Catalogue, a work in progress

 I am working on an online catalog. It's part catalog. Part autobiography. It's a work in progress that I can update very easily. 

It's to help folks learn about my less well known pieces. It's to serve as a primary source for research. It's to keep keep things straight for my family. 

This wiki is done with great program called Obsidian. It's not working perfectly, but it will someday.

Click here to try it out. 

Flowing Gently, Sail out motor back, and 6483 available at Musicnotes

Although I've been an opera and vocal composer since my early twenties, there are plenty of other pieces of music in various instrumental genres. I'm exploring what to do with them. Ignore them. Put them up on IMSLP for free. These three, a new experiment, are up on Musicnotes, a sheet music site, for a couple of bucks to see if anyone might be interested. Here are the other two.

Catalogue (a work in progress)

A work-in-progress graph in Obsidian of my creative catalogue

So I'm in the beginning stages of trying to figure out a way that 99% of my material can be found by performers, producers, audiences, and researchers. This will probably end up being a website/wiki. I am going to try to do it through a program called Obsidian, which calls itself a "private and flexible writing app." (I've been using a program called Infoselect for years. It is solid and dependable--it works like a mountain of post-it notes. Very flexible and searchable. But can't do things like graphs and websites.) 

Composers and songwriters end up with a variety of publishing relationships during the course of their careers. Increasingly self licensing is a practical and profitable option too. But all of these different ways of getting music to the public can make tracking things down difficult. I have seen this with the estates of composers--once the composer is gone, the writer's family sometimes has a hard time tracking down where things are. And publishers lose track of things too. 

The graph illustrates that my work is mostly self published, with a several publisher relationships, the most important being with E C Schirmer Classical. I've also decided that there are works that I'd like to make available through IMSLP. These are things that are in genres--brass fanfares, string quartets--that I'm not known for, so there's no reason not to make them available for free. Eventually, I'll upload more works to IMSLP. What is less robust at this point is the archiving. I'm throwing out boxes of old manuscripts after scanning them, but haven't quite worked out where these electronic files (along with a few boxes of paper) will end up.

Eventually each of the nodes on the graph will be clickable for more information--collaborators, commissioner, performance history, and how to get hold of it.

Hazel Miner, opera in one act

 

In April of 2025, Northern State University in Aberdeen South Dakota will premiere my new one act opera, HAZEL MINER. The opera is based on a well known upper midwest story about a teen who saved her two younger siblings in a fierce early spring snowstorm in 1920. The treatment is by Marla Fogderud, who also co-wrote the libretto. 

Near Center, North Dakota. 1920. Despite unsettling weather, Hazel and her brother and sister go off to school. An early spring blizzard hits and school is let out. Although Hazel's father has come to bring them home, they are separated as the children's horse bolts, dragging the sleigh behind it. Stuck in a ditch, the children are forced to spend the night in the freezing weather. The frantic search party finally arrives, but Hazel has sacrificed herself, covering young Myrdith and Emmet with her body for warmth. The family and community grieve.

The piano vocal score to HAZEL MINER is available in my perusal score folder. A large production would require at least 16 singers (9 women/5 men/4 children/plus ensemble), and a small one 10 (6 women/2 men/2 children/no ensemble). There are lots of opportunities for smaller roles. The opera is for two keyboards, or just piano. It's about 35 minutes long. Until the premiere is recorded, here are audio demos.

The opera would be an ideal opportunity to collaborate with a local children's choir or school music program. Y'know, put a lot of kids on stage!

The opera has a sing-along round finale, something I'm rather proud of. Give it a listen.