Approximately 20 minutes.

When all is said and done, that is about how much music I have written.

Curtain up music for all three acts, the Poem Duet, part of one transition, and now the JQA/Symmes meeting. The curtain music for each act is the same, but the tag will vary for each act to show where we are and who is involved. Motives!

Still on pace to finish Act I by my birthday – maybe even slightly ahead. The meeting was the lengthiest section of Act I, and that’s clocking in at about 14 minutes or so.

I will be asking singer friends, dramaturgs, etc. for input and advice. (I’m working on getting grant funding to pay you, but if that falls through I’ll do it out-of-pocket.) Dave Cole is doing an amazing job with the libretto – I teared up reading Act III. You wouldn’t think a cheesy plot about a minor what-if of post-Revolutionary American history would elicit such a response, but such is Dave’s talent with a pen. (He’s also a fine conductor; he will conduct the premiere performance.)

I’m going to ride this as long as I can, because I know where will be days where I write only one note and hate that note. But maybe there won’t – the practice of writing means you learn how to work around those moments where the muse is not present.

I love my gig, and I’m grateful for the sabbatical to do this, but I gotta say – at this point if I could justify being a full-time composer, I would. This is fun, even when it isn’t.

After I finish typesetting the meeting (it’s a lot! 388 measures!), the next bits are the opening of Act I and the connection between the Poem Duet and the meeting. Then I’ll finish the act and edit things. Let’s do this.

WF