First things first, AXIOM officially has a publisher - C. Alan Publications. This is a great honor to me because of the highly professional company C. Alan is and the high quality of the works they publish. C. Alan is also home to one of my favorite composers, David Gillingham. Being able to mention something about myself in the same breath with David Gillingham (and not have the words "is not near as good at writing music as" present) is pretty cool.
C. Alan was the first (and only) publisher I sent AXIOM to and I actually got a contract from them way back in September, but I have been pretty worried that if I publicized their publishing AXIOM, that I would somehow jinx the whole thing.
Well, now I have proof that they are going to publish AXIOM:
This is two full sets of the piece (including score and parts) they sent for me to proofread. So far, I have already located a few things in need of fixing, but they are minor. (They still need to be fixed, though!)
Also, over the Christmas Break, I did a transcription of the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. We performed it on our Percussion Ensemble Concert and it went very well. It, too, is going to be published. This time, Tapspace Publications is going to publish it. The contracts have come, been signed and sent back, so everything is official. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this come to fruition!
And then, maybe the best thing yet is that I had a week of inspiration and have churned out a new band piece (in six days!). Dr. Gary Garner suggested that I write something for the newly formed Town & Gown Community Band (that he conducts) and six days ago I started with a simple theme and this evening I completed it!
It is written for a rather mature group, which the Town and Gown Band, for the most part, is. The piece is about 6 and a half minutes long and spans a number of different tempi, keys and moods.
While the piece is pretty well fully orchestrated (except for some major work needed in the piccolo and percussion), there is a lot of work remaining. Generally speaking, I don't write too many dynamics or articulations when I am just trying to get ideas down on "paper." So, I have a lot of nuts and bolts-type work to do, but the creative process is pretty well finished.
This is really exciting for me because I tend to really labor over the creative process, but having had this come together so easily has been somewhat reassuring that I am, indeed, supposed to be writing music as part of my life's purpose. (Of course, it might have just come together so easily because it's such a big piece of crap... But I don't think it is...)
I will admit that I'm a little worried that it will not be well received, but that's probably a fear I will always live with...
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