last bookbinding class...for now.

Last night I completed my month-long bookbinding course. This last week was Islamic Binding. Because this course only runs three-hours in the evenings, we didn't have time to prepare the paper, so that we done for us. But we did learn how to sew and glue the signatures together. Then we spent the time creating the cover. It was really fun, and I am so happy with the result:

I am now hooked on bookbinding. It is really interesting and fun. Today I am will be trying my hand at sewing together a number of signatures... I haven't yet decided what size...and what kind of binding I will be doing! I'll post the results!

I will be doing more classes with Edel! There are day-long workshops and a book box as well... Can't wait!

Bookbinding classes 2 and 3

I had my third bookbinding class last night...and I realized I hadn't posted about my second class. So this post will be about both classes.

Class 2
A week ago Thursday (14th of August ) we learned how to make a Concertina/Leporello binding. The pages inside are folded so the book opens like an accordion. This type of binding is good for photos, poetry... the possibilities are endless. This is what my finished book looks like:

It actually has a musical link, as Leporello is the name of the servant to Don Giovanni, from Mozart's Opera Don Giovanni. The opera is based on the legends of Don Juan, and so Leporello uses a book like this to keep track of his master's conquests. *sigh 

Class 3

Last night (21st of August) we learned how to do long-stich binding. This can be done with a number of different materials, but something that is particularly nice is leather. The binding is done through the spine so that you can see the threads used to sew the book together. I finished the last bit today, as I couldn't decide how to close the front...I opted to stay with the stitch-showing theme and sew the leather string that will tie the front cover closed. This is what it looks like:

Front. (I also decided to have a jagged front cover, another option is to cut it straight...but you can be very creative with this!)

Here you can see the long stitches on the outside of the spine: 

Front, without being tied together:

Inside the book:

I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

The following is a picture of all the books I've made (plus one made by Preston) We've been buying materials and starting to make books at home. So fun! So starting at the BACK left: Class 1 - Single section case binding (standard book binding), Class 2 -Concertina binding, Class 3 - Long stitch binding. FRONT: Single case binding done at home. Mine is on the left with the black spine, Preston's on the right with the maroon spine!

I've really enjoyed learning this, and am thinking about all the ways I can be more creative with how I present my scores!

Failing...

So I have discovered that I am failing on a daily basis...

My thoughts about this began in late June, when I was having a hard time getting to work...

As July first, and the start of my sabbatical year, was approaching, I was trying to get myself into a good schedule. So like I generally do, I sat down and wrote a daily schedule for myself. Here it is:

Daily Schedule for Karen's Sabbatical (Monday - Friday)
6:45 Wake up
8:00  Eucharist at St. Bene't's (Leave flat at 7:40)
8:30-9:30 Errands if necessary - not longer than an hour
9:30-12:30(or 1:30) Composition/Creative Work
(12:30 or 1 Workout) or see below
13:30-14:00 Lunch
14-14:30 Cello Practice
14:30-18:00 One of the following:
              a) Academic research/Writing (Mon-Wed, Fri)
              b) Meet with others - composers, visitors, friends
              c) Clean flat (Thurs)
              d) Other creative work
(17:30 or 18:00 - Workout) or see above and below
19:00 Supper
(20:30 or 21:00 - Workout) LAST CHANCE
21:30 Quick clean-up, dishes...etc
22:00 Bedtime reading
22:45 Lights Out

I was happy with this schedule, I thought it gave me enough freedom, as well as enough structure... But knowing myself, I knew that I would give myself excuses and not follow this daily. So I created a set of rules that I called "Karen's Sabbatical Rules!" Here they are:

Karen's Sabbatical Rules

1. Follow schedule. If schedule needs alteration then:
1. Composition time MUST be made up either later in the day OR on Saturday.
2. When failure to move to next task occurs then the next closest task must be followed ASAP. No slander of oneself allowed.
3. Evening free time and screen time taken away when schedule NOT followed for NO GOOD reason.
4. Workouts MUST happen everyday...
5. If 8am Eucharist is missed, then workout MUST happen immediately.
2. No screen time for games, movies, TV, Facebook, radio shows...etc during composition or afternoon academic times.
3. Screen time may occur during lunch-time, clean-up times, evenings and weekends.
4. Enjoy a day-off or a night-out (even very late!) But I must return to schedule ASAP even after a sleep-in.
5. Saturdays are free days - Make plans for this day! Take in festivals, concerts, museums...etc. Schedule NOT to be followed except:
1. If schedule during week was broken and needs making-up.
2. If too many days-off taken.
6. Be gentle with myself. I will fail...the most important thing is to get back on the horse...I am great...And loved.

I was also happy with these sets of rules... I thought it gave me enough to forgive myself for not following the schedule, but trying to create more motivation to follow the schedule. I also created a list of what I want to be doing! Here that is:

What I want to be doing on my sabbatical (Some these were as of July 1st...and so have been completed I have been adding to the list as I go...I'm sure it will continue to change...and this doesn't include my knitting and crocheting projects!):

1. Composing choral piece for the Gent's (DONE - I wrote two)
2. Finish solo Piano piece for Darryl (working on)
3. Finish solo Flute/graphic piece
4. Compose more electronic pieces with recordings of voices
5. Meet with local composers (maybe create a "collective" in Cambridge) (Started!)
6. Figure out a way to make some $ without losing my creative time.
7. Work at getting an article or two published from papers I've given.
8. Make sure all is set for 2014-15 school year at Providence (I think I did this, but I will see as the year begins!)
9. Maybe look for a job? (related to 6...not sure why these are separate items...) but can't be too much, need to keep focussed on sabbatical. (started!)
10. Learn Sibelius (started!)         
11. Practice Piano, take lessons?
12. Network with composers (this is related to 5...again not sure why I made this a separate item?
13. Exercise regularly.
14. Enjoy Cambridge
15. Upload finished pieces to CMC
16. Write Piano Quintet for Agassiz Chamber Music Festival (Due February 2015) 
17. Maybe take German lessons?
18. Play cello with local groups and amateur musicians (already doing...fun!)

The last four items were recently added, as I remembered them...but I find it helpful to have a running list!

So, what have I found after trying to follow this schedule for a month and a half?

I have never followed the entire day's schedule! Not once! It seems impossible that I can't follow it, but six weeks later here I am. Every day I get up with the intention to follow it...but then...I compose for a few hours longer, I'm too tired to do the workout (poor excuse)... I start playing my iPhone games obsessively (this is a real problem that I am continuously working on), I decide to bake a cake... and the list goes one. There are always a few things that I don't do, often two or three! Generally it is the workout and cello practice! Both things that I really want to do regularly, but that I make excuses not to do.

I also realized that I regularly create schedules to follow, and I never follow them!

But this time, I am thinking about this, on a daily basis because I have posted the schedule, rules and goals above my desk:

Even though I have not followed my schedule even once...I am still getting work done. I am still doing at least some of the things each day. I need the schedule to get me going, and I need to keep trying to follow it! But I have been getting things accomplished and that is a good thing.

I know more what is causing me to fail:
1 - iPhone games
2 - Not going to bed early enough (so sleeping past Morning Eucharist)
3 - Not moving on to the next thing, when I should.
All of those things are related to procrastination...of which I am a master!

I've also rediscovered that I work best in the morning, I will alway procrastinate terribly in the afternoon - (between 1-4) and I like to knit or crochet and watch TV in the evenings, so I have a hard time doing anything else in the evening slots!

So I think for now I am feeling ok that I am failing! As long as I continue to work at getting better.

Finale vs Sibelius (The music notation software debate)

It turns out that while a majority of musicians in North America use Finale (I'd say 70-80%), most (if not all) musicians in England use Sibelius. I have yet to meet a composer in England who uses Finale. 

I was very surprised by this. I have become accustomed to the regular debate in composers' circles - the Finale users are sure their program is best and are not going to change, and the Sibelius users are the same! I have stubbornly refused to even consider using anything other than Finale since I started composing seriously in 1997. There are the yearly upgrades (which I only do every second year), which are not cheap and there are often numerous changes that can slow down my productivity... But, I was not going to change programs, the updates were keeping me busy enough.

However, as I continue to engage in the music community here in Cambridge, I am finding that sharing music and files is not as easy from Finale. I can convert the files to PDF for sharing, or to XML (which is a format both programs recognize), but I started to wonder if learning Sibelius may not be a bad thing... and I have some extra time, while I am on Sabbatical...so why not?

So in the middle of composing my piece based on a Bonhoeffer prayer for the Gent's, I downloaded a month-long trial of Sibelius. The first 12 hours were extremely frustrating as I wanted to do a final good copy without learning the program first. I kept trying to do things like I would in Finale...this does not work... But I laboured away and after a few days I had a finished copy of "A Prayer" (that I sent to the Gent's) in Sibelius.

Since then, I have started working through the Tutorials (I should have done this before attempting a good copy of a piece!) So far I have only completed the first tutorial, but I have already been surprised by the program. I will reserve my judgement until I have been through more of the Tutorials (and I may need to do some Tutorials of Finale so I can update my knowledge of my default program!) But if you are interested, the following are screen shots of the programs:

Finale first - This is the piece I a currently working on for piano - I often have multiple documents open at once, one is my sketches, ideas...etc (The top), the bottom is in scroll view.

Finale 2 - This is the first bit of the piece "A Prayer" I wrote for the Gents. I often work in scroll view. The most important tool in Finale is the "Main Tool Palate" (See top right of screen in the above shot and bottom of screen below) and the "Playback Controls." All these can move and I often move them depending on what I am working on, and what part of the screen I want to see...

Sibelius - This is the basic view for Sibelius. The ribbon on the top, is similar to the Main Tool Palate in Finale, but it can't move...and the bottom "Timeline" can. But I do find it somewhat constricting... And if you notice, the basic view in Sibelius is page view... In Finale you can choose your default view...and you can in Sibelius as well, but everything is set-up immediately as page view...there are pros and cons to this...

I've taken a scone picture of Sibelius so you can see some of what they call "Panels." There is now a "Keyboard" at the bottom, and the "Navigator" that shows you where you are in the document. I thought those were really cool, and useful tools...although I do use a small midi keyboard anyways. 

 

I am now at the end of my month-long trial, and will have to decide tomorrow whether to buy Sibelius or not...thankfully there is a price for users who are "Upgrading from other software programs" (probably mostly Finale users), although it will still cost me $200USD. 

I have found out, from the first tutorial, that there are ways to change some of the basic tools in Sibelius to closely match Finale...this is a bit of a plus for me. And I figure it can't be a terrible thing to know and be able to use both Finale and Sibelius...it will just be $$$ to keep them both up-to-date!

Anyways - another fun sabbatical project (I guess I am having fun with this...)

Bookbinding classes

I've decided to experiment with bookbinding as a possible way to finish some of my scores.

I've signed up for a 4 classes with Edel:

http://edel.uk.net/index.cfm

This is what I created at the first one (last Thursday August 7th):

I can't wait for the second class, which is tomorrow... Each week is a different kind of bookbinding. Not sure which one I will use for one of my scores...

Chance meetings in Oxbridge...

Bumped into the composer J.A.C. Redford in Oxford.

Went for Tea with him in Cambridge and had a lovely chat.

Learned about composing for film and television.

Heard his piece, with text by Malcolm Guite, at the closing service of the C.S. Lewis conference at Kings College Chapel. Beautiful piece.

Was humming the "Murder She Wrote" theme for days afterwards (he was the composer for that series!)

http://www.jacredford.com

July 1 - July 16 - Composition 1 - for choir - ATB

Preston and I attended the Gentlemen of St. John's choir dinner, basically that is the men who are in the choir (not the boys). The formal dinner was on Sunday June 29th. It was a really fun evening, and through this I was told that they would be happy to sing one of my pieces, as long as it was for only the men (ATB - Alto, Tenor, Bass). So, not wanting to miss an opportunity like this I wrote a choir piece for the Gents based on a prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Of course Preston was the one who suggested I look at the poems and Prayers of Bonhoeffer. The prayer I used was written while he was in Prison:

Lord Jesus Christ

you were poor and miserable, imprisoned and abandoned as I am.

You know all human need,

you remain with me when no human being stands by me,

you do not forget me and you seek me,

you want me to recognize you and turn back to you.

Lord, I hear your call and follow

Help me!

I finished the piece on July 16th and sent it to them. They will probably work on it sometime in the fall.

Because all of that was in the past, it seems so easy and simple that I wrote a piece in 2 weeks. It was not an easy piece for me to write. It took me a week to decide the text, halfway through I decided I should learn Sibelius (new music program, because that is what everyone here uses instead of Finale) and I wondered if I really was a composer... I found it really hard to write. I finally managed to move forward by composing the outline of the piece on graph paper. Here is the first page:

The graphing helped and I often find graphing a piece is a good way to keep my overall structure and musical goals clear. But I think most of my struggles came because I needed to get back into my composition frame of mind. Thankfully I have a whole year in which I can stay in this space. We'll see how it goes...

On Sabbatical in Cambridge since July 1

Blogs seems to be on the way out. But I've decided that this might be the best way for me to keep track of my progress while I am in Cambridge and on Sabbatical for a year. And if family and friends are interested in what I am doing (including my knitting projects)...then they can follow this way.

Because I officially started my Sabbatical on July 1st 2014, I am going to start with the projects, meetings and other things I have done since that time. So there will be a flurry of posts to catch up.

This will also be a place for my musings about music, sound and composition... so I'm not even sure what that will look or sound like...

We'll see...