Summer Fun!
A picture of me on vacation because, gosh dang it, I had a fun summer!
(Yes, that is a turtle made out of Lego bricks.)
Quarterly Composition Compilation
September 2023
Summer was crazy! I had so many plates up in the air that were hard to juggle, but also got a lot of cool composition stuff done. So here we go!
The Lost Star Princess
In a surprising turn of events, the director of our brass band loved the piece so much that he decided to program it for one of our summer concerts in June. After a couple rehearsals the piece came together splendidly, and the performance went about as well as expected. The summer concerts we do are outdoor at a local park that sits next to a busy road, so our performance was great if you take out the wind noises in the trees and the car engines revving. We also didn’t have a timpani player, so with the help of the percussionists I got the more important cues covered in the other 2 parts. It was a great trial run, and thrilling to hear it performed live, but I’m hoping that we have a chance to perform (or record) it in an indoor venue this upcoming season.
Summary: Soft premiere in summer concert, pushing for an indoor performance and/or recording.
The Creation Symphony
Made a little progress on this one. In the last update, I was having trouble writing the final movement (movement 8, or the “recap piece”), but after a couple more drafts I finally had a breakthrough that I was happy with. The biggest challenge was figuring out how the “narrative” was supposed to run, since I didn’t have a cut-and-dry scriptural one that I could use; what ended up working was imagining the return journey to heaven and utilizing themes from previous movements to portray that.
I also orchestrated In That Day (movement 7, or the surprise movement based on Hebrew scale modes) and was really pleased with how that turned out. Of all the movements, that one is most able to stand on its own and will likely see another version arranged as a stand-alone piece (more on that below).
I then went through each movement and started doing a second pass, but got sidetracked by other more pressing projects and haven’t finished yet. But once those are done, I intend to finish the rest of the movements and then start sending copies to collaborators and my “Beta listeners.”
The big question is what I want to do next – normally this is where I would get more detailed feedback from the ensemble performing the piece and/or their director, but I don’t have that in this case. The only frame of reference I have is Rob Gardner’s Lamb of God, which unfortunately isn’t a great data point—he dropped out of his master’s program at USC and spent lots of money to get his piece recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, then started a non-profit organization dedicated to performing the piece around Easter every year. I don’t think that would be the right avenue to pursue in this case, but I’m honestly not sure what would be. But I can worry about that later, right?
Sidenote: A few days ago I was talking with one of my colleagues at the local Junior High (where I used to work), and he expressed interest in premiering another choral piece written by me. I brought up In That Day and how it used cool scale modes, and after getting distracted by some cool music theory stuff (as often happens in our conversations) he asked me to show him the arrangement for his group once I get it done. That will probably get its own entry in a future blog post, but it’s an exciting opportunity that could pan out nicely.
Summary: Progress made, but stalled a little due to other projects. Partially completed 2nd pass. Potential for standalone version of In That Day
Lego Videos
As many of you know, my main non-music hobby is designing Lego MOCs (My Own Creations). Historically, this has taken the form of cool models that I sometimes (ahem, rarely) post pictures of, but I’ve made great efforts to not pursue that as a career option so that I can keep this as a true hobby. But a few months ago, I came across a site called Rebrickable that allows you to upload and sell instructions for Lego MOCs and, well, being somewhat desperate for a little extra income to pay the bills I decided to give it a try. Long story short, one of my designs ended up becoming super popular and selling super well, so I decided to try my hand at being an amateur MOC designer.
As a part of that, I’ve been trying to advertise my instructions through various social media channels, and decided to try making some YouTube videos. As a part of that, I needed some good background music to maintain the energy and momentum (since I’m not a naturally charismatic person). Most designers will purchase or utilize music through various websites, but the composer in me couldn’t resist the opportunity to score the music to my own videos. Each one has been tremendously enjoyable, despite the large amount of work required to get a single video posted on the channel, and I’ve loved the opportunity to write short musical sketches relating to the Lego design.
So far, I’ve only done 2 videos, but I’m hoping to streamline the process a little more so that I can cut down the amount of work I have to do on the video editing side.
You can watch the videos here, or check out my YouTube channel to see them:
I’ll also be creating a page for them on the website, so check that out too once it’s up!
Summary: Having a lot of fun, hoping to write some more short sketches for future videos.
Colors Upon the Sea
On a whim, I decided to send the audio of my first video (see above) to the board members of the symphony I play with and see if they were interested in premiering it. And somewhat surprisingly, they were all over the piece and expressed a lot of excitement about the prospect! And decided to program it on our next concert! I’m thrilled, but also a bit humbled to be programmed in the same concert as Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition), Saint-Saëns (Danse Macabre), and Grieg (In the Hall of the Mountain King). Hopefully my piece will stand up to that level of scrutiny!
As a quick side note, the copyediting for this project was a bit difficult. For those of you that don’t know, as a young composer I am responsible for completing every part of the process from inception to performance; this includes the actual composition process (my favorite part), marketing and seeking out groups to perform them, and the entire copyediting process (including part extractions, cover design, program notes, and formatting the score/parts). I’ve streamlined this process due to doing it so many times, but it always takes a while to get all the parts ready and by the time I finish I’m sick of the piece and just want to throw it in the trash. Thankfully, I did learn some things this time around that will (hopefully) help the process move faster next time, but that’s one of the things I would love to foist off on somebody else once I get the chance.
This will be premiered at 7pm on October 9, 2023, at American Fork Junior High. If you’re in the area, I hope you can make it!
Summary: Given out to performers, will be premiered in upcoming concert.
Final Musing
Summer was a lot of fun, but due to the jobs I have it also brought a level of financial insecurity that wasn’t so fun (many of them dry up in the summer due to school being out). I was forced to get creative in how I paid the bills each month, and while I’ve had some unexpectedly enjoyable projects for the most part it’s been a stressful time. Unlike designing Lego MOCs, there isn’t a mainstream and reliable way to monetize the music I compose. In an ironic turn of events, my career (composing) is technically a hobby (since it doesn’t make me money yet), and my hobby (Lego designs) is technically a career (since it’s making me money). This stress has made composing difficult, but I’m hopeful that the coming months will bring some financial security and allow me to focus a little more on writing.
Until next time,
Jacob Whitchurch
09-13-23
