Steven Bryant

Ecstatic Waters
I. Ceremony of Innocence
II. Augurs
III. The Generous Wrath of Simple Men
IV. The Loving Machinery of Justice
V. Spiritus Mundi (epilogue)

Score and parts are complete and delivered.

For any other piece, I would be finished, but now I must fine-tune, massage, mix, and determine exactly how I will trigger the electronics. And maybe even practice my part on laptop!

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Aside: I think six...

Wow - it was great to hear Eugene Corporon and the UNT Wind Symphony do the complete Parody Suite last night. This is the first time I've heard them all collected in a single set. Bruce Moss did all four of them on a program at Bowling Green when I was there, but they were interspersed with the originals they quoted, so this was the first time I've heard them all in...

So, the Big Piece is basically finished - still need to finish the parts for Mvts. II and III, and squeeze the electronics down into a performable package, but the music is all there - about 21 minutes long, and 62 pages of 11"x17" score. I'll post more about it very soon.

In the meantime, I'll be at the University of North Texas tomorrow night (Thurs., Sept. 25th) for their Wind Symphony...

Finished up a fun week at Marktoberdorf (pictures here, including my Krummhorn lesson), returned briefly to Austria to repack, and have returned to the USA. Now I'm heads-down focused on finishing the Winds+Electronics piece (I really need a title, don't I?). I'll resurface when the piece is finished and give the full rundown on it. I'm proud of what I've created so far...

Wednesday night is a special night at this festival in Marktoberdorf - everyone puts on a show, which included PDQ Bach, a Krummhorn quartet, double-reed rendition of YMCA, and an Obi horn (which would translate roughly to a "Home Depot horn"). And then we all moved down to the beer cellar where I was cajoled into playing very bad piano and singing drunkenly with a large chunk of the band.

I...

I'm now in Marktoberdorf, Germany, giving a week-long composition masterclass as part of the Bavarian Summer Music Academy. This is in conjunction with a wind band component, which is currently rehearsing four of my works (Suite Dreams, Dusk, Stampede, and MetaMarch) for their concert Saturday night. They're all in sectionals at the moment, so I can hear the clarinets rehearsing Suite Dreams...

I will be away from the internet from today through Friday. If you e-mail me, I'll answer when I return.

I've almost finished Mvt. IV of the new piece. I'm inordinately excited about this one - amplified, effected bassoons and solo clarinet, in a delicious 12-tone serial groove. It's sort of Webern meets Radiohead.

Now I need to figure out how Mvt. V works. And I need a title...

World...

The World Youth Wind Orchestra Project gave their concert last Saturday night to a packed house and a well-deserved standing ovation. They rocked Stampede and brought the house down by closing with Maslanka's Give Us This Day.

To everyone in the WYWOP - I really enjoyed working with you and thank you for working so hard on Stampede - it was a blast to hang with all of you. Here are the photos...

The UT Wind Ensemble arrives today for their concert at MidEurope. They'll be performing Corigliano's "Circus Maximus" - can't wait to hear it again! After that, the WYWOP will give their concert, which includes my piece, Stampede. The band is sounding fantastic this year, and it should be a great concert.

Also, I've added more pictures from the past week.

The last few days we've visited Hohenwerfen Castle (outside of Salzburg) and the top of the Dachstein mountain (well, almost the top - you have to have ropes and gear to go the last 300 meters). Saw a fantastic falconry and bird demonstration at Hohenwerfen (they were flying right over our heads at insane speeds - none of the pictures I took are cropped - there were *that* close). Then we...

As promised, a few shots from yesterday's Gerburtstag Feier for Opa's 80th birthday:

Siegi und Verena:



Wolfgang on Zither, Siegi on Steirische, Steve on Hackbrett:



Fred und Hans, performing wild clarinet tricks:




Opa, Oma, and a subsection of the Eberschwanger Bauernkapelle (one of the two community bands in Eberscwhang). They provided music and fun for the party as well, in between beers. :)

On Friday I started learning a couple of tunes on Hackbrett (Hammered Dulcimer) so we can play some traditional songs for Opa's 80th birthday party today. The main tune is an "Innviertler Landler" (the Innviertel is the local region of Austria we're in). Lots of I and V7, which is good for me, because that's about the limit of my playing abilities at this point. Wolfgang will be playing...