Old music!

You know how it is in every creative person’s life, when suddenly you start to have ideas about projects you can work on, projects that seem to be within your skill set, projects that would actually have an AUDIENCE, and so of course your first step is to…

…tidy up.

I’m already blogging over at my personal blog about paperwork I’ve found relating to my career as an educator, but on this blog, boy do I have one incredible TASK AVOIDANCE for you: a storage tub full of 100 pounds of music!

Most of the weight is from folders of music that I wrote for a church choir. I’m not sure why I’m hanging on to those, so stand by if you have a church choir for whom you need some new free music.

My plan is to avoid working on the GALAXY soundtrack piece or the cello/clarinet duet I’ve been asked to compose or the continued visualization of William Blake’s Inn or any of those other projects forcing themselves on me — by going through this tub, tossing ballast (like the choir anthems), making sure anything good has been input into Finale, and quite frankly, finding any fragments that might still be useful. STEAL FROM THE BEST, after all, even if it’s yourself.

I have found pieces that I had forgotten about (like “This Is the Day” in the above photo)'; arrangements that I have absolutely no memory doing nor the reason why I did them; sketches for finished pieces (which will be filed in the filing cabinet); and tiny little fragments that have no known goal. These are the ones I’m most interested in: what could I actually recycle now?

Of course, I’m not getting much of anything done when Cecil the Pest™decides it’s time to help.

(N.B.: He is not helping.)

If I find any gems, I’ll report back.