21 days to go...

Happy NZ Music Month! A week has gone already and that means my music month project is well underway. Here is an overview of the first things I have considered... WHAT AM I GOING TO USE The biggest decision, which could make or break this project is what software I am going to use. There are three options:

• Manual - things could just be listed on the website with purchase details and if someone wants to buy it they will notify me and we will organise payment and distribution. That's far too much work - not a good option.
• Shopify - is an appealing option, I can still host it on my site if I wish, can have automatic PDF downloads, automatic payments, manage on my iPhone and more, much more - it's a great service! But, it's so expensive. US$348 a year for the most basic option - I'd prefer to keep that money in my pocket.
• Shopp - this is a platform that you install on your Wordpress site and you can do everything you can do on Shopify (basically!) and all for just a single license of US$55. There will be a bit more work on the backend, compared to Shopify, but it still makes it the absolute best option for me.

WHAT PIECES AM I GOING TO LIST I've decided on the following list of pieces to start with. Generally my most popular pieces and a nice whole number of ten. A mix of orchestral, choral, chamber and solo pieces:

• bubble (wind orchestra)
• blimp (orchestra)
• Wild Daisies (choir)
• Dancing Lilies (choir)
• Dancing Thistles (strings)
• In Their Light (string quartet)
• as pen meets paper (viola)
• This Day (piano)
• Picture for Emily (piano)
• A Holiday Thought (piano)

Very soon after, my microscores will follow, but this is a good place to start.

NEXT STEP In the next post I will look at:

• What to think about as a publisher.
• Editing the listed pieces.

2010 through the eyes of a blog

It is December 31 and I just wondered "what exactly has happened this year?" So through the eyes of this blog, let's have a look. We'll start with January and the tail end of our South America trip, along with the workshopping and recording of my music in Brazil.

January 4th Leg Four – Argentina to Paraguay to Brazil January 11th Leg Five – Rio de Janeiro to Paraty to Auckland January 12th A day with Sphaera

After spending too many hours hunting down good repertoire for my school orchestras, in February I explored the efforts of conducting. I also set up my newsletter with MailChimp.

February 20th Conducting – 90% perspiration, 10% exhilaration February 26th Automating the monthly issue

It was a plentiful month of posts in March, many on great discoveries I recently made but also highlighted a new piece, Picture for Emily, for my niece.

March 14th Sibelius First – if you’re so inclined March 15th Moana Ataahua programme launched March 16th Picture for Emily – aiming for the small market March 16th Scoring Avatar March 18th My indispensables March 19th If Lake Taupo was a piece of music, what would it sound like?

In April it was all about preparing Moana Ataahua for its massive premiere at the ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival.

April 24th Moana Ataahua set to ERUPT in May (article from SOUNZ) April 28th Moana Ataahua, the rehearsals begin

I explored digital music stands in May, how they compare and how I wanted one. Do I still want one now? That is another post!

May 15th Digital music stands, hook me up – Music Pad, Music Reader, eStand

I summed up the Moana Ataahua premiere in June and did a very popular post on music apps for your iOS devices.

June 1st Moana Ataahua, the premiere June 2nd iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional

It was great to see plenty of music getting performed through July.

July 12th Wild Daisies premiere July 18th Breathe In, Breathe Out – a concert of overtures and finales July 27th SoundCloud, move your music July 29th Three pieces performed by Brazil’s Sphaera Ensemble

The Auckland schools orchestra festival happened in August, so did some pondering on music theory.

August 27th Sounds great! I want it, I want it now August 30th KBB Music Festival 2010, thumbs up August 31st Music theory, do we need it or not?

Spent a fantastic few days in Wellington in September recording Rakaia with the NZSO. Also, Rhian Sheehan's amazing score for The Cult, which I helped out with, won best score!

September 9th More iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional September 20th The Cult wins at Qantas Film and Television Awards September 23rd NZSO/SOUNZ Readings 2010

In November I did a three part post looking at music printing, engravers, copyists and how things are changing. I also hooked up Sibelius users with some great resources!

November 29th So, you’re a Sibelius user? November 30th Music printing, a journey for engravers (part 1 of 3) November 30th Music copying and confusion (part 2 of 3) November 30th Changing times for music preparers (part 3 of 3)

As you would expect, I got festive in December but also looked at a new feature for sounz.org.nz.

December 7th A Christmas wish list for composer-musicians December 24th SOUNZ moves forward, again December 24th Merry Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!

Wild Daisies premiere

Last year Kristin School commissioned a piece from me for their amazing award-winning choir, Euphony, to include in their 2010 repertoire. They premiered it at the Auckland Town Hall on Wednesday 16th June 2010. See the video below:

It uses the text from Bub Bridger's poem, Wild Daisies.

The choir was once again successful in getting through to The Big Sing Finale, along with many other choirs from around New Zealand. You can see the full list of these choirs at The Big Sing website.

Wild Daisies is notated for SSA choir and if anyone is interested in buying a copy please let me know.

Pen to paper

... or rather, finger to keyboard! Here is an update on three pieces I am currently writing. Wild Daisies

This is a piece for the award winning choir, Euphony, from Kristin School. After a lot of hunting I found the wonderful poem "Wild Daisies" by NZ poet Bub Bridger. It was hard to find something suitable for school-aged students, something on a happier rather than sad note, and something that would allow lots of musical additions ... perhaps I'm just not well acustomed to hunting down texts. Anyway this is going to be a fantastic piece for unaccompanied choir.

Tiraki

There is a flute player I want to write for, a viola player has been begging for a piece, and I have been wanting to write a piece for tuba for a long time. So, this is it. A suite of solo pieces, one for each of these instruments. I'm trying to get some of the movements done before the trip to Brazil, as then I can workshop the pieces with the players there.

I was thinking how to tie these three pieces together and had a great idea about clouds as they are categorised into high, mid and low clouds. So the three pieces are based on:

1. Cirrus - flute (high)
2. Altocumulus - viola (middle)
3. Cumulus - tuba (low)

The title, Tiraki, means to clear the sky or lift away the clouds.

Taupo

Don't worry, that's not the actual title - I'm still deciding. This piece for wind orchestra and choir is well underway and will open the 2010 ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival. This project is possible thanks to the very generous funding by SOUNZ (The Centre for NZ Music) and their SOUNZ Community Commission.

We put a call out for texts to use and so they are flowing in. Have started drafting some ideas and have got a good idea of how it's going to turn out. It's going to be a 15 minute, or thereabouts, piece but it is going to be able to be performed as a 5-6 minute piece later in it's lifetime. This, along with the fact that it is suitable for younger players means hopefully it will have a healthy future. As soon as I get back from South America I will be full on writing this piece.