On Recent Compositions

{Out of curiosity, is anyone out there a composer like me? If you are, make sure to comment or email, I'd love to be able to swap tips for good composition!}

I've been in the mood for composition recently.

A little while back I finished my arrangement of Bring Him Home, from Les Misérables,

I did a bunch of basic trumpet hymn transpositions,

I did an arrangement of the hymn Let There Be Peace On Earth for trumpet and trombone,

During my trip to Paris, I had a spark of inspiration, and as soon as I got home I began work on a composition for full concert band in the fantasy style, Fantasy on a Theme from Les Misérables. (Inspiration for this was kinda funny. I was listening to the musical on the plane ride home and got to the end of the show, which holds a very pretty musical phrase and this phrase combines with some of the most beautiful lyrics in the show: 'take my hand, and lead me to salvation / take my love, for love is everlasting / and remember the truth that once was spoken / to love another person is to see the face of god.' I was really listening to it that one time and I was immediately like 'I have to write a song based on this.')

And then, over the weekend I felt like doing a bit of composition so I sat down and thought 'A horn piece would be nice'. Thus, I wrote a short piece entitled Etude for French Horn.

As you can see, it's a rather short piece, only a little under thirty measures, but that's an etude for you. Rather short, plus the beginning parts are medium tempo, the middle is fast and the end is REEEEALLY slow, so it's a good small group piece. As you can see, it is written for three horn parts unaccompanied, and each part should really only be played by one person. The third part isn't too difficult, there's just one 16th note run, the second part is moderate and shouldn't be played by a beginner. The first part is fairly hard as it does go up quite high for a lot of the song and also has some really technical parts. Here's the recording...please comment with your thoughts!

I showed this to my friend who plays french horn today and he immediately took it and wanted to play it :)

Looking Forward

Ever since getting back from April break, teachers have really started to push towards the end of the year.

Talking about mid-quarter grades going in on Friday.

Term papers being assigned in the coming weeks.

Standardized tests in math and English.

SAT in biology.

Finals,

finals,

finals

in every class.

Spring jazz, competition at Six Flags, pops concert, memorial day parade, and graduation to play for in band.

Plus....I have a life outside of school. I think....

Sometimes it sure doesn't feel that way!

I've just been putting together a calendar for these next three months, and goodness! Is it ever busy! I'm pretty sure that I'm only going to be home for about, oh, four days in July....

It promises to be a good, busy end of the school year and summer, that's for sure!

If Just Signing Up for the SAT is Stressful....

The penultimate day before April break, in my first block 10th grade honors biology class I was handed a thick paper booklet. 

It was emblazoned cheerfully with the words "Getting Ready To Take The SAT Subject Tests!"

I groaned. The SAT was probably anything but cheerful, but I knew I should take it now, even though I'm only a freshman, rather than wait and forget everything I learned this year and do terribly.

Still, I put it to the back of my mind in Paris, but yesterday I finally figured it would be good to sign up for the darn test already and so my dad and I went into our office to sign up.

I had figured on it being a pretty easy, fairly painless process. They'd ask me to put in my basic personal information, I'd choose what test I was taking and when and where, and then we'd pay and print my admission ticket.

Let's just say....signing up for an SAT, is a nightmare.

First they just asked for basic information.

Name, address, grade, school, etc.....

And then more basic information.

Race...religion...blah blah blah.

Oh and so then it's like 'build your college profile!'. And I'm thinking, I don't want to fill out a college profile, I'm a freshman, I just want to sign up for the stupid test.

But it makes me fill out the college profile.

What do you plan on majoring in?

What is your GPA?

What is your class rank are you?

What size college do you want to attend?

What is the highest level of education you want to have?

What are all the classes you have ever taken or plan to take?

Which of these subjects are you an honors or AP student?

What is your average grade?

Are you top 10%, above average, average or below average in these subject areas?

On

and

on

and

on.

Oh and it repeatedly keeps asking me if I am indeed Sally {insert middle initial and last name here} like on every page.

Finally it lets me actually choose my test and test center....

And pay...

And get my ticket...

The whole process literally took an hour.

If signing up for the SAT was stressful....well, I can't wait to see the actual test.