2sday

Today is a much nicer day in Brunswick, ME. The sun is out, it's a perfect 71°F, and lots of work has already been accomplished.

After working through most of the morning I took off for my newly adopted 11:30 gym routine. The gym, at least one of them, keeps odd, spaced hours here. 11:30 is an opening time (goes until 2:30, I think...) and so the treadmills are totally free. I even have my own adopted machine...

Lunch was nice, but breif (I have been perpetually hungry these past few days) and I made some pasta salad for later... hopefully that staves off some of the hunger this evening.

Working this afternoon I tried something new. I was speaking with Harold a few months ago, when he was writing his song cycle, Beautiful Ohio for the NY Festival of Song. He said to me, after having recited a number of the poems he was setting, "Don't you find that you have to memorize the poems before you start setting them?" I replied, "No," at the time, but thought that something like that might benefit me in the songs I am working on now. It's a set of 6 for Soprano (or Mezzo) and Guitar. I have been a bit paranoid about the way that the songs should weave together - I feel like the message of the set should shine through the music...

So, I wrote all of the poems out on separate pieces of paper and began to draw.

I looked for similar words, the same word that carried different meanings in different passages, important rhymes, rhythms, cadences, etc. Through all of this, I gleaned not only a better insight into the text, but a more secure (and hopefully productive) plan about how to go about getting to the double-bar.

It's always fun to try something new, especially when it feels like the strategy supports your saying whatever you want to say, rather than moving your style in a direction in which you are uncomfortable going.

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First lesson's at 4... brought a lot of music. We'll see if Claude Baker takes a shine to my music.

Day 1.. sort of...

Today is the official start of activities at Bowdoin. As a composer I have very little directed time. This is great, actually, as I have already done some writing, been to the gym, made lunch, printed staff paper (!), and taken a shower (not necessarily in that order).

Walking around the Bowdoin campus is a pleasure. It's beautiful - buildings nestled nicely between lots of trees, lots of timeless architecture and functional interiors that rival colleges many times its size. The library is very beautiful, but I'm not sure of what its holdings are. The music library is VERY small and has VERY limited holdings - a bit disappointing, but perhaps a good excuse to learn some more classical repertoire with which I am not entirely acquainted.

Put another way, there's not a lot from the last 100 years.


The gym, on the other hand, is fantastic. The free weight room is particularly nice, with more weights than two football teams could take up and a water fountain that apparently has an unending supply of water kept at the perfect temperature. Even better: it's next door to the recital hall where composer practice rooms are.

I'll spend most of the rest of the day writing - I've already made some good progress on songs for guitar and voice that are settings of text by Linda Loomis - excerpts from her book, "Apple Tree Summer." After working through the most recent piece, "Apologies," with Ken Meyer, writing for guitar has become an intriguing challenge for me. I think it might reinforce some of the sonic tendencies that I'm starting to adopt as my "voice" is developing.

Lastly: I have never seen so many squirrels walking. I have seen squirrels run, many of them. But it is on a rare occasion that I see a squirrel strolling along a path. Or spread out on the pavement, sunning itself. Both of these things I have seen more than a dozen times so far, in three days, here in Brunswick. I think the squirrels retire to this place.

oops.

... and I left my manuscript book at home.

Bowdoin (BOH-den)

For the next 6 weeks I will be at the Bowdoin Music Festival in Brunswick, ME. I'm here as a composer, but hopefully will get to spend some time practicing, too.

I arrived yesterday around 5:00 pm. Things are beautiful here - the campus reminds me very much of Vassar; more trees, though (perhaps fewer varieties - I'm not much of an arborist). General orientation meetings have happened and the people I've met so far seem nice. One of my roomates, Josh from Australia, seems like someone I will most certainly get along with - he's a violist to boot.

Visited the Hannaford (grocery store) this morning early (around 8) and am doing some work before an 11 O'clock meeting with Claude Baker, the first session composition faculty member, to figure out schedules, masterclasses, etc.

There are A LOT of master classes and concerts scheduled even in just this first week - I think about 11 events in all. I am excited to hear a lot of repertoire and hear some first-class musicians do some coaching (Glenn Dicterow and Liang Wang are both going to be here next week!).

Just have to remember to do some writing, too...