budafulmusic

Wow, it’s been a week since my recital. It was well received and had a good audience in spite of the many other activities of the night. I think everyone’s favorite piece was the closing sacred choral work, “It is not Death to Die”. It communicated a great message and was a perfect closer for the evening. I’ll be getting the recording of the recital next week and then I’ll get one to each of my players and anyone who would like to purchase one for a modest sum. It was also captured on an HD camera which means it’s a very high quality image. I’ll be the first recitalist to have my recital on a Blue-ray disc. I don’t have a blue-ray player but from the looks of it with in a few years from now, most people will.

People have been asking me what I am doing now that my recital has past. I am trying to keep busy with my regular duties as a GA/student but I admit that I have needed to take a couple of days to just unwind. It was a tremendous time in my life, full of good memories and hard work. It is also just the beginning of the adventure.

Dr. Forrest wants to put together a student composition recital at the end of this semester. It has become a tradition for the past three years. I need to write something for this. I’m thinking something choral. Something Alfred Lord Tennyson. Or I could use a choir piece that I have already written…

In addition to my recital this week, I have been busy wrtting music for several other events, some unexpected. BJ Distance Learning is having another Help at Home Live show and I arranged a new hymn tune for the event.

I also composed music for a recital which, inceidentally falls at the same exact time as my own recital. It is a speech recital, evidentally music and speech recitals are allowed to be scheduled separately. Anyway, which ever recital people decide to go to they’ll be getting my music.

I finished composing the music for the student film that I had mentioned before. I think it will turn out alright. I’m hoping to be at the recording sessions so I can help the players out.

The cello arrangement I arranged has undergone surgery several times but it is at a place where it is quite nice. It will be performed this coming week here at BJ during our own Bible Conference, Monday afternoon.

What a weekend!!

Well, the big day is finally almost here. I find myself more relaxed than I expected I would be. Rehearsals have gone really well and all that is left is the technical which will be held tomorrow night at 7. Here is the complete text of the program this Saturday night at 7 in WMC:

Elegy: A Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano

1. O Captain! My Captain! text, Walt Whitman
2. Requiem text, Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Not Waving but Drowning text, Stevie Smith
4. Crossing the Bar text, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Troy Castle, baritone
Brian Buda, piano

The Holy War

1. Mansoul
2. Diabolus
3. Emmanuel

The curtain of John Bunyan’s allegory The Holy War rises on the town
of Mansoul, a beautiful, flourishing city. Originally a servant to King
Shaddai and his son Emmanuel, it eventually became enslaved to
Diabolus, an enemy of the King. Emmanuel then regained the town
through an epic battle and eventually restored it. Diabolus escaped
during the battle, however, and attempted yet another siege against the
town. Only with the help of Emmanuel did the attack fail, and
Diabolus continually seeks to return and destroy the good town of
Mansoul.
The musical landscape of The Holy War portrays the main characters in
the story. After the introduction, a fugal tour through Mansoul allows
us to absorb its intended innocence and beauty. The sinister music of
the second movement then portrays Diabolus’s attempt to seduce and
destroy the town. Emmanuel’s sweeping theme appears in the first and
second movements as well, but receives its fullest treatment in the third
movement, as He wars against Diabolus and eventually triumphs over
him. Even at the very end, we are reminded of Diabolus’s continual
schemes against Mansoul and of Emmanuel’s future ultimate victory.

It Is Not Death to Die
text, H. A. César Malan
trans. George W. Bethune, alt.

I’m making head way on my recital. Today I sent out what I’m hoping will be the final parts that my players will use. Of coarse we will change things here and there but I hoping the majority of changes will be behind me. There are only 4 more rehearsals until the recital date, I figure that few changes as possible are a good thing for consistency sake of the ensemble. It’s also getting to sound better too as people begin to see what it is I’m after.

I’ve updated my works page, it now holds things up to my compositions for my recital.