Saturday Summary, January 15, 2011

Every Saturday, The Creative will feature a brief post about my current creative efforts and how they are progressing.  If this doesn't interest you, read no further -- not only will I not be offended, I'll never know.  The usual creativity-centric posts will return on Sunday.

It was a pretty typical week in the creative department this week, which is mildly surprising considering how crazy and nutty it was in the weather department (and subsequently the getting-where-I-needed-to-go-without-sliding-off-the-road department).  Quite happily, a "typical week" tends to have good news attached to it, and this week is no exception.

Music -- I completed an arrangement of All Things Bright and Beautiful for piano, which will get played in church this Sunday.  Having the month of January away from choir, and running all the services from the piano, really gives me a great opportunity to do some composing on a deadline, a skill I wouldn't mind being better at. 

If you recall last week, I posted my plans for the year in terms of how many pieces I wanted to write.  To keep myself motivated, I'm going to repost that list each week, but with the current number of pieces remaining in each medium (and the original number crossed out).  That being said:

• Handbell pieces -- 20
• Piano pieces -- 20  18
• Choral pieces -10
• String pieces -- 4
• Band pieces -- 2
• Other instrumental pieces -- 4
• GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60  58

If I can keep at this pace of about a piece a week, and can double up come summer, I ought to be able to hit my 60 pieces by the end of the year.  We'll see how well this actually works in practice.

Writing -- Nothing to report.

Publishing -- I got a couple of emails from Morningstar this week: they've been swamped with other projects and just got around to acknowledging a couple of submissions I sent them a while back.  It's nice to at least know where they are.  I figure I'll hear back something from them in another couple of months.

Then, I exchanged several emails with Bill Griffin on Wednesday.  Beckenhorst is taking both my Resounding Fury and my Antiphonal Fanfare.  That brings my total number of pieces accepted up to 51, and my number accepted at Beckenhorst to 24.  Very humbling, especially when I consider that Il Est Né, my first acceptance, happened four and a half years ago this coming Tuesday. 

I also know that the Raleigh Ringers just did a demo recording for Jeffers publishing this past weekend, and are recording the new pieces for Beckenhorst today (four of mine this time around).  I'm not sure when the Jeffers pieces will be released (they work a little farther ahead than some publishers, and I haven't been with them long enough yet to learn their time line on things), but these Beckenhorst pieces should be available this April or May.  Very exciting times all around.


That's it from here.  I'm off to get some more composing done, and perhaps get ahead of the game on my composing schedule for the year.  Until then, have a great weekend, and keep creating!