onward!

My throat is getting much better, and everything looks like it's on the mend. I want to thank you all for your "get well soon" cards and flowers and balloons and especially the singing telegram -- I was really touched by all your kind expressions of care and concern.

I managed to create a pretty good sketch of the entire march yesterday -- it's amazing what you can accomplish when you're under the gun. The tune is a little doofy, but hey -- it's a march -- what do you expect?!?

Before I started writing I did some research and listened to some different marches. I'm writing this for a British game team, who wanted to avoid the already "over-the-top-American" soundtrack that was in the American version of the game. I can't say that I blame them -- would you want to listen to a disco-pep-band medley of "The Star-Spangled Banner", "Yankee Doodle Dandy", and "Battle Hymn of the Republic"?!? Okay, maybe you would...

But I listened to some British marches (including Elgar's "Imperial March" and "Pomp and "Circumstance") and compared those to some Sousa marches -- THE sound of American marching brass. It was very interesting and illuminating, and I'm really glad I took the time to listen. The British melodies moved in a more stately, step-wise motion, while the Sousa tended to have more heroic leaps and arpeggiation. The British accompaniment was different too -- it favored a more Bach chorale-like harmonization, rather than than the more layered, contrapuntal style of the Sousa marches. Granted, Sousa's works came a few decades after Elgar's, but tonal harmony had extended FAR beyond what either of these guys were doing in their composition, so I attribute these differences to cultural preference and acceptance.

Homework completed, I began sketching as I usually do -- hear the germ/hook/catchy part of a tune in my head, get that down, and start building the rest of the tune from there. Then sketch out as much of the counterpoint and harmony in the sequencer with just with a piano sound. First thing I'll do today is ice the cake -- finish embellishing the moments where I think it's still necessary. That should be finished before lunch. Then after a break for lunch -- I will furiously start to synthestrate -- breaking my piano sketch into orchestration, and re-performing the separate parts with separate synth patches and samples. I'll do that until mid-afternoon, when I'll need to start really focusing on the mix. I'll mix for maybe an hour, dump that off, and start mastering and processing the recording for the proper format (a proprietary 16-bit/31.250 Hz sampling rate!?!). I should be able to deliver by the end of the day, in time to hop in the car with Nicki and her sister Jessie to head up to Northern Michigan for the weekend...