S3/E9 Facebook Gestalt (once more with feeling)

When writing the opera, I skipped the Prelude (which actually inhered in Jonathan Clift’s libretto) at first, and began my work instead with Act I, Scene 1. (I knew I would be quoting the Prelude in the opera’s finale, and wanted to be closer to that point when composing it.) Otherwise I followed dramatic order. But not so for the engraving process. Sometimes when I finished a scene, I already had ideas for the next one, so any engraving would have to wait. That meant that sharing any of my new music with followers on Facebook (or occasionally elsewhere) had to wait, since there was no time to prepare the materials for promulgation. (I emphasize again that these materials subsisted primarily to promote the opera with company personnel, or as learning aids for singers; sharings I did with the public on Facebook–or here–have, I admit, been shavings off the proverbial table.)

So a lot of interpolation (no, call it what it is: backtracking!) has been necessary in the exposition of this evening-long work I finished over a year ago now. Act I has a Prelude and four scenes, and Act II has four more scenes. By the time composition ended, I had engraved and shared abroad all of that except Act I, Scene 2. As I have mentioned, it is so long that I broke it up into three chunks. The first two of those chunks are the subject of E6 below. So, with just one more section of less than 10 minutes to go to achieve closure (Gestalt), I encountered the roadblock I chronicle in E7. (You can see why I became so frustradedly cross!) In E8 I exultantly report that the roadblock has finally been lifted, and so I can at last finish this guide with the subjoined video link.

Scrolling of this final section out of Act I, Scene 2 begins with the second system (bottom of the first page) of the video. Now then, finally, if you put that together with everything found below here in S3, as the old song says, “it spells M-O-T-H-E-R!”

So, I apologize that this path toward completion of my survey has been so very desultory. I write not to call attention to my prowess as a composer, which is minimal, but to shine a light on my teachers and guides on the inner who somehow got this music through my thick skull and into manifestation. It was quite a ride, I’ll tell you!

If you just want to listen, or follow the odd scrolling video, and not revisit the vicissitudes I chronicled along the way, all the links you need can be found within this master link.

Akhtamar complete samples