Back to the Salt Mine

Assorted German agencies are keeping me busy with commissions. Two are under way.

The first, with support from Nordrhein-Westfalen’s culture office, is a large-ensemble modular composition in the method of OZZO and Seven Deserts. This one’s called Sand. It will be the first of my modular pieces to include vocalists, three altos for now. The lyrics are taken from several of my short stories.

The second, with support from Musikfond’s Neu Start program, is an instrumental setting of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. For decades now I’ve composed note-for-word settings of literary works. My first pieces were fragments of five Mamet plays for the Delmark CD Mamet. After that were three CDs of complete Samuel Beckett plays, a little more Mamet, and a big mess of Charles Bukowski. Finally I’ve got a chance to set a complete Mamet play.

With luck, and a vaccine, these new works, each a complete evening’s performance, will premier in fall of 2021.