Over this past weekend, I finally got to finish the piece for Jason Calloway (solo cello), naming it Witness Marks. From the program notes:

“Witness marks  [n.] A scratch or similar mark on each half of an assembly used to position of locate parts.

This music was written in a period of great disorientation, with a hope that focusing on a single line would help me put one step after another, to find a way forward in a time of so many different kinds.  I felt the writing of this to be a welcome and necessary diversion, a break from the darkness surrounding our days during the spring of 2020.”

Now sent off to Jason, and am curious to hear his thoughts, and to implement whatever suggestions/changes he comes up with.

I’ve never used this function in the notation software before, but generated a ‘scrolling-score’ video, which moves the score along with the computer-generated audio. Clearly not a human performance, but perhaps provides a very rough idea…

Today, will continue reading, considering, sketching ideas for a few poems I’ve permission to use, to see which I want to use for Rachel/Ari (Duo Cortona, soprano & violin). Am really torn between two I just love; E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never travelled” and Marie Howe’s “Limbo” from The Kingdom of Ordinary Time.

I also am very drawn to Maggie Smith’s “Rasp,” and these days especially drawn to The Gods of Age, by Adeeba Talukder, but haven’t requested permission for either yet.

Will hopefully set all of these, in time, and hope to decide on which for soprano/violin before today is over…