The first of the month brings with it all sorts of organisational niceties, but I am glad to report that they have already been shovelled out of the way this morning, tucked comfortably on top of the “done” pile. Since then I have been able to get on with checking a set of surtitles and writing some more introductions for performances at the Anghiari Festival, including one for the first public performance of the Suite For Two Clarinets. I am running just slightly ahead of schedule on these at the moment, and would like to get even further ahead before the day is out, both to give space for a decent amount of work over the next few days and to allow me to resketch some areas in my latest pieces.
June was a good month for my music, in terms of broadcasts, commissions and performances (tick, tick and tick!), and there is more to come in July. The next outing will be a performance of Shew Me Thy Ways on the morning of the 14th. I can clearly remember working on this in a German bar during a lull in the JEBO tour of 2007. Back then, before I knew what wifi was, I was planning harmonic changes while the other chaps sat around, playing pool, reading, chatting and so on, waiting for the dam to break before the next performance, happy times with our good friend Peter Iserloh, still much missed and much thought of. Since you ask, we are putting material together for a third album, money too, and hope to get cracking on that soon. For my piece, however, it will be a welcome outing, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that an oft-mentioned recording might sneak its way onto the release list before the year is out.
Objectively, though, this month is going to be busy, and I will have to be very organised in order to get all my writing done, but, with my builder almost out of the house, at least my time and my space are becoming mine once more. I need to sign off from this blog and get on with writing some more introductions – twenty done, thirty or so to go…
Nicholas O'Neill 