Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and well wishes to everyone who reads this blog. Regardless of your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, I hope that you have a great end to 2007 and that 2008 is the best year of your life.

JR and I have been working really hard on the 2008 Fusion program "Momentum". I finished the opener, "Fractal Speak" by Jeff Beal a couple of weeks ago. Since passing it on to JR, we've gone back and forth a bit on certain sections...how to really hit home the message we're trying to convey in that part of the show (force), and the best way to bring the song to a rousing conclusion. I'm confident that what we have is going to be absolutely killer on the instruments. I can't wait to hear it.

Of course, to design a show like this you have to have confidence in your staff and members. You have to believe that you have a staff team capable of effectively teaching the required techniques in the show, and you have to believe that your members will buy in and take their job seriously...personal responsibility. I'm sure I've talked about that somewhere in my blog before. That's what drum corps, and really life is all about.


I'm completely finished "Today is the Gift" by Samuel Hazo. A lot of corps are doing Hazo's stuff this year, but no one is doing this chart in particular...and I'm surprised. It's been around a while and I think it lends itself so perfectly to drum corps...if for no other reason than it's completely scored for brass and percussion. All the woodwind players sing. It was easy to get the notes on paper, but turning it into a drum corps chart was a little difficult. There are key considerations, and the fact that I need to design in effect elements that give us a better shot on the judges sheets to do well. Plus, you also have to take into account the acoustical environment that a drum corps is in versus a symphonic band, which it was originally written for. There are things that work fine on a stage in a hall that won't necessarily translate well on a field in an open air stadium while moving around.

I love it, though. I think it turned out really great, and I can't wait to hear the brass line play through it. It's not "hard" from a note standpoint, but the expression, the dynamics and articulation, and the great demand on the musician to PERFORM the music is impressive. It's going to take a great deal of control to play, but I think our line is up to the task. I know our staff can get them to sound good...it's just up to them to take it, learn it, and make it their own.

Next up, JR and I are collaborating on an original introduction to the show that we're calling "Kinetic Energy". I've never written original music for a band or corps, so I'm looking forward to the challenge. Honestly, it's going to be mostly percussion anyway...seemingly random sounds and notes that layer in over time to form a musical phrase that continually gains "momentum". The brass and guard are going to be handling a lot of visual responsibility during this part, and then end with an "in your face" moment that will really put an exclamation point at the beginning of our show. Should be a cool moment. I can't wait to get started.

Before that, however...I'm going to get started on "Ride". JR has a lot of music to write...filling in some spots in "Fractal", and then writing "Today is the Gift". This should take a while, because "Gift" is full of African hand percussion...and there's going to be a nice moment for the battery and pit in the middle of the song to take center stage.

"Ride" will be interesting. We have some great ideas for this piece, but it's going to take a while to score it out and make it happen. We'll probably go back and forth more than a few times with this one before we're satisfied with what it is. We know what it needs to be...it's just getting there. I want to have the whole show in the brass members' hands by the end of February. That's an achievable goal for me, and I think that JR and I are ahead of the game enough that we can get it all written and revised at least once before putting the stamp of approval on it in February. Izzy starts writing drill in March, and shortly thereafter Larry and Steve of the guard will do their thing. It's all coming together.

On the side, I've been hired to do some arrangements for the Reilly Raiders Drum and Bugle Corps, an alumni corps based near Philadelphia. I went up a couple of weeks ago, and it really was refreshing to see a ton of people enjoying drum corps...just being together with their friends and doing the activity they love. It's not what I'm used to at all. In fact, it's something I never thought I could even appreciate...but I guess with age and experience I've become less of a drum corps snob. I enjoyed my time with them a great deal, and I'm excited to pen some charts for them. It really is an honor to have been asked to contribute to a 50+ year old library of brass charts penned by many a drum corps hall of famer.

It's a little overwhelming, actually, considering that writing music is all I've ever really wanted to do. Some people want to be firemen, some want to be astronauts...I want to write and hear my arrangements and compositions played by world class performers. I never thought it would happen, but here I am...starting back down a road I thought was closed for me. I wrote for about 5 bands from 97-03. In 05 I wrote for no one. I had all but given up. 06 was a huge band year for me, and then 07 flattened out. Now here I am going into 08 with at least two drum corps on my resume'. I'm going to work as hard as I can to give them the best music possible. Maybe someday I can actually do what I love for a living...until then, I'm honestly just ecstatic to be able to do what I love at all.

Enough of that. It's Christmas time...my favorite time of the year! It's the first time I've ever been able to spend it with Dena, and I'm excited about it. This year has been pretty bumpy. The last 13-14 months or so have been pretty rough, but I've pulled through...I think I'm a much better and more mature person for the experience, and I'm in a good place to face the challenges of 2008. I'm looking forward to it.

Hopefully I'll write more before 08, but if not...have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.