Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

And the black dots keep rolling along�

Sunday, Jun. 27, 2004
9:48 p.m.
Unfortunately for you guys, the white box has been very obliging today, and I am about to fill it up with more of my depraved ranting, brought on by enforced computer use. Believe me, I am not usually this distractable when preparing parts. Blame it on my darling husband, Mr. Canadian Composer, and his extended string techniques. I am part-way through the violas now, and just could not stand it for one moment longer. Here�s one of the problems.

The violist telephoned yesterday all the way from London, England where she makes her home when she is not in one of her other domiciles (Canada or Israel) because she had questions for the composer with regard to certain tempi. You see, she had already received by fax the first 8 pages of her part (there are 12 in total) and felt that it was a little too virtuosic for the tempi marked. Or shall we say that the tempi were too fast for what is required of her on the page? So Hubby compromised with her, saying that she could be flexible, and he changed all the tempo indications (which I had already lovingly copied into all the frigging parts).

Her agent called today to say congratulations on the piece being done, and she said the cheque would be in the mail as soon as she heard that it had been sent off to the orchestra and soloist. I also need from her the Can. Cou. file number so I can bill the Can. Mus. Ctre. for my painstakingly prepared parts. I hope she hasn�t lost it. I do not do this for free!

One exciting thing happened, besides the incredible rain storm that suddenly sprang up, the wind lashing the trees back and forth, and that was suddenly over as quickly as it started. Hubby was in the kitchen preparing his latt� when he called upstairs to Buddy Boy and me that there was a huge racoon in the backyard under the bird feeder, scrounging sunflower seeds out of the grass. He was a beauty, with a big, bushy tail and a thick coat. His back was to us, so we didn�t get a good view of his face. That was a treat. I would have liked to stay longer and watch, but duty called me back to the Quadra.

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