I've been going through a bit of writers block recently. Like creative writing or art, one cannot merely sit down and make IT happen. I have been sitting down and waiting and waiting.

So I'm writing this orchestra piece for the Atlantic Music Festival and I am scaling this one down. B'rit was HUGE so I'm gearing this thing towards chamber orchestra. When writing something, I try to listen to as much music as possible that has been written for (insert ensemble). The pieces I really looked at intensely were Sean Shepherd's These Particular Circumstances, John Adams' Chamber Symphony, and some fantastically insane Elliot Carter things. For some reason this did not do the trick (even though I love listening to all of these chamber orchestra works). I thought about an up tempo concert opener, re-orchestrating an earlier piece, Ives-like hymns, a work based on spinning gestures.