Monday, September 10, 2007
Hi. I've finished the draft for the first act of the Friendly Enemy opera. I have a CD with the music only version (no persons singing vocals) of the first act. As you can see, the draft is almost 50 minutes long and that doesn't include an overture, too much introductions, or interlude musice, so we can assume cuts will have to be made in the final version.I am going to submit 30 minutes worth of the draft to the New York City Opera for a possible reading and a possible cash prize. There is no fee for entering an unfinished opera like this. Director/Producer Herschell is coming to my house tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) and we'll discuss revising Acts 2 3 and I'll get started on that. So basically, everything is right on schedule. There's some great music in Act I. (Actually Act I could be a complete 1 hour musical/opera by itself.) I'm really happy with the way it's turning out so far. Gary A. Edwards (208) 699-0848 The Friendly Enemy Act I CD List Track # Time Total Elapsed Time 01 Narrator Introduction - 3:08 3:08 02 Barbara's Prayer - 3:25 6:33 03 Spindle Party - 3:08 9:41 04 Mike Meets Barbara - 8:35 18:16 05 Romance - 2:36 20:52 06 Preacher's Prayer - 1:34 22:26 07 After Church Courtship - 1:18 23:44 08 Fight - 2:03 25:47 09 Gypsy Polka - :53 26 10 Seven Step Dance - 1:52 27:52 11 Family Discussion - 4:46 32:38 12 Happiness - 2:02 34:40 13 Seven Step Celebration Dance - :50 35:30 14 Tradition - 2:20 37:50 15 Wedding - 5:08 42:58 16 Reception - :54 43:56 17 Wedding Tango - 2:38 46:34 18 Drafted - 2:20 48:54 Opera adaptation copyright © 2007 by Gary A. Edwards, Mike and Barbara Weber. PO Box 3528 Coeur d'Alene ID 83816-2520. Call 208-699-0848 email gedward@roadrunner.com website is www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
We just got back from Europe. We spent a week in Barcelona and a week cruising and touring different cities off the coast of France and Italy. We saw St. Peter's Basilica, The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I walked all over Pompeii and marvelled at how well preserved was this 2,000 year old city. We also visited relatives in Las Vegas for a week. We had a wonderful time and met a lot of wonderful people. Knowing Spanish was a big help in communicating even in France and Italy. My plans for this coming 12 months are: I just wrote a play called The Friendly Enemy. It is about a couple in my church who married just before the man was drafted into the Hungarian Army. They spent 8 years somehow managing to miraculously survive a separation, getting shot, refugee life fleeing the Russian Army, three years in a Soviet Army Prison Camp; their love and faith carried them through all these terrible times. The Songbird Theater says they will produce it as a musical in the summer of 2008 so I am rewriting it as a musical, but the play version is availlable to read and perform now. Also, I just rearranged The Coeur d'Alene Suite for full orchestra. I am in touch with various orchestras to see if they will perform this new arrangement. The piece which depicts the chronological history of North Idaho musically was performed as a string orchestra piece by the CHS string ensemble in May 2005. A local Symphony Director has endorsed a request for a grant to commission a new symphony by me. I have already written much of the first movement and it's shaping up pretty well. The theme for the first movement is a musical treatment of water starting off with a raindrops section which develops into a stream, turns into a river with twists and turns and rapids and evolves into the ocean which can be calm and then suddenly change to billowing stormy crashing waves.. The Kootenai Production Co. is using my music Children of The Night (a rock song) in a new PSA video. The PSA is a warning to follow water safety rules and features jet skiers harassing a grandfather trying to peacefully fish with his two grandchildren off a dock on Lake Coeur d'Alene, and the consequences. The company started shooting on July 13th and have at least one more day of shooting sequences from a helicopter. Once the piece is edited to a 60 second and 30 second video nationwide marketing will start. I just started playing dance music three nights a week with a dance trio called Nightwinds. We are playing Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 7 to 11 pm. in Coeur d'Alene at the Eagles 209 East Sherman. These gentlemen can play anything I throw at them so we are having a great time playing music, which is mostly nostalgic for me. I love to play (and write) music to which people can dance. I am also volunteering three days a week at our homeless Day Center Fresh Start at 416 Coeur d'Alene Ave, resuming after 8/1/07. So, stop by some morning and visit if you can. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours, Gary A. Edwards
Friday, July 20, 2007
On 4/14 The Northwest Sacred Music Chorale under conductor John Lemke performed Peace Be With You. You can go to my website and see and hear it or go directly to the link below to watch it. Please check my website for CD ordering information and spread the word to any church Choir or Choral directors you may know to support my music composition efforts. Thanks. Gary A. Edwards ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 11:25 PM Subject: Peace Be With You video
Hi Gary, Just wanted to let you know that I have your "Peace Be With You" video up on your website now. Here is a direct link: http://www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com/music/Peace_Be_With_You.htm . I was able to take this directly from a dvd that you gave me. So if you have any other files in dvd format, I can convert them for your website. Please let me know if you have any other updates that need to be done. God bless! Elizabeth
On 5/16/07 The Fort Sherman Symphonette under conductor Bob Singleterry performed my new piece The Fort Sherman Suite about A Day In The Life of a Soldier 1885 You can go to my website and see and hear it or go directly to the link below to watch it. Please check my website for CD ordering information and spread the word to any orchestra directors you may know to support my music composition efforts. Thanks. Gary A. Edwards ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 11:25 PM Subject: Peace Be With You video
Hi Gary, Just wanted to let you know that I have your "Peace Be With You" video up on your website now. Here is a direct link: http://www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com/music/Peace_Be_With_You.htm . I was able to take this directly from a dvd that you gave me. So if you have any other files in dvd format, I can convert them for your website. Please let me know if you have any other updates that need to be done. God bless! Elizabeth
On 5/16/07 The Fort Sherman Symphonette under conductor Bob Singleterry performed my new piece The Fort Sherman Suite about A Day In The Life of a Soldier 1885 You can go to my website and see and hear it or go directly to the link below to watch it. Please check my website for CD ordering information and spread the word to any orchestra directors you may know to support my music composition efforts. Thanks. Gary A. Edwards ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 6:17 PM Subject: Fort Sherman Suite
Hi Gary, Here is a direct link to The Fort Sherman Suite. http://www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com/music/Fort_Sherman_Suite.htmThanks, Elizabeth
On 5/21/07 The Coeur d'Alene Youth Symphony under Gerard Mathes premiered my new piece Fanfare and Fantasy for Youth Orchestra. You can go to my website and see and hear it or go directly to the link below to watch it. Please check my website for CD ordering information and spread the word to any school or youth orchestra directors you may know. Gary A. Edwards ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 3:30 PM Subject: your videos
Hi Gary, The Fanfare and Fantasy Video up on the website. Here is a direct link so you can take a look at it. http://www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com/music/FanfareandFantasy.htmAgain, I am so sorry for the long delay. But doing this I have learned more about working on the web. I should get your other two videos up pronto. God bless, Elizabeth PS - Did you find out what the two deposit amounts were from Paypal for Fresh Start?
Friday, May 18, 2007
Fresh Start is a non-profit non-denominational non-partisan program founded by the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Kiwanis Club that provides Day Center services for homeless people. Homeless people come to our center at 418 Coeur d'Alene Ave. for shower, snacks, clothes, laundry, Free Medical Clinic twice a month, soup kitchen every Saturday night, Internet and email access, phone and physical mailing address, information on jobs and housing and just to talk to someone. We have a music session every Saturday morning from 9 to noon. Please sign up as a volunteer to help the homeless. We need Day Center shift workers, board members, fund raisers, grant writers, planners, help on specific projects like the Federal Building Acquisition Committee cleaners, office help, servers for the soup kitchen, handy-persons, drivers, etc. Call 667-9798 or Gary's direct cell number 699-0848. We especially need razors, washclothes, sleeping bags and blankets, back packs, and always need financial contributions, etc. right now. If you can thank of needed programs that aren't available now, please submit your ideas for consideration. Our Day Center is open Mondays through Fridays from 1 to 4 pm and Saturdays 9 am to noon. If we had more volunteers, we could expand our hours. Thanks. Gary A. Edwards LSW 699-0848
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Basses Rule 3:47 was written to motivate and feature the bass section of a string orchestra. The 1st section starts off with a four bar introduction by the violin, viola and cellos. The bass(es) come in with a pickup to the plaintive A theme. After 8 bars the Violins I and I repeat the A melody. The bass(es) then come in again with the B theme. The accompaniment is in classical style but has a driving accented 1 and 2 beat 8th note rhythm while the violas play a pulsating dotted quarter and 8th note rhythm,. The accompaniment is in a style favored by young performers.The 2nd section is a faster Allegro, featuring the violins on a syncopated sixteenth note rhythm, accompanied by a walking 8th note bass pattern. The basses, too, get a chance to play some sixteenth notes, strengthened by the cellos duplicating the final part of the melody dominated by the bass. Section 2 then transforms into a brief four bar fugue theme introduced by the basses, and repeated by the other sections, evolving into the 3rd section featuring a beautiful 3/4 waltz theme introduced by the bass section. The waltz A theme then is taken over by the violas and cellos in a brief two part contrapuntal canon style, followed by a new beautiful waltz B theme featuring the basses. The final section features the basses again in a repeat of the first section only faster. Copyright © 2007 by Gary A. Edwards PO Box 3528 Coeur d’Alene ID 83816-2520 (208) 699-0848 gedward@roadrunner.com www.edwardsmusicpublishing.com
Thursday, March 08, 2007
----- Original Message ----- Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:40 PM Subject: Fw: Gypsy Tango
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 9:57 AM
Gary, This is absolutely beautiful, and evocative as you say, of a romantic Gypsy night! It reminds me of my summer nights at the Samois, France Django Rheinhardt Gypsy music festival, sitting around the campfire with French Gypsy musicians in front of their RV "wagons!" ;) Thank you so much for sharing. I will forward it to a couple of friends including Greg Harbar who has a Houston-based band called The Gypsies (www.oldworldmusic.com). If you go to UTube and search for Gypsy you'll find lots of interesting Gypsy music. Glad you're enjoying the book. Best regards, Mary Ann
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