Sibelius 6

I run Sibelius 5 to do my composing. Is the upgrade to Sibelius 6 worth the $125?

Styles, Textures, and Timbres

This morning I lost myself in arranging the hymn tune "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" for string trio (violin, viola, and cello). Next month Edris, Pat and I are going to play in church. I wanted a place to play some of my arrangements.

My arrangement was inspired by the blues and Dixieland, if not harmonically, then stylistically. I find myself listening to various music and trying to translate that into string sounds. I know that the timbre is different between, say, a cello and a trombone, but it will be interesting to hear what it actually sounds like when we rehearse. "Pat, could you make this glissando sound like a trombone?" Just can't ask the midi to do that for you!

First Pass Finished!

Firefall first draft is finished! All 5 min. and 13 sec. of it.

Now to do a bit more arranging.

Quartet Arrangement

One of my composition assignments last year was to arrange a hymn. I used God of Abraham and Sarah found in the New Century Hymnal and arranged it for SATB choir, organ, and chamber orchestra. Yesterday and today I turned that arrangement into a string quartet and played it with my friends in the Lemonwood Quartet tonight. It's hard to get a sense of how it all sounds when you are playing in the quartet, but I think it went pretty well. Perhaps they will indulge me and play it again at next week's rehearsal.