Letters from the Muse Room #2 (February 2019)

The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Monday of the month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room will include news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past month.

Dear friends,
Volume 2 of Letters from the Muse Room! See, I’m already keeping my promise of writing more. :) Thanks for sticking around, or, if you’re new, thanks for joining!

I hope you’re staying warm; here in Kansas City we had frost on the inside of our windows this past week:

I thought I’d give you just a short update on the music I’m composing right now. I haven’t had a lot of time lately to compose (mostly because I haven’t had a lot of time lately to sleep, thanks to our baby who is still not sleeping through the night), but when I do have time, here’s what I’ve been working on:

• panicpanicpanic — this is the piece I mentioned last month, for speaking chorus. The “music” so far consists of the sound effect “Kshhhhhhh,” inhaling, exhaling, and the words “panic” and “NO.” Exciting stuff. I’ll share more about this next month, maybe with an audio clip.
• Heat Death — this is an orchestral piece I started a little while back. The idea is that the piece describes the past, present and future of the universe, not as science but as a story. It begins with the whole orchestra gradually joining in a single note, explodes with the Big Bang, continues expanding and eventually dies out to nothing. (P.S. The “Heat Death” scenario of the end of the universe makes for fascinating reading. At least to me.)

‑‑‑‑

For this month’s inspiration, I want to shine a brief spotlight on my employer, the Kansas City Symphony. I’ve worked for the Symphony for a little over two years now, on the administrative side, and I’ve had the chance to attend lots of their concerts. Two in particular over the last month have been inspiring to me. The first one was a Classical Series concert, which had four pieces on it:

• Carl Nielsen’s Aladdin Suite
• Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1
• Charles Tomlinson Griffes’ The White Peacock
• Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite

All four of them were composed or revised in 1919. The four of them together on one concert was a really intriguing look at the crazy variety in concert music at that time.

The second concert I went to was a little different:

My wife and I went to see the Symphony perform the score to the original “Star Wars” movie live as they showed the film on the big screen in the concert hall, and it was so much fun. It gave me new appreciation for John Williams’ landmark score, and also made me think about where the music was placed, and what parts of the movie didn’t have music. The next time you’re watching a movie, try paying attention not only to where music is, but also where music isn’t, and why. 

The Symphony did a fantastic job on both concerts, showcasing how versatile and talented the musicians are. If you have an orchestra where you live, I encourage you to support it. Even if you’re not a classical music fan, there may be more to your orchestra than you think!

Thanks again for reading. Here’s hoping for a heat wave over the next few weeks….

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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Letters from the Muse Room #1 (January 2019)

The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Monday of the month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room will include news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past month.

Dear friends,
Welcome to the first-ever edition of Letters from the Muse Room! I’m excited to launch this newsletter and for you to come along for the ride.

What’s the “Muse Room”?
The Muse Room is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art — more than just a “music room” (though not less!). My desk has a computer, a pair of speakers, usually a couple of sheets of manuscript paper and almost always a cup of tea.

So what have you been up to? You haven’t emailed us in ages.
I know… sorry! But this time will be different, I promise!

Here’s a snapshot of some things that happened in 2018:

• I wrote a piece for singer/songwriter and chorus with Melanie Penn, called A Journey of Becoming, which she performed with Tyler Wigglesworth’s West Covina High School choirs in California and New York City — one movement of which was performed in Carnegie Hall!

• My piano piece Five Scenes won first prize in the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival Composition Contest, and I got to visit Memphis, attend the festival and hear my piece performed by the wonderful pianist Perry Mears!

• My wife and I had a second baby!

So what’s next?
I have some compositions on tap I’m excited to work on in 2019, including a piece for speaking chorus (no pitches, just speaking and sound effects!), an orchestral piece, and a couple of other possibilities. I’ll be setting up an official self-publishing company to sell scores from my website, and working toward securing further performances of my music. (If you’re interested in performing my music, reply to this email and let me know!) And I’ll be publishing monthly Letters from the Muse Room to keep you posted and share something that has inspired me creatively over the past month.

Yeah, what’s that about?
I wanted to share something with you each month besides just what’s happening with my music — something that’s sparked inspiration in me, whether it’s someone else’s music, a painting, a story, or something completely outside the arts. Something I could show you and say “Hey, this is cool — you should check it out.”

So what inspired you this last month?
Actually, I was inspired to recreate my email newsletter by the email newsletter of another composer. I first learned about Dale Trumbore when my choral piece A Magic Like Thee was chosen by The Singers in St. Paul, Minnesota as a winner of their composition competition; she was another of the winners. I didn’t get to meet her, unfortunately, as I had another premiere on the night of their performance. But I started to follow her online, and since then she’s become one of my best examples to follow for promoting music online and connecting with an audience. Her monthly email newsletter is called poempiecepost; every month she shares a poem (she’s primarily a choral composer), a recording of a piece of hers, and a post — an essay or blog post that she’s written. It’s an excellent format, always interesting, and I always look forward to receiving the next poempiecepost. If you like choral music, I highly recommend giving her a follow!

daletrumbore.com
twitter.com/daletrumbore
To sign up for poempiecepost: poempiecepost.com

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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