RadioNZ: Holst
Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ is a triumph of orchestration, but many of its features and innovations are taken for granted. Thomas Goss takes us on a tour of the unique architecture and fascinating conception of this 20th-century masterpiece. http://on-demand.radionz.co.nz/appt/appt-20131023-1900-the_planets-064.mp3 © Copyright Radio New Zealand
Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, days 16-24
Tuesday, February 11 8:30 a.m. A huge amount of time has passed since my last journal entry. This delay is pretty typical of the ending stretch in a project: the work starts to pile up as everyone involved realizes that they’re much too close to the kill date for comfort. In my case, I was…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, day 15
Sunday, January 26 Today is a red-letter day in the project. In 7.5 hours I completed song no. 10: “There’ll Be Sad Songs” by Billy Ocean. My tenth song was supposed to be “Mná Na h’Éirann” by Sharon Corr, but I moved up that add-on song I was given a few days ago. I’m sure…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, days 13 & 14
Saturday, 25 January 7:30 p.m. It’s been a sluggish couple of days, but not without results. I started scoring Mel C’s version of “Both Sides Now” yesterday and finished it today. I don’t know if anything I ever do is perfect, but this score was as close to perfection as I’ve gotten so far, at…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, days 11 & 12
Thursday, 23 January Woke up this morning, rolled over, and felt the bed flip over onto the floor. No, it wasn’t another earthquake like the one we had a few days ago (only 6.3). As I found after a trip to the doctor a couple of hours later, I’ve got a nasty bug on the…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, day 10
Sunday, 19 January 9:30 p.m. This time seems to be turning into journal hour. I had a fairly productive day, scoring Sharon Corr’s “We Could Be Lovers” in three and a half hours, writing an article, and transcribing a piano part – about 8.5 hours all told. Though I didn’t wake up at 4 or…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, day 9
Saturday, 18 January I’ve been so absorbed for the past few days that I forgot to submit my bimonthly article to New Zealand Musician Magazine. Hopefully they won’t notice and let it slide until Monday. But I’m always forgetting little deadlines and such when I’m this committed to a big one. It’s only about quarter…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, day 8
Friday, 17 January Checking in exactly the same time as yesterday at 9:42 p.m. Scored another song in one day: Leo Sayer’s “More Than I Can Say.” I asked for this song especially from the Music Director, and was pleased to get it for two reasons: first, when I listened to it while vetting the…
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Diary of an Orchestrator – Mission Estate Concert project, days 6 & 7
Thursday, 16 January 9:42 p.m. after a long day. It’s good to get back to this journal after a few days off, somewhat enforced. After leaving Collingwood, I dropped in on a composer friend of mine who lived not too far from there, around the Tasman Bay area where the weather was a bit nicer.…
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