Preserving an Old Hymn - "Softly and Tenderly"

A couple of weeks ago, my pastor asked us to sing "Softly and Tenderly" to compliment her sermon. Almost every Sunday, I arrange an old hymn off the top of my head by improvising arrangements for the singers and I play the keyboard. The arrangement is usually sung at the offertory.

I enjoy the challenges each week because I never know who will be there, or what hymn I will be arranging. I really don't mind because I like finding a way to make music with what and whom I am given.

"Softly and Tenderly" is a very old hymn, written in 1880 by Will L. Thomp­son, published in collection called Spark­ling Gems, Nos. 1 and 2, by J. Cal­vin Bush­ey (Chi­ca­go, Ill­i­nois: Will L. Thomp­son & Com­pa­ny)

Whenever I create a particularly successful arrangement, I am always tempted to write it down. Alas ... for many years, I have not, until this week ... and so today, I deliver "Softly and Tenderly" to my "List of Works".

From several sites, I have gathered information about both the hymn and the composer. Will Thompson was a prolific composer and wrote many gospel hymns. "Softly and Tenderly" has lived for over 100 years and some of the interesting facts include:

In 1968, it was performed at a memorial service for Amer­i­can ci­vil rights lead­er Mar­tin Lu­ther King, at the Eb­e­ne­zer Bap­tist Church, At­lan­ta, Georg­ia. More recently in 1985, it was used in the Acad­e­my Award win­ning mo­vie Trip to Boun­ti­ful .

It's a great feeling to complete something like this ... because this hymn, and my attempts to preserve it another way, now makes me a part of its history. It's been a good day!

You Are Better Than Your Average ...

On the desk in my office sits a Rochester Red Wings baseball. It came from a game I attended at Frontier Field a couple of years ago and has significant meaning.

Lindsay and her family had invited me to attend a game with them and we were sitting behind home plate next to a man who knew a lot about the team players--their statistics and batting averages, etc. So, it was great fun.

Late in the game, a player came up to bat. The man next to us said, "Oh, boy! This isn't good for the Red Wings. He has a terrible batting average ..."

Lindsay and I looked at each other ... thinking the same thing--and then Lindsay turned out to the baseball field and yelled, "Come on, Sean! You are better than your average!!!"

We roared with laughter and in the next pitch or so, darned if Sean didn't hit a home run! We laughed even more ...

As we left the game, we were talking about the fantastic home run and what a wonderful time we had had --even though the Red Wings lost --and when I looked down, my eyes went along the fence line, and lo and behold, there was the baseball!!! --right at the fence line. It was INCREDIBLE to have found it and even more incredible that I could actually picked it up and bring it home.

And yet, there it is ... the baseball ... sitting on my desk.

Sometimes, as I am listening to the playback of an orchestration, or thinking about my work, I will pick the baseball up and examine it. Every time I do, it inspires me. It encourages me because it reminds me that if I try, remembering that people believe in me, I can always be better than my average!

New Journeys

Today is a special day because my writing partner, Lindsay Baker, embarked on a two-month research/music education trip to Ghana. It has always been a dream of hers to go to Africa and I am thrilled for her to have this opportunity.

Last night when I was saying "Bon voyage!" I couldn't help but feel a little sad because I will really miss her even though I am excited about her adventures ahead. It feels so strange to know that she won't be popping in through my front door after working at Eastman so that we can get to work on one of our projects. (The list is long.)

For the next two months while she is gone, my projects are solo and I have to admit that Iam not accustomed to that. With that realization, I recognize today as a new day and realize that a new journey awaits me too ... not as exciting as an African adventure, but when I think about it, there is still a lot to keep me busy ... and happy and fulfilled as a creative artist.

Here's what's on tap:

1. SSAA composition of "When I Go Fishin'"
June 1st is a deadline for an SSAA original choral work. The criteria for the work is a light-hearted song about fishing. I have been working on the poem for about a month, and posted the poem on my facebook page. I'll post it below ...

2. SATB arrangements of the "Mass for the Living" and orchestrations.
This is the project I started this year and recorded in March for the Sacred Arts Foundation Sacred Music Competition. I am fulfilling the promise to write a Mass in honor of my mother. (She died ten years ago.) Nancia D'Alimonte will be programming it for the December 11th Concert with the NIH Philharmonic in Washington, D.C.

3. Film scoring school in Seattle, WA.
I will be doing an 'Intensive' with Hummie Mann. One of my dreams is to score a movie.

Hopefully, I will be so busy I won't notice that I am lonely ... but then again, maybe everyone really does need that time alone like the poem described ...

WHEN I GO FISHIN’


Oh! Let me grab my fishin’ pole
and skedaddle to the fishin’ hole.
The sun's already risen
and the birds are calling me.

I'm puttin' on my lucky hat
and leavin' a note where I’ll be at ...
with tackle box and lunch,
I like it quite a bunch
when I go fishin’.

I’ll feed the fish a tasty treat--
maggots, worms or bugs to eat
and if they do not take the bait
then I will sit and wait .... and wait … and wait

I’ll find the perfect skipping stone ...
plop, plop, plop, plop, plop ...
take a nap, or be alone ...

Oh! Let me grab my fishing pole
and skedaddle to the fishing hole.
The sun's already risen
and the birds are calling me.

I’m puttin' on my lucky hat
and leavin’ a note where I’ll be at ...
in my favorite spot.
Don’t care if it’s hot
when I go fishin’.

When I’m sitting by the pond
it's like I’ve waved a magic wand
and like a song from yesterday
my troubles start to fade away.

When peace of mind is what I’ve got
then why should I care if i catch a lot?

Oh! Let me grab my fishing pole
and skedaddle to the fishing hole ...
The sun's already risen
and the birds are calling me.

I'm puttin' on my lucky hat
and leavin' a note where I’ll be at ...
I love the way I feel
with my rod and reel--
when I go fishin’!!

Working on the Website - A World of Possibility

 

Today has been a lot of fun! The pictures in the collage are only a few scenes from my life as a composer/playwright. They include Lindsay working in the libary, an evening after seeing "Kung Fu Panda" with my daughter, working in my office ... and an opening night ...

I have been experimenting with building collages and slideshows from all the tools that google makes available. I was thrilled when I was able to post two slide shows to our "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" website.

Seven years ago, Lindsay and I embarked on a three-week journey that changed our lives forever. We each packed our backpacks with Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and proceeded to visit all the places mentioned in the novel and all the places where Jane Austen wrote it.

As a result, we were inspired beyond our wildest imaginations to create our musical. Today we have a beautiful show that is ready for the world.

Some of our pictures from that monumental trip are on the website. It was a joyful process to gather the information and transport it to the web ... and in the process, to transport myself to a wonderful place I experienced.

Ah!! The possibilities!

What Kind of Artist Do I Want to Be?

Over the past several weeks, Lindsay and I have been preparing music for the upcoming recording of a new demo for our work "Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, A Musical". In the slow and careful process of reconciling our new libretto with the existing scores, we examine our work in a completely different way as we look to improve the graphic quality of our printed materials for the eventual musical interpretation of our work by very, VERY talented performing artists.

During this examination process, it is amazing to us how we still laugh at the awesome wit of Jane Austen's writing. She was SO smart... so funny! Even in the editing of the abridged dramatic moments we pulled from her novel, we recognize her genius!

Yes! Jane Austen was a genius! ... Whenever Lindsay and I have one of these moments, it always leads us to discussion about an aspect of Jane Austen. Yesterday, it was about what kind of creative artist Jane Austen might have been, and when we look at her work, it tells us.

We know Austen wasn't a prolific writer because she only completed six novels. By today's standards, that isn't very much writing. She did write a lot of letters, but the life she describes tells us that she wasn't part of a writer's circle, or mentored by a contemporary published writer, or editor, or even an English teacher.

What we know is that she was the daughter of a preacher who lived most of her life in the country. Her opportunities were limited ... and yet ... as a lone creative artist, she wrote one of the most beloved love stories OF ALL TIMES in the novel we know as "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE".

Wow! After 200 years, her story endures ... and her process as a writer wasn't defined by anyone but herself. Isn't that amazing?


Thousands of thousands of people write and have written articles, essays and papers about her life, her novels and her minor works. Many of these writers develop a passion for all things JANE AUSTEN, and become life-long enthusiasts and/or scholars. These fans often become active in Jane Austen Societies throughout the world working to promote her work and continue this extraordinary legacy.

... And then there are creative artists like Lindsay and me who create derivative works from the characters and ideas born in Jane Austen's imagination, collaborating with her 200 years later, extending the possibilities of what she created.


While her writing wasn't prolific, the derivative works, scholarly work, and publishing of her work are unexampled. Was that what she was thinking about when she wrote it?

I don't think so. I think she just wanted people to enjoy it, to read it, and she dreamed of making a living as a creative artist doing what she loved--writing!!

She was the kind of creative artist who paid attention to her work --not how long it took to create it, or how much she created, or what might happen when it was created. She understood that when it comes down to it, the joy of being a creative artist was two-fold.

Now THAT!!! is the kind of creative artist I want to be--

the kind who finds as much or more joy in the PROCESS of creating, than the BY-PRODUCT of what I have created. Experience teaches me that my work is always better when I concentrate on the process of the creation. My artisitc struggles occur when I think beyond to what could happen, or when I fret about whether someone may or may not like it.

I do think Austen enjoyed the by-product of what she created every time her work was enjoyed and read by others. However, I think she must have enjoyed her creative process far more than its outcome because she created something that matters to the world NOW.

If we create something that matters, it comes from honouring our own process, from the heart ... our own heart ... not anybody else's ... and isn't THAT the kind of artist to be?

Doing It "ALL"

Life is the time we are given to do what we are called to do. In every breath we take, we have the opportunity to create, to think, or to do.

When I was younger, much of my life was a struggle because I was always trying to be just 'one thing'. I still struggle, but back then, I struggled with the thought that I was supposed to be "just a pianist", because I didn't have the wisdom to recognize that I was much more. I could sing ...and compose ... and write ... and draw ... And when I finally accepted the fact that I was multi-dimensional in my capacity to create, that was the day when found I could be happy.

All the Arts complete me. I cannot breathe without doing. I love music. I love making music. I love words. I love creating with words. I love imagery ... Simply put: I love to create beauty. I cannot "be" without creation or creating.

Now I don't have any time to waste doubting who I am or what I can do anymore. I must do it all -- whatever the "all" is that calls me to create.

I must show up.
I must do the work.

a miracle of love

Letters and letter writing have always been an enjoyable hobby of mine, so signing up to write to a soldier in the Middle East just seemed like a lot of fun to do. However, in my attempts to encourage and cheer someone I didn’t know, I never expected to meet the love of my life.

It started so innocently—with a letter that went something like this:

“January 16, 2008

Hi, Doug

My name is Amanda Jacobs, and you have been assigned to me by AdoptaPlatoon Soldier Support Effort. I was reading about this organization in a magazine article I found … and thought getting involved would be an adventure and potentially fun …

A little basic background information might be helpful … I am 45 years old, divorced with a nine-year-old girl. We live in Rochester, New York in a house we call “The Yellow House” with our funny cat, Jewel …

Here is a recent picture …”

A few months earlier, I was at my gym on an elliptical trainer when I stumbled upon and read about a volunteer organization called AdoptaPlatoon. Started by a group of mothers whose sons were deployed, these extraordinary women organize volunteers to write letters and send packages to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. I thought it was a wonderful organization, so I signed up.

In mid-January 2008, I received my first Soldier Delivery Letter. The only information I was given was this: Doug Stearns, 48, single, deployed from Ft. Lewis, Washington. The letter also included his address where I was to write, and a cutoff date when I was to stop writing. There was nothing else.

My initial reaction was laughter, and I asked myself, “What have you gotten yourself into?” And … “What is a single, 48-year-old man doing in the middle of a desert?” It was a moment of pure joy! And, in that moment, I decided to be myself and just write … to just write and tell someone about my crazy, wonderful life—not worrying about what he thought. My job was to write a man I did not know, and all that man had to do was receive the letter. What he chose to do beyond that point was his own business.

With that attitude, I wrote every couple of days. I wrote about my day-to-day activities, about my friends, about my work … about anything that might make a person feel good. I tried to include a picture each time too. I was having so much fun that I was surprised when I realized I was getting so much joy from the writing process because I was looking at my life through a happy lens—and sharing it.

As a highly creative artist who composes music, writes plays and poetry, my life is very full. I am ‘on the go’ all the time going to concerts, watching plays, going to movies, working on my compositions, teaching, raising a child. My days are never routine, and I began to notice how writing to Doug made me feel as if I was keeping a journal –recording all the happiness.

It is funny now, but I never expected him to write me back. My life is not a normal one, and I thought the openness with which I wrote would scare him off. The fun part for me, was that I didn’t care if it did.

The AdoptaPlatoon organization will tell you too, that if you sign up to support a soldier with cards and letters, the soldiers may or may not write back. They are not obligated to do so, but you are obligated to write them. Also, most people I know don’t write letters… I accepted this fact, so I never expected anything. Imagine my surprise, when I received my first letter from Doug.

One cold February afternoon, a brown envelope appeared in my mailbox. It took me a few moments to figure out who it was from. It had no postage and only the words “FREE MAIL” where a postage stamp was supposed to go. Noticing the return address and postmark, I realized it was from Doug and it had taken about a week for the letter to reach me.

It was a wonderful letter and I hungrily read it while I drank a hot cup of coffee in my kitchen. Doug wrote that he had received three of my letters, and he had enjoyed them all. He shared a little bit about himself and told me he was a career soldier who had been in the Army for 31 years, that he was a divorced father of three children –all of whom had been in the Army and his entire family had served in the Middle East.

His life was so different from mine, and I loved hearing about it. It was different; he was different. Here was a man who knew who he was. He knew what he could do and what he could not do. It was GREAT! He mentioned that he had left home when he was 17-years old and had never looked back because he enjoyed his life in the military and that he lived a ‘charmed life’. I liked him instantly. He made me laugh.

Receiving his letter encouraged me to write more, and over the next three months, we exchanged several letters, By April, I started to feel frustrated because he never sent pictures. I had no idea what he looked like, so I imagined him in many combinations –short, tall, pot-bellied, bald, with glasses, etc.—and told him so in a letter. I also told him he might not like what I was imagining and instructed him that his mission, (if he chose to accept it) was to have someone take a picture of him and email it to me.

About a week later, I received this email:

”Hi Amanda, I just received a letter with your email address so decided to take advantage of it. … I will include a pic of my short fat self, but hey! I don't want to hear the scream all the way over here, and hey! Please try not to push the panic button too many times, OK? Let me know if this email gets to you. Email is easier for me, I don't like to hand write anything, my penmanship is embarrassingly terrible, and our printers are off-line more often than not. If this email gets thru I will answer more of your questions. Doug “

When his picture, popped up on my computer screen, my heart went pitter-pat. He was not fat, either. He was a gorgeous soldier man—the kind of man I had always imagined for myself. It was a wonderful feeling and I kept thinking that I must be crazy because I was falling for someone I had never met. But I couldn’t help myself … so I kept on writing.

Once we got to the email stage, our correspondence increased. With emails, we were able to get to know each other through our words and the pictures we shared from our lives. The more we wrote, the more it seemed we wanted to know about each other.
Then in early June 2008, Doug wrote to tell me that he was going home to Ft Lewis.

I was very sad about this because my responsibility for writing to him through AdoptaPlatoon was coming to an end and I didn’t know if Doug wanted the correspondence to continue. I hoped that he did! I knew that I definitely wanted to meet him, but the distance … he would be in WASHINGTON.

So I wrote … telling him that I would miss being his AdoptaPlatoon girl, and that our writing to each other had been so much fun. He responded with similar feeling and told me that if I felt like shooting him an email when he was back in Washington, he wouldn’t mind reading it.

He made me laugh. (He always makes me laugh.) He also told me there was a possibility her would be visiting his family in Pennsylvania that Fall.

Throughout the months Doug was in Kuwait, I talked a lot about my work as a composer/playwright, my work with my writing partner, and our work in adapting Jane Austen’s novel, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE into a musical. In October 2008, a producer presented a Staged Concert Reading of our show in the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York. It was a high profile Gala Event with Broadway performers and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. I wanted Doug to be my date.

My thought was: If Doug can withstand this kind of pressure and scrutiny from my work, we will either be friends for life, or he will run screaming in the opposite direction. I needed to know.

To my surprise, he accepted my invitation to come for the Gala. His acceptance increased our correspondence, and we began to instant message and talk by phone.

When he arrived at my house in October, it was instant physical attraction. Everything about being with Doug was right. During the Gala, he was wonderfully supportive and instinctively understood my needs during a very critical time with my work. He was unfazed by the glamour, and seemed to know how to help me without my having to tell him. He was awesome.

Following the Gala and during Doug’s visit with me, we knew we were in love with each other—madly, deeply, passionately. We were old enough to recognize that what was happening between us is beautiful and rare. Our meeting was a miracle of love.

We agreed to keep seeing each other and are talking about getting married now. We don’t know what will happen because we still face the issues of a long distance relationship (There are complications on both ends.), and Doug has another deployment coming up in January 2011. We do see each other one week each month, (It is very romantic.) and we talk through Yahoo Messenger and webcam every day.

Right now we just have faith in love. It is enough.

Love is enough. That is its miracle.

We both know that love was powerful enough to bring us together through our words. And if love can do THAT, then love has the power to keep us together.

Sing, Lily, Sing!

Well, we did it! We got a libretto completed and it looks like it will live on stage next year for Eastman's Women in Music Festival 2011 ... and maybe even more. Now that the opera libretto actually exists anything is possible.

It' a funny thing about creating something. If you just "do" it, then it doesn't matter the path that it takes. Something good will happen simply because there was joy in the creation with no expectation. The life of the work just takes on an energy independent of the creator and 'lives'.

This is what is happening with LILY. Good things are coming out of the joy of our creation ... it is an organic process. The libretto lives; Lily Bart is dead ... so sing, Lily ... SING!

When Will Lily Die?

Yes, I know ... It's a weird title, but all I can think about today is "When will Edith Wharton's Lily die?"

Lindsay and I keep trying to get to that part of the story ... so we can finish the Epilogue to the first draft of our libretto --- it's all that's left and we've been at the Epilogue for the past week.

Our May 1 deadline to complete the first copy is fast approaching. (We like to create self-imposed deadlines because we get stuff done that way) We want to submit it to the National Opera Association... but it seems that everything is getting in the way ...

But that isn't a bad thing, I suppose, because the things that are getting in the way are good things ... Like last week .... when we began to organize our recording of "Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, A Musical". Or, the way we set up our new website yesterday ... Or, today when we received word that "LILY" may be staged next year for the Women in Music Festival 2011 ... Everything is exciting ... but still ...

"Lily" has got to go ....because that's how the story goes .... and if we don't let her take her overdose, she will be forever caught in her poverty ... and that would leave us with an unfinished story and an unfinished opera .... Die, Lily!!! Die!

Living Music

Right now, I am between services. I play two church services every Sunday.

The first service is played at a funky little Lutheran Church in the South Wedge of Rochester, NY called Peace Lutheran (I love that little church) and the second service I play is at an assisted living facility near Highland Park called St. John's Home.

Last week was Easter, and amid the transformation from Lent into the joyfulness of Easter, I am always amazed at the life and power of music. Between the dark and somber tones of Holy Week until the celebration of Easter morning, there is such contrast, and the music explains it all.

Today, as I was playing the service at Peace, I couldn't help but think about the life of music.

What is it about music? I mean, really? Whenever we hear a melody from beginning to end, it has a life. The music lives as long as it is heard, and if we repeat the life of the music, we recreate the feelings we felt the first time we heard it.

That is powerful, and yet ... it doesn't stop there. We can close our eyes and listen in the silence and hear it again, and it still has the power to bring us to the memory of what we felt when we heard it the first time.

I like to think that music is a living entity because living, breathing people breathe life and energy into it whenever they perform. And that when that happens and we genuinely connect to what the music is trying to tell us, we communicate something unspoken to others through another realm.

It's pretty heady when you think about it, and making music is addictive. I think this is why I receive so much joy in being able to bring something so wonderful to life.

When I play at church, I love to hear the congregation singing. With my joy, I love to rouse them to a place where they outsing the organ and the only way the organ can be heard is for me to improvise around their voices. I love to play at St. John's Home and hear the joy of old voices singing their favorite hymns, singing words that have bound themselves to melody and forever into their hearts ... and I think: Ah!! There is LIFE! That is LIVING!

Creating a Libretto

My writing partner, Lindsay Baker, is an amazingly talented woman. I marvel at her creativity and the magic that happens when we create together.

A few years ago, (I think it was 2004 ... when we were on the beach in Punta Cana...) we decided to adapt Edith Wharton's 'House of Mirth' into an opera. We thought the central character, Lily Bart, was such a tragic figure and that opera would be a wonderful way to tell her story.

We talked about the novel a lot ... the problems of adapting it. We visited the Mills Mansion in Rheinbeck,NY and went to "The Mount" (Edith Wharton's home in Lenox Massachusetts) and went to the Gilded Age museum there too. We also asked Justin Ferrate--a wonderful New York City walking guide--to help us find Lily Bart in New York through our 21st Century eyes.

It took us a while to figure it out, and we decided that we would approach the project in tableaux. In other words, we would present five key scenes from the novel into a living picture with music and connect those scenes with choral commentary from a chorus we call Society.

While we were in Chicago with a production of our show "Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, A Musical" we were able to work on the Prologue and First scene. In late March, we presented this at the Women in Music Festival 2010 at the Eastman School of Music and found that this way of telling Lily's story is going to work ...

Last night, we drafted out the last sceene. Today we will create the transition leading into it and do the Epilogue.

What is so fascinating about working on this project is the way that the show and its music is coming to us. We are working on libretto first, which is very unusual for us. We don't feel the need to take the work we have done and turn it into music instantly ... instead ...It's like the entire opera libretto has to be written before we can begin the arias and odes.

When we write musicals, songs and the ways to tell the stories come to Lindsay and me in all kinds of ways. Inspiration is different every time. Sometimes the lyrics come first ... sometimes there is only a fragment of a melody ... sometimes it is the entire melody that has a feeling and no words AT ALL... we never know ... sometimes we just talk about a scene until something pops into our head ...

The process of creation is an extraordinary experience. Writing a Libretto is a lot of fun. Creating a story that works and then setting it to prose ... WOW! Glad I showed up to work. Who would want to miss that?

Waking Up!

As I was waking up this morning, I realized that I was happy. For me, it is always a good feeling to wake up like this because there are days when I don't.

As I walked to the bathroom to wash my face, I realized that the good feeling was a result of the wonderfully productive day I had yesterday. Yesterday, I practiced my violin, composed a few measures of a new choral work I am working on, wrote some poetry, worked on a new scene from our new opera we call 'Lily', saw a movie, and completed some of my graduate work assignments on "gifted children" ... It was a full day as an artist,not to mention the wonderful time I had with my daughter and talking with my awesome boyfriend.

The older I get, the more I realize that it is the diversity of my work as a creative artist that makes me happy. I realize that I cannot 'BE' one kind of artist. It is too confining and yet I must be a musician. I must play an instrument. I must compose and I must compose all kinds of music. I must write and I must write all kinds of things...because all of these 'things' are what make me happy.

Still ... I want more because the world has so much to give ... my graduate coursework tells me I need to complete my Ph.D. So to add to that joy of 'doing' and 'being', I will begin my Ph.D. program in August. I want to study Educational Pyschology and tie together what I know about music, music making and learning.

Yesterday was good because I received my conditional acceptance from my on-line Ph.D. program. I am excited about that experience ahead.

With all these 'goings-on', I truly think that a person can only be happy when they are busy ... busy doing what makes them happy. For me, it is waking up to the realization that doing what makes me happy is doing EVERYTHING! ... and doing EVERYTHING is O.K.

The Sound of the Saxophone

Tonight I attended a concert in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. It was a jazz concert of big band music. The concert was filled with people and I sat in a seat at the top of the hall. It was incredible to see a Big Band on stage and to notice how my ears were drawn to the sounds of the saxophone.

As a classically trained musician, it isn't often that the saxophone is used in the classical literature. The instrument didn't exist at the time of Mozart and Beethoven. So, when I think of a saxophone, I think about the turn of the 20th Century and the Jazz Age.

Wikipedia tells me: "The saxophone (also referred to simply as sax) is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument which is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841. He wanted to create an instrument that would both be the loudest of the woodwinds and the most versatile of the brass, and would fill the then vacant middle ground between the two sections. He patented the sax in 1846..."

The saxophone has such a soulful quality and tonight the heart of the instrument was revealed in the performances of the young men who performed. Both tenor and alto saxophones had some great solos. The highlight of the evening was a solo featured in a Duke Ellington tune. Wow! What a composer!

The saxophone is an instrument that I know very little about. I did play it for one semester several years ago during teacher certification, but I really don't have any skill.

As I listened tonight, my thoughts turned to thinking about the quality of their reeds and the way the keys must feel under their hands as they play complex harmonies in patterns with such grace and skill. There is so much love there.

I was also amazed at how a composer can think up the way the brass is used and also by the skill of the percussionists. How relaxed the drummers were in unbelievably complex rhythms. How lucky I am to be able to hear music like this and played at such high levels!!

Setting Up/Mapping Out--Planning the Work

There are a lot of details in creating this project, and I am wondering how it will evolve.

Today I sat down with Paulette Davis at Young Audiences here in Rochester, and I began to talk about the possibility of using this project as an educational project within the schools.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Most schools with music programs have good bands and good orchestras, but I haven't ever heard of a school having a philharmonic or symphonic orchestra ... I got to thinking how amazing it would be to work in-residency in a school--working with the students one day a week and creating the composed works for each section. Then as I completed the exploration of all the sections, I could compose the symphony ...

What got me thinking these thoughts came from something that happened the other day with my daughter ...

During Holy Week, I completed an arrangement of "Ah! Holy Jesus" for my daughter to play on her flute ... I asked her if the arrangement was hard and she said "No." I asked her if it was too simple, and she said "No."

She told me that the piece was interesting for her because the technical challenges meant she could play the notes with the same fingerings, but had to adjust her stream of breath to play them correctly.

What I realized in her answer is that she was analyzing her own playing skills and the needs of the piece. I realized that this would be a wonderful way for students to learn about themselves as musicians, just by working with a composer.

So today as I was talking to Paulette, I couldn't help but wonder if this "Birthday Symphony" couldn't do that?

It's worth exploration....

Making a new demo recording for Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, A Musical

This morning, we received a phone call from Sear Sound in NYC telling us that the studio was available for us on the dates we wanted to record our new demo for our show "Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, A Musical".

We were very excited and immediately sent out a note to our 2008 Eastman Theater Cast to ask who would be available to help us AND who would like to join us.

The response from everyone has been overwhelming! And, it looks like we are going to have a fantastic group of VERY VERY talented people to help us.

When things like this happen, it tells me that anything is possible.

When Lindsay and I started writing our musical of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, we went on an incredible journey of ten years, and we have ended up with a show that can be licensed to theater groups world-wide. We have a show we love and want everyone to see. The new demo will make it possible.

It gives me the faith that I can complete the "Date with the Orchestra" project ....

The Birthday Symphony

The more I think about my "Date with the Orchestra" project, the more fun it becomes.

Today I decided to name the Symphony that I am going to compose. I will call it "The Birthday Symphony".

Today was Easter 2010, and Easter has always been a special day for me because it was my mother's favorite holiday. I had friends in for my mother's traditional Easter meal. My good friends, Kim and Owen, my dear friend, Greg, who taught me how to orchestrate shared it with my daughter and me.

Anyway, after dinner, Lindsay stopped by and I went through the stuff I have been composing over the past several months and talked over my plans to write a symphony ...

I am inspired.

The VIOLIN

I am a composer, and this week, I decided to pick up my violin and play again. I sound awful right now as I work my way through a review of my Suzuki Violin Book I ... but who cares? I am enjoying the heck out of it anyway. There is something that feels so wonderful about the way I stand with the instrument and how I feel it nestled under my chin , and that feels really good...or how when I pull the bow across the strings and I actually create a beautiful tone ... it's just so satisfying....



When I was growing up, I started with the cello. I had originally wanted to play the violin, but the orchestra teacher and my mother talked me into trying the cello, (and I loved that too) but I didn't stay long enough with it ... and regretted that ... but now have had the opportunity to try my hand at learning a stringed instrument again.



About ten years ago, when my divorce started, I started on an amazing journey in my life --part of that journey was to get my music education certification. I was already an accomplished pianist and vocalist, but I decided to do a Post-Bacc Music Education Certification at Nazareth College here in Rochester, New York so that I could teach in the schools.



During that process, I discovered amazing things about myself as an artist/musician because by the time I reached my 40th birthday, I had learned to play (not very well) every instrument of an orchestra. As a result, I learned to love every instrument in an orchestra and I have so much love and respect for every player who plays and loves his/her instrument.


The violin and flute were two of the instruments I loved to play during the music certification process, and I bought a very beautiful violin-- a Silvestre ... french ... with a lovely bow. I also bought a silver Emerson flute that my daughter plays now

Anyway ... My life got very busy after certification, and the violin sat in its case for too many years ... I hate to count them ... So this week I am taking it out again--and I will practice.

And I am commiting to this for the next two years because,. as a composer, I have decided to write/compose a piece for every instrument in an orchestra.

It will be a two-year project, but by the end of the two years, I will play the violin well and I will be able to write a symphony that "hopefully" every instrument in the orchestra will want to play. My dream will be to have it performed on my 50th birthday, May 11, 2012

The thought excites me!