PA Arts Monday - Day Before School Starts Edition

I just finished the first draft of the MIDI version of Women's Ghazal, the second movement of Hindu Kush, my new orchestral work, to be premiered in Anchorage on May 15th. I started it the day after Christmas. It is 333 measures long.

I've managed to get a lot done over the Holiday break.

Here's a screenshot of the computer screen of the score at my favorite part:I've been using a software program for musical notation, called Finale, for 20 years. The newer versions contain a plug-in called the Garritan Personal Orchestra. For the first 20 years of Finale, I used sampled MIDI sounds that are in modules outside of the computer. The modules I've used were called Proteuses (Proteii?), and were very state-of-the-art 22 years ago when they first came out.

To run all the sampled sounds of an orchestra simultaneously in a computer, you need a lot of RAM. My new iMAC has 5 gigabytes of RAM, and that helps. A lot.

Here's Women's Ghazal, in its first draft. Click here to listen.