Summer mushrooms

Not sure what these are. By the time I had the time to take a sample home to dissect/make a spore print from, they had shriveled up and died. Lots of rain/thunder storms expected over the next two days, however, so fingers crossed there will be more mushrooms.

Hopefully some recordings of recent improv sessions will be available soon. Last Saturday's session went extremely well, with a full ensemble (Mark [piano] Jessie [clarinet/clarinet joints] Spencer [turntables] Doug [trumpet/objects]) I think we made some of our most convincing music yet.

Spent a lot of today pouring over a variety of sketches/scores/notes for the piano cello clarinet piece. Its coming together nicely. I am very excited about it, but it has taken a while to get to this point. Everyday, when I begin to sit down and start composing, I am always plagued by misgivings about the abstract nature of composing in this fashion. While they share similar processes, the music I compose is not the same as the music I improvise, and so I cannot write for myself. I'm also working purely with acoustic instruments (for the time being) and so I don't have the advantage of electronic instruments in terms of working hands on with actual sound. Instead I work on scores and diagrams. Abstractions of the sound itself.

But I do enjoy it. When I get into the right frame of mind, sitting outside with a cup of Russian Caravan tea, and composing (at any stage of the process), is an exhilarating experience. When my mind is freed from the defined avenues of thought imposed on it freshly each day by what I smell/read/hear/think, I do find that ideas flow smoothly from my mind onto paper.

But nothing comes close to the joy of working directly with sound. And for a composer composing for acoustic instruments that they themselves do not play, this only comes upon the completion of (at least) a draft score. To take a draft score and present it to capable musicians... to have them realise the score... opens up an infinite number of unexplored possibilities to the young composer.