Bill Bolcom in Boulder

Bill Bolcom and his wife Joan Morris just spent a couple of days in Boulder working with the CU Wind Symphony and talking with our students. It was an absolute delight to have them in town. Aside from hearing great performances of Bill’s music, there are two highlights which I will always remember…

1. Bill and Joan performed a few of their cabaret songs. For years I have heard about how wonderful they are as a duo. People rave about their concerts but I have never had the chance to attend a performance. During the Tuesday afternoon talk, they did just a few songs which were all fantastic. They were funny, marvelously inventive, touching, and performed with an inspiring amount of musicality. The first cycle was called “Minicabs” which is short for mini-cabaret-songs. I need to hunt down the score and buy a copy immediately.

2. Bill told a story about an afternoon where he and John Cage talked on the radio for 3 hours. Near the end of the time Bill started to talk about how he was at a bit of an aesthetic crisis with just too many options. John Cage told him he didn’t like arbitrary or external aesthetic divides but rather one should look within. It was a pivotal conversation for Bill and lead to the music that has defined his career.

Restarting the Blog

Its time to restart the blog. After a long hiatus, I do hope to get some regular posts going.

A lot has happened in the nearly two years since I last posted. I've had premieres with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Takacs Quartet with the University of Colorado Wind Ensemble, a chamber group at the Aspen Music Festival, the Borromeo String Quartet, and numerous choruses. I've been on leave this semester and have been to the McDowell Artist Colony and the UCross Foundation in Wyoming.

I'm currently working on a chamber opera based on the life of Miguel Hernandez as well as writing pieces for the Takacs Quartet, the Air Force Academy Band, and the Symphonic Band and combined choruses of Wheaton College.

I hope to cover many of these topics as I get this blog up and running again.

Above is a picture from the NSO Asian tour last June.

The semi-retirement of a comb binder

Yesterday marked a small but significant occasion as I put my comb binder into semi-retirement. I say semi retirement as it will be my back up system from now on. Roughly ten years ago I stumbled upon an industrial comb binder at a tag sale in New Cannan, CT (town next to where my parents lived). In addition to all the regular junk, they guy was selling a couple of pieces of old office equipment including this fancy industrial binder from GBC. He said it was a $5000 piece of equipment and should run forever. This was back before Staples sold $150 manual binders (that definitely didn’t last forever). At the time, every composer I knew ran off to Kinkos and paid $2 per score for comb binding ($4 for larger scores). Kinkos screwed it up more than half the time and 80% of the time if the score was bigger than 8.5x11.

So this guy offered to sell me this electric powered binder for $500. I jumped on the opportunity and moved the 80 lb. monster into my mother’s car and never paid Kinkos to bind my scores again. From that day forward binding cost me $.20 for the plastic comb and I could bind any time I wanted. Probably it paid for itself within the first three years and now that 10 years have passed, I would guess it has saved me a few thousand and certainly many hours getting to Kinkos and watching them screw up my scores.

Sadly, the comb binding system is becoming obsolete. Coil binding is in. Its slicker, doesn’t get crushed so easily, and makes a lot less noise when turning pages. All the new kids are using coil binding these days. So it was time to upgrade but where would I find a tag sale that would sell me a $5000 unit for $500. This minor miracle would not happen again, but I did buy a great unit at a discount from my old teacher Jennifer Higdon. She upgraded to coil binding 8 months ago (Jennifer is always on the cutting edge when it comes to self publishing). Her business is so booming that in retrospect she wishes she sprang for the super fancy model. We made a deal, they shipped me their slightly used binder, and yesterday I was binding scores with my new coil binder for the first time. It definitely is sexy compared to the old fashioned comb binder.

Back in Aspen

So the blogging seems off to a rocky start. I take a trip for a premiere and write a flourish of blogs. Then a few weeks off and I write nothing. Everyone tells me the success of a blog depends on regular posts. I’ll give it another shot…

Well I am back on the road for a premiere and am ready to restart the blogging. Hopefully this time I will find a more regular blogging pattern and will not have giant gaps between posts.

We’re in Aspen where my piano quintet will be premiered in a couple of days. This was a two part commission where part of the piece was premiered last summer and now the complete piece will be premiered on Monday.

Its been a very unusual and delightful experience to write the piece in two parts. This 20 minute, 4 movement work moves from a very dark first half towards a very light second half. The darker half was written a year ago and is actually the most difficult music in the piece. A very thoughtful and dedicated group premiered that part at Aspen last summer. They were all veterans of new music and never shied away from a challenge. Yet the collective years of experience illuminated nuances that would simplify very difficult spots and strengthen the effect of the piece. I had also never worked with a group so dedicated towards discovering the best tempos, phrasing, articulation, etc of a brand new piece.

Following that wonderful experience I made a handful of changes to those two movements and had the Boulder Piano Quartet present this portion on my faculty recital last December. They had less rehearsal time but the piece came together very well following the changes and insight of the first group. This past spring I wrote the two additional movements. I specifically wanted movements that not only contrasted and complemented the music of Part I, but I also wanted to compliment the very demanding playing in Part I. The result is a slow and gorgeous third movement, and a fast lyrical fourth movement. Both of these movements really allow the players to breathe a bit and resolve the difficult first two movements.

So I am back in Aspen with a portion of the original group and two new players. The change in players was unexpected and disappointing, but all has worked out well. My wife, Hsing-ay Hsu, was hired as the pianist for this year’s performance. Of course she has played nearly every chamber piano part I have written and is the living (and only) expert on my music. She was delighted to join the stellar group and loves the high level music making and constant thoughtful discussion about the music. The other new player is a wonderful Juilliard violinist, Kathryn Eberle.

I can’t wait for this wonderful premiere.

More time in the mountains - July 9

Today we got to do a bit of backcountry driving. This past spring we joined the evil forces of the world and bought an SUV. We picked up a 2000 Toyota 4Runner Limited. The 4Runner’s have the best record in terms of durability and low maintenance. Hey, it’s a Toyota…

We got the 4Runner to pull our pop-up camper as well as for the 4 wheel drive option in winter time. I was also hoping it would give me access to more trailheads that are several miles down dirt roads. Well, after a short morning walk at Snow Mountain Ranch, we decided to follow a dirt road we had seen the day before. It is called Blue Ridge Rd and heads out the back of Snow Mountain Ranch and up a mountain I can only guess is called Blue Ridge. It started off easy enough, but soon enough we were navigating rocks I would never attempt in our Honda Accord. All told, we drove ten miles to the top and felt like we put the car through at least a moderate workout. The view was good but the journey was better. Oddly enough, our daughter slept the whole way. The bumps which kept the adults on edge lulled her to sleep.

During the 20+ mile round trip, we didn’t see another car or person. Definitely off the beaten path.

More time in the mountains - July 7

I’m off in the mountains for a few more days. This past spring we purchased a pop-up camper. If you have not seen one, they are quite clever. They close up as something long and flat that is rather modest to tow. Then the roof cranks up, the ends pop out, and a kitchen, table and chairs get set up inside. It is a camper that is covered mostly in canvas and plastic windows but also has heat, a sink, indoor and outdoor stovetop burners, a refrigerator, electricity, lights, 3 beds, and lots of storage. It has many of the amenities of RVs but feels more like camping as you can open all of the windows and have 360 degree views. For my wife, myself, and our two year old, it fits the bill and makes camping just the right mix of comfort and enjoying the mountains.

We’ve headed off to Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA camp near Winter Park on July 6. My inlaws have joined us although they are staying in a lodge room. We awoke to 2 hours of rain this morning and the constant patter of drops on canvas. My daughter and I had a long talk about what was making the sound of rain. I tried to tell her how it is like a shower (like the one in our bathroom) but that the whole sky is taking a shower. I’m not sure she understood. Tomorrow we’ll work on the expression “its raining cats and dogs”.

RMNP - Residency - a piercing finish

My residency came to a pointed end. Last Friday night I thought I better get a jump on cleaning the kitchen as I would depart by noon on Saturday. So I filled up a sink with soapy water and put in a load of dirty dishes. While cleaning them, I suddenly realized a glass had a big chip in the side, then I noticed my right hand pinkie was covered in blood. The glass chipped and I had cut myself without noticing.

I rinsed off the wound and tried to cover it with some paper towel. Boy did it bleed and bleed. The cut was an inch and a half long and went right over the knuckle.

OK, no more bloody details. I finally got it wrapped with some stuff from first aid and it stopped bleeding. Right then I should have thought to get it checked out. Instead I thought it was my last night and I really wanted to watch the last of the light disappear from the valley while sitting on the porch. It should clot up pretty well over night and all would be fine.

In the morning I noticed it was hurting quite a bit. I still decided to not bother the doctors (or to not let the doctors bother me) and proceeded to pack up my stuff and set the cabin right for the next artist. The finger slowed me down but by around 12:30PM I had my stuff packed up. At that time I changed the dressing and realized it hadn’t clotted up at all.

Now I finally made the decision to have the finger checked out. However, my original plans were to take an afternoon hike before meeting someone at the Rocky Ridge Music Center at 4PM. It seemed silly to miss the hike and surely my little cut could be treated quickly on my way to Rocky Ridge. So I took a hike to Lake Haiwaia that was absolutely stunning. This wonderful lake is less popular than Emerald yet it is bigger and surrounded by giant craggy rocks. It was a big destination for folks who love bouldering. I got back to the car by 2:45PM and thought I could still make my 4PM.

Being a Saturday afternoon, I ended up in the ER. Everyone was nice but I had to tell at least 4 different people how I had stupidly cut my finger doing dishes. David Ludwig would later suggest I tell everyone it had been a bear attack (he said I could add while doing dishes if I insisted on honesty).

Apparently I should have gone to the doctor right away as you can not use stitches on a wound older than 12 hours. The chance of infection jumps at that time. So they cleaned me up and put on some strips that act like stitches. They put the whole thing in a splint which I need to wear for several days.

The worst part was that I couldn’t tell them when I last had a tetanus shot, so they fixed me right up with a nice tetanus shot. That sill hurts a few days later.

I missed the 4PM but asked David Ludwig to cover my meeting. I definitely got sympathy from my wife who brought me Mexican for dinner (not her favorite food).