First Light...

...is finished. This is the new work for the New York All-State Gigantic Symphonic Band. The horns have plenty of good lines...all 16 of'em.

The piece is a sort of companion work to Dusk, in that it depicts the flip-side, dawn. In particular, the dawn I witnessed in Malcesine, Italy, over the summer. See below for more on that.

A partial perusal score is posted on the First Light page, if you're curious. Premiere will be on December 2nd, at Eastman in Rochester, NY, Ray Cramer conducting. I will be composer-in-residence for the conference, so if you're going to attend the conference, please say 'hi' at some point! As a bonus, some players from Eastman will perform my brass quintet, Loose Id, as well. Awesome (unless they hate me for making them bleed...)

Non sequitur: our balcony squirrel:

Labels: Balcony Squirrel, First Light, Loose Id, Malcesine, NYSSMA

Malcesine Dawn, BCM MidEurope booth

Malcesine, Italy was just as wonderful as last year, and twice I witnessed a lovely sunrise moment over the mountains. The sky begins to lighten very early somewhere in the 5am range, but because of the tall mountains surrounding the lake (Lago di Garda), you don't actually see the sun until right at 8am, when it very abrupty pops over the mountain and sends intense rays of light down the mountain slopes into the water. The increase in heat in that moment is also palpable. Because of the time (I suppose), church bells somewhere nearby also begin to chime right at that moment...

Here are some pictures (though no pictures can capture this sort of thing - at least not my consumer-grade point-and-shoot camera):

Just as the sun is cresting the mountain:


A few moments later - intense beams of light (close-up):


The town itself, before being bathed in light:


For comparison, here's Malcesine in the afternoon:


And a rough panoramic shot I made of dawn:
External link because it's a really wide picture

And for good measure, here's a shot of the BCM booth at MidEurope. A little more spartan than at Midwest, but as you can see, Jim, Newm, and Eric got all dolled up to make up for it. I think this is our best group shot ever...

(Special thanks to Irene, Tina, and Andrea for standing in, and for playing so wonderfully in the WYWOP this year!)

Now, off to the southern coast of Spain for a week. Ok, that probably sounded pretentious, just like Italy did. I *really* don't mean to... :)

PS No internet access until August 2nd, in case you're trying to reach me...

Labels: BCM, Malcesine, MidEurope