After the USA trip was over, I thought I had probably had quite enough of this blog to last me the whole year so it is with some surprise I find myself back at the blogface chipping away once more. The trip at this remove seems somewhat like a strange dream - they said it couldn't be done. At least they said it shouldn't be done and I was determined to prove that not only could it be done but that it should be done as well. I loved the experience, crazy as it was. I was a little sick in the middle but I survived and was delighted to make all the plans I had set for myself. Once home, I arrived off the plane with a day free before I was straight into preparations for Leaving Cert Music Practical exams which I was accompanying, Iveagh Singers rehearsals, church business to catch up on and an ever busier diary. Since then, I have been never less than quite busy every weekend and this has often extended out into the week as well.
I started to do The Artists' Way but haven't found the will power to stick at it. Initially, upon learning the basics which are to keep "morning pages" where you write three pages on any topic - the less thought the better - every morning, and "artist dates" where you take yourself off to do or observe something creative once a week, I decided that if I did these things in isolation (without actually throwing myself into the book) that this might be enough to get me going. I even got through the first chapter. In fact, the first chapter and the two tasks daily (which got done almost daily for about two months - the first month much better than the second month) definitely produced a palpable improvement in my demeanour and mental health. However, in May, I got a little bored, a little busier and went to France. I had the Ipad with me in France but somehow the tasks were left undone during that week and I haven't been able to start them up since I returned. Having said that, I am much spritelier than I was before I left for the USA and I put this down to the work done with the Artists' Way book - I just need to get back into it. My friend David has suggested that I may need to do the course too - that to do the tasks in isolation is not enough. I have to find the key to getting myself back into it.
The gigs in France were with a very talented young fellow with the name of Peadar King. A good singer, a good songwriter, he and his girlfriend Gabrielle opened up their home to myself and Tom Portman from Galway and, in return, we played our musical instruments to back him on two concerts in a theatre in Avignon in May. He had already been offered 9 gigs in the Avignon Festival and so we are returning there for ten days in July. I need to pack the suncream. I've been remiss with it recently and I'm feeling a bit woozy thanks to the hot sun over the last weekend in Dublin.
My work with the Unitarian Church in Dublin has intensified somewhat and is proving to be equally frustrating and enjoyable. I am now the director of music there, a title I have been given informally for a great many years but which now has grown to be so all-encompassing and intensive thanks to the hard fundraising being done for the pipe organ that the managing committee have conceded that it is now impossible to do it as a volunteer anymore. The result of this is that I have now thrown myself into it even more. There are now a huge number of gigs and events in the church as well as weddings, baptisms, funerals and part of the balance of the fundraising appeal is working out where our opportunities lie - making sure people are aware that the appeal is there without it seeming (to our visitors and congregation) like pressure or advertising; also making sure all in the church are spreading the word out to their own circle of friends and that there are plentiful and appropriate channels to send information out and take donations in (and that everybody knows what they are). So I've been setting up Paypal accounts, organising gigs along with our ever-industrious and hard-working caretaker Kevin, working on policy with ministry (and of course, being a Unitarian church, every minister has a different policy), updating the website alongside many other thankfully interesting things. All the events are different to hopefully not draw on the same crowd each time. Last weekend a group went on a historical walk - our next project is to open up the church on Culture Night in September. We have a minister whose contract has just been extended by five years but who previously only ever felt to me like a temporary minister so it feels like we have a new minister. On that basis, we're also starting into a new period of examining our own worship and that involves through music as well. I have a lot of ideas myself and I look forward to working with the minister and congregation to find challenging but agreeable tweaks to the way we conduct our services over the coming years. My level of input in the church is such that I often feel like leaving due to tiredness and perceived apathy from others (about once a week) but you learn to get positive signs from the smallest things and then you see them and that's what keeps you there. I'm still there for the moment.
So church is taking up a lot of my time but I've started an exciting project which is keeping me up very late at night. I've started transcribing my CD The Shape Of Things onto a notation program on my computer called Sibelius. I'm working out the whys and wherefores as I go but suffice it to say that a lot of people who own the CD have asked for it so I'm working on it. It's a slow process. When I recorded the CD, there were no dots for me to follow - I knew the tunes that I was recording and a general structure but the actual notes other than the tunes were improvised so now I have to go through the original compositions on the CD and work out exactly what I played, then work out how to phrase it so that it looks playable to the pianist, then design it all nicely so that all the tunes fit nicely together, and then finally decide whether I'm going to sell all the tunes in a book or offer them for download individually (or both). At the moment, I'm looking at the music I've transcribed so far and missing the developments in the arrangements that I'm now familiar with since I committed this version to tape but I'm fairly sure I should leave the score as what the owner of the CD would be familiar with - fairly sure but not totally decided yet. It's a job I'm trying to get to as often as possible but it tends to mean I get to bed at 2am in the morning. Thankfully, I'm minding my aunts' house now so I can't do any late-nighters for the next three weeks - if I can force myself into a 9-5 at home, I might actually make some good inroads on it.
If it was my only project, I might also make some ground but I'm also enjoying doing a lot of work with Hedda Kaphengst of Klawitter Theatre Group (who bring music and theatre to nursing homes and elderly care centre), Hege Anita Skjaervik (who is putting together a really exciting music and art project which will hopefully blossom next Spring), Emilie Conway (who released her fabulous CD The Secret Of A Rose in March but still manages to find time occasionally to work with me on a seperate project), Mark Conway (who is finally getting around to recording an album which will be brilliant), Orlagh De Bhaldraithe (who with Macnas is bringing me to Durham to reprise the band that was formed for their St. Patricks' Day Parade presentation in 2011 for a festival there), playing a lot of weddings in the church and getting ready for Peadar's gigs next month.
As always, I'm busy but that's the best way to keep me. Join the mailing list if you want to know when the sheet music will be out - I'm not very good at keeping the website up to date.
Some links just in case you want to hear more of what I've been talking about above - all a bit lo-fi but you should get a good idea of why I'm enjoying working with all.
Byeeeee.
josh
