Opera

The last few weeks have been a little hectic, too hectic to post here. Mainly because of finishing off my septet The Space Within but its done and handed in. Would love to hear it played properly but don't know if I'll be able to organise it with the players I know. Its the first piece I've composed almost completely without a piano or Sibelius (only used either for a few chords) so hearing it on Sibelius and it almost being exactly how I imagined was amazing. The only problems were tempo markings but that isn't that big a deal. But knowing my inner ear is developing is definitely a good thing to know. Also got my electro-acoustic piece handed in Machinist's Visual Fallacy. This is my first piece to use c-sounds, takes a bit of getting used to but a really good tool to know. Will probably use some of the techniques in my acoustic pieces. In fact some electro-acoustic techniques inspired parts of The Space Within.

With The Space Within handed in I can now start properly on the opera. Met my librettist, James Johnson, on Wednesday to talk about some of the ideas I've got and how they fit with his libretto. Still haven't written any music yet but I think the ideas will work, just got more research to do into them before I can write. It will be three singers Soprano, Mezzo and Alto though I cant find an Alto! (Anyone know a good one who would like to sing in an opera?).

As for the dates of the performance its provisionally 5th 6th and 7th of November. This is provisional but it seems a decent amount of time to get things finished, organised, advertised and rehearsed. The lineup of composers has been expanded to five: Me (Matthew Whiteside), Omar Zatriqi, Eduard Zatriqi, Conor Mitchell and the new addition Gareth Williams.

There should be a website up soon for SPARK with everyone's details on it but here is a quick break done. Omar, Eduard and myself are all composers who are studying at Queen's Belfast. Omar and Eduard are heading into a masters in composition I'm heading into my 3rd year, Conor Mitchell is a London based musical theater and opera writer and Gareth Williams is an Armagh born composer. As for the librettists James Johnson is a Queen's graduate who has written a play for Tinderbox and Michael Shannon is currently studying for a masters in writing in Queen's. Its an interesting mix of students and professionals, hopefully a good mix!

Onto other stuff. The next Queen's Composer's Concert will be on the 25th of November in the Harty room. I've managed to organise a group of players for a yet to be writting piece of mine. Sometimes I dont know which is harder getting the players or writing the music either way I'm half way there. Think I've mentioned this in a previous blog but I'm heading over to York to hear Beyond the Tone being played at Creating New Music Communities. I've somehow managed to become the Northern Ireland contact for the event and I've promised a larger piece for next years event.

Finally a slightly sour note. A few months ago I entered SPNM's call for scores with my Quartet No. 1. Got word back this week that I didn't make it into the short list. Ach well theres always next year.

This Week

Back to uni tomorrow after being off for about 3wks. Got most of the work at least started thankfully and got my septet (now named The Space Within) pretty much finished. I think I'll go over it a bit more and tweek some of the ideas but it has become more substantial than I had expected (150 bars!) though I haven't worked out the playing time yet but needs to be at least 4mins. Its really funky there will be more details on the ideas behind it once I've handed it in. With the work I had to do there was hardly any time for any piano practice which is really annoying. I'm improving but not as fast as I could be.

More news on the SPARK(once I remember what it stands for I'll tell you) opera project. I have a tutorial with librettist Peter Morgan Barnes this week. When I was told the name it rung a bell but couldn't work out why, judging by his site he is very experienced. Any advice from someone with more experience than me is good. I still haven't had a chance to start on the music but I have set aside about month during the summer where I can lock myself in a room if need be.

Also there is a slight chance of getting a piece of mine played at a Cork music concert, I think something along the lines of the concert Daniel and I did the other week. The organiser's friend tentatively mentioned it to me. I doubt I will have a chance to write anything new but if not it will give me impetus to get 'Beyond the Tone' done out fully in Sibelius. Dont know how likely it is but there's no harm in hoping, hopefully get a performance out of it!

Finally, I have the recordings of the full Queen's Composer's Concert and have sent them out to those involved. Really nice recordings and everyone seems happy with them. I'll post links if anyone else uploads theirs. My Quartet No. 1 is on my site here.

Started off this blog thinking there wasn't much to say but as always I managed to surprise myself in how much I can write. Until next time.

This week

This week has been an amazing, though stressful week. Monday and Tuesday was preparing for the Queen's Composers' Concert on Wednesday final rehearsels, getting programs printed and all that kind of stuff. The concert on Wed was a great success, 64 people turned up to it! Also got multiple emails and people saying well done about it. The whole concert was recorded so will have a new excelent quality version of my Quartet No. 1 on my site by Monday also possibly might have links to the other peoples pieces as well for anyone thats interested.
The atmosphere after the concert was great as well with people hanging about for at least 30mins after (much to the porters annoyance).The Head of School has also said it should become a fixture which was the intention anyway. The next one will probably be late November, early December so piles of time to organise it and more importantly write some music!

The other great thing about this week, last night we (SPARK opera company) got £5000 funding to put on the 4 short operas! This was £1000 more than we asked for, its not the full amount that we need but its definitely a massive start. Winning the money is all doesn to Kate Guelke and Marianne McKnight but I think having abotu 20 of the company there helped as well. We have got a venue organised for November time, again piles of time to get it sorted and thankfully for this one all I have to do is write the music. It will be an interesting experience but it is happening!

Oh yes theres also piles of uni work to get done over Easter. Going to be really busy for the next few weeks and months :):).