Hi Adrian,

I have prepared a couple of small scores for performance, many years ago when it all had to be done by hand, including a lot of re-copying. One was for flute, cello and Native American drum, for a wedding on the rim of Canyon de Chelly. As it turned out, since the cellist and I had some time to practice, and the drum didn't show up, the only score that really mattered was the "conductor's score," for a bride's maid who had her guitar in her trunk turned out to be very accomplished and used that score to improvise. Since her guitar seemed so integral, I've been trying for 30 years to remember just what she did and get it written down.

The other was an arrangement of "Simple Gifts," for a cathedral dedication, for soprano, flute and piano. I was very precise in the scoring, so was surprised when I heard the rehearsal tapes how much of themselves the performers put into it and just as surprised that I, for the most part, liked what they did, all generally within the instructions.

My first instrument is the piano--or was; I haven't played in 30 years, at least, except to improvise a bit now and again, with unresponsive fingers. I also had access to a flute, so I learned and played that for years. In fact, I wore it out back in the early 90's. At one point I rented instruments for about a year (Eb horn, trumpet, clarinet). My experience with a violin is limited to getting a decent sound, playing a scale and a few simple tunes, and accomplishing some double stops, which was great fun. I see your point about hands on learning about bowing.

I can find scores from just a few years ago that were annotated to the hilt, but recalling "Simple Gifts" and the soprano it was written for (a coloratura with a huge voice) and her rendition of it in a lovely smooth, almost whispery, tone she is capable of, started me thinking a long time ago. Then, a couple of years ago a college friend and I got in touch after mumble mumble years, and he was in his last year as a conductor. Public Radio broadcast the concerts, so I heard those of his final season and was often struck by departures from what I was used to hearing in most of the works I had heard and knew fairly well, especially his occasionally idiosyncratic tempi. It finally hit me that whatever I write is not going to be played exactly as I'd like. So I have been trying to simplify instructions, while giving a good general idea, and it is a very difficult thing to do. I'm afraid I'm a long way from getting very good at it.

Of course, there are some necessary things. You mention slurs. Essential. You can do them in Composer rather easily, but I'd recommend doing them last and using page view. Sometimes it's hard to remember that a bow is only so long, and singers, wind and brass players with great lung capacity still have to breathe. Strings, I guess, are the most difficult instructions to deal with, if for no other reason than that there are so many, often expressed via a term rather than, or in conjunction with,a symbol.

I wish you success with your undertaking and would love to see the score when finished, perhaps in .pdf format.

The violin concerto is on Zshare. There is a player, but no volume or other controls as there used to be. The link is:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/60304275bf3e1919/

all best,
mgj