What will I compose in 2011? Good question: I'm not sure, either.

Project Status Update, January 2011

It appears as though the last third of 2010 did not see as fruitful a finish as I had hoped. I encountered numerous stumbling blocks regarding composing, and I maintained a rather active schedule of applying to full-time teaching positions (trust me that this is somewhere between a part and full-time job in itself) and made applications to numerous contests, festivals, and conferences, with fair to middling success.

At the end of September, I completed seven selected snapshots of a lingering spectre for violin and piano (score available here - click on Works > Chamber), but am still waiting on finding a venue for performance as well as performers. I have a few leads, but the future remains unwritten.

From October through the end of the year, I bounced around between a number of chamber works, a few orchestral works, and some electronic pieces. Among the completed works were deep cover, a piece I have previously discussed here, a 13-or-so-minute electroacoustic work (October; check website under Works > Fixed-Media Electronic), mage for trumpet and Max/MSP (which I will no doubt revise and make available later this year), and talking in circles before the radio explodes, a one-minute electroacoustic work composed for the 2011 VoxNovus 60x60 entry (I plan on putting this online soon).

However, that was it. It may be a symptom of not having the right material in my head, or not having concrete goals toward which I could work. Like every year, and like every composer, and dripping with some amount of cynicism, this is the year that I will catch up on my workload, both for deadline-driven works and works underway simply because I want to compose them. I haven't done a tally of works completed in 2010, but I plan on exceeding it - somehow! - in 2011.¹

So, for 2011, the following are currently underway or are shortly underway. The first collection of pieces are those I am actively working on, including deadline-driven works. The second group includes works I began last year (or earlier) and aim to complete or revise this year, after I've cleared out the deadlined works or more pressing pieces. The third group incorporates the leftovers - the "I'll get to them when I get to them" pile.²

1: SAXTET. for saxophone sextet (or orchestra, 6 parts - Soprano, Alto I, Alto II, Tenor I, Tenor II, Bari)
näck och huldra (tentative name) for solo cor anglais
the bunyip for alto sax and Max/MSP
untitled, piano/violin/clarinet
untitled, piano/violin/viola/cello

2: gravity express for orchestra
l'arbre solitaire du Ténéré for bassoon quartet
elementary particles for violin/cello/flute/clarinet (possibly piano)
los desaparecidos for orchestra
untitled, for orchestra
string quartet #1

3. trans-neptunian objects for chamber orchestra
noncey nelbly for mixed choir, text entirely nonce words
la chemin du Jerusalem for string quartet (possibly string orchestra)
untitled, work for flute choir
untitled, work for clarinet choir
vox populi, possibly multimedia, definitely fixed-media, initially
untitled (formerly "gyre"), wind ensemble
untitled (formerly and possibly "romp machine"), wind ensemble

And there you have it. That's my year ahead. And a very, very full one.

Now all I have to do is convince a college or university that my music is worthwhile, and that in exchange for stability and teaching duties, I'll crank out the pieces...

*****
1: It should be noted that during 2008 I started or revised a large number of works, but did not technically complete one. Anything is better than that - literally.
2: I wish, I wish, I wish I had enough room to list the too-many-to-count older pieces I have stacked up (still!) awaiting revision. I really have to learn how to let go and accept that some of my children will, in fact, be complete and total disappointments.