(Thursday, 26th March 2020)
My turn to stay in bed and have a cuppa brought to me by my good wife.
I had woken much earlier with my brains rattling around the lyrics for "Festival of Roses", a tune composed by one of Hallmark of Harmony's super-fans, Ray DeGrasse, who is wheelchair bound and, to most appearances having difficulty with movement and speech. But he has been writing musical compositions for at least ten years. Remarkable. I am in awe at the spirit and enthusiasm for barbershop singing that he clearly has.
Sam Hubbard is organising the arrangement and leading the pulling together some lyrics that will fit the arrangement. He is a gentle but very musically astute taskmaster. So I have gone from version 1.0 through to version 1.61 and finally, after a morning's work on a significant re-write, paying due attention to Sam's required structure - could we call it lyrical architecture? - I have just delivered version 2.0. We shall have to see what happens in what will be my fifth on line conference in five evenings. Two or three others offered to have a go at lyrics and will be participating this evening. I've not seen anything from them yet, but I suspect at least one of them will come up with something for sure. It's been a challenge, but a welcome one. Life is for living and learning. Let's hope we can deliver something that's worthy of Ray.
Today's Music Choice from Clemency Burton-Hill's "Year of Wonder" is 12 Notations pour piano, arranged for orchestra 1: Fantasique - Modere by Pierre Boulez
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