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I'm working on a competition where the theme is to write something that evokes a beverage. I've narrowed down the instrumentation to be Stravinsky's ensemble for L'histoire du soldat, a small band, but with the addition of piano. The beverage will be coffee, having given up on my sketches for lilac wine... The music will be hopped up, wired and possibly psychotic. If I win I'll post it here.

The number of pieces that I have composed after I got my current software (Sibelius 6), i.e in late 2011, a number which coincides with my opus number (since I had started numbering pieces from that time), currently stands at 267. However, before that I used to compose with another software. I have composed somewhere around 50 pieces with that software. There are also various other pieces from an even earlier time, maybe early 1990s, before I had a computer when I used to write by pen and paper, with the help of a keyboard. To be sure, the latter are very simple pieces, often with no instrument in mind (the most abstract you can get in composition). Even the ones of the pre-2011 period generally fall below the quality of the post-2011, i.e. the time when I started to use the new software; a more professional software that I believe succeeded to revive my compositional activity, giving it a new lease of life such that in a little less that 5 years I have composed 267 numbered pieces. However, this big number should not perhaps be given a lot of significance because most of my pieces do not pass the 1 minute mark. And I agree with KJ's advice which I here quote because he put it in the best possible way: "Everyone seems to go at a pace that suits their abilities and composition habits. I don't think you should worry about trying to churn out music at a tightly regulated pace like a factory ... when you've got an entire lifetime to keep working and perfecting your music." It is not about composing regularly or about the number of pieces that one composes. The numbering, like the opus number just helps for organizational purposes as well as letting the audience know where in one's compositional output a given piece is situated. It also provides a way to distinguish a piece from the other pieces in one's output. However, what matters more than the number of pieces is that one's pieces be the outcome of inspiration. I am not an advocate for composing for the sake of composing. And I think that everyone's threshold of perfection differs. Some, perhaps like KJ, are more concerned with improving and perfecting older pieces. Other's like me, are more concerned with composing new pieces. Neither is right or wrong. It just depends on the composer's temperament and their approach to composition, what they compose for, what they seek out of composition, and what they intend to give/achieve through composition.

Alright y'all! What are you working on this month? Me, working on a cello concerto and a band piece!!!

Procrastinating.

Revising the third movement my Piano Sonata N° 1, Op. 3 (the first two movements are already done and performance-ready). Also took some time to make a couple tweaks in my first two "formal" compositions. And filed the paperwork for copyright of some of my pieces (while planning to do so with the rest in a fairly near future).