Remarks on the tenor duets

The tenor duets I've been composing are simple, musically speaking. Although the harmony is quite ambiguous, it is built on Western scales. But it does have very obvious and simple musical patterns. Anyone who can read music can learn this music, although it requires a degree of aural aptitude because of the lack of accompaniment.

Still, the main barrier I've put up to learning these pieces is that one voice is in English and the other in Chinese. Not only that, but I am providing only the Chinese characters for the Chinese part—no transliteration, no pronunciation guide. Having studied Mandarin, I know that Romanizations of the language are extremely misleading, and pronunciation guides are tragically ineffective. Instructions on how to pronounce the language would, in my opinion, be completely useless because Chinese has so many sounds that simply do not exist in English. For Mandarin syllables like shi and zhi, to name only two examples, there is no English equivalent. None whatsoever. There is no point of reference. Even with tutoring from a native speaker, a person with no prior experience with Mandarin would have difficulty getting the pronunciation right. Everyone has the capacity to pronounce Chinese, but it demands a lot of practice from most nonnative speakers.

Therefore, in the exeedingly unlikely event that these compositions are learned or performed by anyone else in the future, I am safeguarding them from being butchered by making it very difficult for non-speakers to learn the Chinese part. It's not that I feel people shouldn't attempt this music. In fact, I'd be tickled to death if I were to learn that somebody somewhere had taken an interest in it. My concern is for the beautiful sounds of Chinese. These pieces were composed with these sounds in mind; these sounds are a part of the music.

Materials have been produced!

At last, I've composed something that fits within the framework—and since there isn't really an established "framework" I use the term very liberally—of practical minimalism! I have completed two short a cappella tenor duets, and there is one more on the way. So finally, after all these months, I have worked up the courage to compose in a way in which I know I need to compose much more often. In addition to having composed these works, I also have a vocalist who is going to help me test them out in a couple of days. I haven't consulted with him on the following prospect just yet, but once we're comfortable with the material, I'd like to see how singing this music in various environments affects the performance. I would like to try this music outdoors, where I feel it belongs. After all, the texts for "The Boats Are Afloat" and "Spring Sun" are not about the indoors. I would very much like to hear experience this music outside.

I have another much larger composition in the works as well. The project is called A Prairie Cantata, and the blueprints call for a 30-minute choral and wind ensemble composition based on prairie themes. I have been spending a little time at the historical museum in town to do a little off-the-clock priliminary work lately. Let me take a moment to brag about the building, though. Initially constructed as a Carnegie library, it became the Stevens County Historical Society a number of years ago. Much more recently, the building underwent a million-dollar renovation and addition, doubling the museum's size and doing a beautiful reworking of the original portion. Absolutely gorgeous. And I promise you, in all honesty and seriousness, that this place has the best public restrooms in town. No contest. Anyway, come July, the Historical Society will be of great use to me as I begin the research process in earnest, and I am very excited for what I am confident will be an incredible learning experience and what I am hopeful will become a thoughtful, original, and enjoyable composition.