As some of you know, I sent out my "Be _____ My _____" hybrid piece to Beckenhorst Press late last week. I got an e-mail from them on Tuesday saying, essentially, hey, great piece, loved how you intertwined "Soul" and "Vision," we'll let you know about acceptance in a couple days, can you send us anything original you have. So I faxed over copies of the four original compositions I'd written for the bell choir I direct, and I got a call back from a Mr. Courtney at Beckenhorst who said yes, they were willing to publish "Be Thou/Be Still," but could I do something else for them as well.
Apparently, the Rocky Mountain Ringers, one of the best West Coast handbell ensembles (and one I'd never heard of 'till then), was looking to have someone write for them a "mini-symphony" -- not something 75 minutes long like Beethoven's 9th, but something that would run about 15 or 20 minutes, with a few different movements. (Most handbell pieces, if you don't know, are lucky to run five or six minutes.) The plus side: I would get a $3000 advance from Beckenhorst to write this (to be applied against any future royalties), plus $1250 from the Rocky Mountain Ringers. The minus side: It would need to be completed by June 8th (eight weeks prior to the first of their summer concerts), and I'm not sure I could write a piece of that magnitude in two months without taking off substantial time from work (which I couldn't due, since we're coming up on conference season). So, what do I do? Quit my job? Turn down the composition opportunity? What?
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
