A long interlude between blog posts usually means one of two opposite things. Either I am terribly, crushingly busy, or there is nothing much going on about which to blog. Of late I have definitely been in the former category, working frantically on 1215: Foundation Of Liberty, adapting, rescoring and massaging it to fit changing requirements for The Big Day at Runnymede on 15th June.
There is both bad and good news. The bad is that all those singers who were so keen to be involved in the piece on the 15th are no longer required. I feel as if I have let these people down, although, in my defence, the decision was out of my hands. Still, there is always the mooted first complete performance in November, and it looks as though we shall at least have more than a couple of weeks to rehearse that. The good news is that an extract of 1215 will still be played on the 15th, and that it will be played by a very fine marching band indeed. This has necessitated a weekend of flat-out work, and then a hasty rewrite yesterday, but, at a meeting this morning, it seemed that I could finally close the book on the cantata as far as this month is concerned. So, all done and dusted and, I am quite proud to say, a week ahead of the very tight deadline I was given. Good to keep people happy, I think.
So I was out at Runnymede this morning, damp and drizzly, how I imagine it might have been nearly 800 years ago when John was dragged out there. Like many, I suspect, I have not been there before, and it was good to see it in the flesh. With my piece going into rehearsal on Thursday and everything else more or less sorted out (I hope) it is, at last, time to breathe. There are other pieces to be written, of course, and the full performance of 1215 to get to grips with, but I might allow myself a day away from the computer tomorrow, especially as it is market day in Wells and I need to top up my supplies of smelly cheese.
There have been many times in this project when I felt as if it could all have fallen apart, the last of those times being yesterday afternoon at around 3.30, as it happens, but I have told myself to carry on regardless, stick at it. In this get-famous-get-rich era there is not enough emphasis on continued and determined effort, but there should be. That thing about the journey beginning with the single step is so true, but sometimes we need to be reminded that to get where we want to go, really we just need to keep walking.
Nicholas O'Neill 