I had an incredibly productive week working on my “tape” and orchestra composition. I’ve been wrestling with a syncing issue in Finale where the “tape” part (audio track) would only stay in sync if I started playback from the beginning. Given that I’m 6-7 minutes into the piece, this was wasting a lot of time. After days with Finale support, we discovered that although both my file and Finale were set to 48 Hz, a bug required switching them to 44.1 Hz. This change saved me an enormous amount of time, allowing me to write over two minutes of music since then.
Building the Musical Narrative
The B-section of the second part focuses on the positive contributions of our leaders, even those not entirely successful. Here, I’ve woven in additional references to requiems, including Gregorian chants from Agnus Dei, with lines that translate to “have mercy on us” and “give us peace.”
After completing the first draft of the second part, I started the intro to the third section, which highlights Presidents who have let us down and are more self-serving than serving the country. This segment begins with a powerful series of hits, setting a darker tone.
A Week of Productivity and Future Plans
With the software issues resolved, I felt an incredible surge in productivity. I made significant progress just before needing to take a brief break. To ensure continuity, I’ve created detailed notes so I can seamlessly resume work later. I’ve also submitted the “tape” portion to The San Francisco Tape Music Festival, 2025—fingers crossed for a positive response. I probably won’t have updates until the end of June, but stay tuned for more on this and other compositions!
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Tags: democracy, in progress