The Power of a Good To-Do List
Oops, I forgot to write a blog post for a year and a half. It be like that sometimes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have spent this entire summer working off of one giant to-do list. It has numerous categories:
A general category. This one’s mostly for emails I have been meaning to respond to for multiple months, but also for like, taxes and stuff. I’m not going to lie, this stuff really is a challenge for me. I still need to do my FAFSA from last year.
A music category with multiple sub-categories (to compose, to arrange, to format, to publish), each with numerous pieces and projects underneath.
A health category, made to remind me to do the things that I struggle with thanks to my depression, like taking walks and getting sleep and taking my meds and eating healthy foods and being kind to myself.
A fun category. This one’s self-explanatory, but it includes watching a movie from my childhood, playing my favorite video games and some new ones that I’m curious about, and trying to hang out with both old and new friends!
I can’t say that I’ve accomplished everything on this list, but I don’t think that’s ever been the goal; I think I’m just trying to make the most of my time. I have always felt a bit of a need to be maximizing every moment of my time because anxiety loves to tell me that if I don’t, then I’m a lazy failure—but as I’ve come to understand that, I’ve also grown better at not allowing that to control me. So I think my biggest goal for this summer is continuing to make the most of my time in a healthy way. Rather than letting anxiety be my fuel—one that burns extraordinarily dirty—I am working to use cleaner, healthier fuels to move forward, like respect and compassion and love (both of the “self-” variety and of the variety given to others).
“Harrison”, you say, “what does this mean for your work as a composer? How’s that music category coming along? Not that that’s the only part I care about, it’s just that this is your composition website, after all.” Don’t worry, theoretical asker/reader, I totally get what you mean and I’m so glad you asked! Let’s talk about what’s been going on in that category.
I completed my trumpet sonata, Point of Resonance! This work was commissioned by a consortium of trumpetists (trumpeters?) in central Illinois in honor of Collin Halihan, a brilliant and wonderful man who left this world too soon. Originally, Collin was going to commission me for the sonata and we were in talks about it when he passed; I was so deeply honored to be given the support by his teachers, colleagues, and friends to move forward with writing the piece for him. This is my first sonata—writing it has been a unique and exhilarating challenge, and I am very, very proud of it. You can check it out here!
I am continuing to work on a new piece for wind ensemble entitled Dark Convictions for the Aurora Tapestry Collective’s Let’s Play Consortium. This piece is inspired by RPG games I’ve played growing up, and the struggle of good vs. evil at the core of all of them. Particularly, it’s inspired by the evil organizations omnipresent in the Pokémon series, who often are my favorite characters in the games, and the “evil” music written to represent them. As such, Dark Convictions is “evil music”, written to represent a theoretical evil force prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Check out the link and you can see a preview of my work as well as previews of my colleagues incredible pieces!
I have a slew of works both new and old now distributed by Murphy Music Press: Christmas Night for clarinet octet, Electric City arranged for wind ensemble by my friend Josh Trentadue, Fanfare for Wild Youthful Occasions for wind ensemble, “Hope” is the thing with feathers for trumpet nonet, The Hymn of Ys for wind ensemble, The Paper Man for wind ensemble, Shining as the Sun for flex ensemble, These Radiant Moments for wind ensemble, and What We’ve Been Taught to Do With Death for wind ensemble.
I also have projects that aren’t published yet, but that are coming up in the next few months—I’ve done an absolutely rockin’ wind ensemble arrangement of Christmas Night, I’m working on a symphonic band version of Shining as the Sun, and I’ve done an arrangement of my friend Kevin Day’s string quartet piece Variation V for wind ensemble! All three of these projects will be premiered at TCU over this coming school year!
There are other commissions/projects coming down the line—I have a tuba and piano piece entitled Shadows and Echoes to write for Dr. Andy Rummel, the professor of tuba and euphonium at Illinois State University, and I am pushing hard on a symphonic band work entitled Homage to the Passing Days for the Richardson Community Band (which they have been extraordinarily patient with me about completing, as it has taken me literal years to do. I am still unsure about why this piece has been so hard to write—but, well, that’s part of the journey I’m on, I suppose).
I recently participated in TCU’s Fall 2022 24 Hour Composition Competition, and composed a reed octet work entitled Into a world unknown. Read about the competition and check out the piece here!
No matter how much planning I do, I inevitably end up getting some ideas that are completely unrelated to what I am usually doing that I simply have to sit down and write. I recently experienced the passing of my childhood dog, Zeek, and to work through the grief of losing my long-time friend, I sat down and wrote an elegy in his honor. Music for Man’s Best Friend is scored for two pianists and two percussionists, and I am working on setting up a premiere at TCU this coming Fall semester. I’ve written my first full orchestra work in a few years, entitled Nocturne, which I’ve prepped for a reading session I will get to be a part of with the TCU Symphony Orchestra in September. I also have written my first jazz piece—something I didn’t think I’d ever say. I can’t say much about this one yet, so I hope it will suffice to say for the time being that it is going to be recorded in the coming months by some absolutely incredible musicians led by a friend of mine. I can also tell you that it’s entitled I Had This Crazy Dream Last Night. I can’t wait to share it with y’all! Finally, I just (literally today, as of posting this) completed my first large percussion ensemble work, entitled Cloud Dance, scored for 14 percussionists+piano. This piece is quite different in many ways from a lot of my work, and I had an extraordinary time writing it! All of these works will be available to check out in the coming months!
I also have committed to putting on my second composition recital this Fall! I’m very excited to begin making arrangements for it, and will be sharing more details for it as they are solidified in the coming months!
So, I suppose I’ve been up to a lot! I can’t possibly tell you to go and listen to every single one of these works of music, reader. So unless you really want to do that, what I will instead encourage is that you pick one that sounds interesting and check it out! And if you like it, please let me know! Then, with the rest of your time, I hope you’ll do something good for yourself—something you enjoy, or that you’ve been putting off, or otherwise. Move forward with love and respect for yourself and others as your fuel. And, as always, enjoy the music!
- H