so close, and yet, so far

Maybe you're wondering what I've been up to in the past month and why I haven't been blogging as much. I've started my new job at Northern Kentucky University. I'm prepping for the orchestration class I'm teaching in a couple days. I'm writing program notes for the inaugural Constella Festival in Cincinnati. And I have to take another qualifying exam, this time in music history. In other words, I have not been composing, which is slowly killing me inside.

I understand why I need to take this exam: I need to prove to those in charge that I'm competent in my knowledge of Western music history before they issue my third sheet of paper. It makes sense.

Fortunately, I've been enjoying studying scores and listening to music that I've shoved aside as a younger undergraduate. Haydn, I get your music now. And every time you insert silence into your London Symphonies, I believe that you did cut off a fellow chorister's pigtail. I respect you, dude.

Alas, I got sidetracked. Did you know that Br…