Fall of 2006 I finished a piece called The Realm containing my own recited poetry accompanied by electronic music. I think complex, multilayered poetry makes very bad song because the music and poetry distract from one another. If a poem is effective by itself as a poem, what need is there to mess it up with music anyway? Conversely, I think some of the greatest song literature in the European art music tradition has simple, metaphorically one-layered poetry for lyrics. That is what makes it work. Texts simple and elegant by themselves are deepened in significance when wedded to well-crafted but relatively simple music; the continued obviousness of texts prevents them from overburdening the whole, which ends up greater than the sum of its parts.

I never wanted to mess up good poetry by trying to set it to music. I heard Coleman Barks reciting his adapted translations of Rumi, accompanied by the Oud and Tabla. Ah! Accompaniment that enhances the recitation of a text without distracting from it. I wrote a piece with Barks's Rumi translations recited according to an underlying pulse, accompanied by electronic music, and punctuated with chanted responsories from a chorus. It has never been performed. Now I have gotten around to trying "accompanied poetry" with a couple of my own rather uninformed attempts at free verse. In February 2007 I presented the new work, along with all this background and information to colleagues in the Humanities Colloquium at the college where I work.

In June 2006 I presented a paper at the World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society 7th Annual Conference on Acoustics and Music Theory Applications in Cavtat, Croatia, on the South Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Conference sessions were short and infrequent, and time for sun, sea, exploration of Renaissance/Baroque walled towns, and sampling of Mediterranean cuisine was long. The presentation went well enough. A copy of the paper is here. At right is a view of old Dubrovnik from atop its walls, with the Adriatic in the background.

In May 2006 I attended a film scoring workshop at New York University, partially underwritten by ASCAP. I knew more than I thought I did about the mechanics of film scoring (from editing video for multimedia works), but I learned a lot about composition for film, which is what I went for. We got several short film clips for which to compose a cue. Guidance and input through the process were great; so were the other participants. The penultimate day was a recording session with members of the NY Philharmonic and NYC Opera Orchestra. They were outstanding, and the results were fabulous. The photo is of me conducting my part of the session for a cue I composed for the end of The Bourne Identity. What a blast. I left with a sense of "I can totally do this." A film score might make a great summer or sabbatical project.

I stayed on the 6th floor of a crappy old NYU dorm, but it was cheap and right there in Greenwich Village. Local food and atmosphere were outstanding. I had a blast just being there. I hit the Guggenheim (partially closed and covered in scaffolding) and the MoMA, took a harbor cruise out of Battery Park, and saw the WTC site.

The background here is that students had expressed interest in film scoring, so I wanted to bust those chops some. I gratefully acknowledge the Wabash College Faculty Development Fund. Now I can create coursework or independent study for students interested in composing for film, besides being better informed about it.

In April 2006 I completed a project with a European recorder quartet. The recorder collective QNG—Quartet New Generation is dedicated to contemporary music and collaboration with composers from around the world. They perform on as many as 20 different recorders of varying sizes and shapes during a typical performance. They believe early music can be heard as new when programmed with a fresh ear and juxtaposed with contemporary works. Innovative programming and a captivating stage presence have attracted enthusiastic audiences throughout Europe and the Americas.

The group seeks new possibilities for sound and expression. They play on accurate copies of authentic historical instruments, plus modern recorders called Pätzoldbasses. These square box-like recorders produce a different harmonic spectrum and have an extraordinary sound (they are basically modified organ pipes). QNG also experiments with various electronic devices.

The group was founded in 1998. The players (from Germany and Austria) met during their studies at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and the University of the Arts, Berlin. In 2003 they were awarded top prizes at the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition for Contemporary Music in the Netherlands, the International Chamber Music Competition for Contemporary Music in Poland, and the ‘13ème Concours International de Musique de Chambre’ in France.

As for me, I played Bass Recorder badly in Collegium Musicum during college days. I later won a cheap Soprano Recorder as a door prize. I bought plastic Sopranino and Alto Recorders to go with them. I liked to play a little tune on them now and then. During grad school I tried to compose something for them but never got beyond sketching. I played easy pieces with organ or continuo at a church gig I had, and once during a doctoral course in 17th century music I worked up a Scarlatti piece with continuo for the course practicum. A while back I tried playing with a group of professional colleagues and was just abysmal at it.

One morning in the Fall of 2004 I opened the "Arts" section of The New York Times and read a review of QNG after they had played at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall). The review told of their interest in both early and modern works and included a photo of them playing those outrageous Pätzolds.

I wondered then and there what kind of challenge it would be to compose something for such an ensemble-maybe even with electronics. I was hooked on the idea. I Googled and discovered they had won a prize from the Concert Artists Guild in New York, and were being managed by them for a couple of years as part of the award. I sent messages right away.

In the meantime I started doing research and writing an instrumentation analysis for the whole recorder consort plus the four Pätzolds. By the time I heard back, I had already started sketching-this time with quick results. They contracted to perform at the college where I work as part of our annual Visiting Artist Series. The performance included a new work they commissioned from me. I e-mailed sketches to them with electronic mockups and they critiqued them according to their own self-image and interests. That really helped shape the way I composed. I met with them once when they were in the U.S. to listen and get their input on the work.

It ended up being a three movement multimedia work called Games. The performance was well attended and the audience appreciative. The movements were entitled "Dominoes," "Charades" and "Monopoly." Video imagery played on conceptual and linguistic connections between these three games and foreign policy ideology (dominoes), jingoistic war fervor (charades), and corporate media (monopoly). Did I mention I love my job?