gearing up for the imitative duo

yay, California trip's over, i can focus on my passion now, fully and completely.

so the homework for tomorrow's class is to write a canon in 1st species counterpoint, between 14 and 20 whole notes, with a cadence (etc etc etc... more instructions were given but they're meaningless here).

before heading to Cali on Monday, i managed to get out one canon in mixed values (quite different and perhaps more complex than 1st species), and had about 93% of a second canon completed in mixed values. tonight, remembering that the homework was for 1st species counterpoint and not mixed values, i wrote a few more canons for that very purpose (as i sipped on a Caramel Corretto at the local Suction Cup).

at some point, i noticed that the next phase, after writing canons, is to write an imitative duo. by the end of that next chapter, i'll be writing a duo based on themes of my own invention. (whooaoh... i just re-read that paragraph in chapter 12, i'm excited) and it occured to me that this imitative duo could have lyrics.

i wondered what lyrics i would use. then i thought of asking someone to collaborate on it with me, they providing me with the lyrics - i was thinking of someone like Raphael, given that he's probably done this before, even if it is a few years ago, and he's an enthusiastic musician too, and it could be an excuse for us to become friends.

then i realized that i have a poem of Tom's in my possession (geez, i hope he doesn't mind that i'm posting about this - Tom, if you ever read this and are apalled, please let me know and i'll revise my posting!). this is a poem he wrote for his class a few months ago, and it was inspired by the misery that i've so often expressed to him regarding my current job, and how anxious i am to get out of it and finally into my real field of interest. (only a few short months more...)

i've just re-read it. it's a long poem, in terms of writing a simple imitative duo. but it might just work if i decide to expand the idea of the duo into several parts. wow, was i ever excited when the thought came to me. i haven't told Tom yet. that can wait. i want to see if i'm inspired to write some music to it first!

how cool would that be, to write music to someone else's works. and imagine if that someone else, or those someone elses, like what i write, and then it gets used in a play, or a movie or something like that...?! yeah, bring it on, bring it on. i'm sooooo going in the right direction.