply cannot do this. The majority of my creative time (for this project at least) is crammed into the weekends, usually writing in 3-4 four blocks in the mornings and evenings.

3. My productivity is substantially higher now than ever before when I factor in how much (quality) music I am writing vs. how long I am taking to write it.

So there is my update with some extra revelations for those who care to read them. See you next time!

Unbound Video

The video of the Unboiund concert (put on by Living Arts Tulsa) featuring my piece Who Knows if the Moon's a Balloon? is now available. The entire show is great but if you want to skip to my piece it starts at 3:53. Thanks again to all the wonderful artists who collaborated on this project!

Unbound from Nathan Harmon on Vimeo.