The first movement of the planets

Mars is a wonderful exercise in score reading. My musical children take this sort of thing for granted, but for me, it was an ear and eye-opener. The 5/4 rhythms in the timpani blew me away.

I am working on writing the oratorio I mentioned about 6 weeks ago. 32 sections, 18 drafted. I will wait until I have some critical feedback before saying much more. I haven't written much music before and my 'training' is moot.

What I have noticed with 6 weeks of imagining what can be done within the constraints of the melodic line of the Hebrew, yet setting English words, is that the music is constrained. The work of the accents is subtle. It does not use the full aural scope of musical possibilities. That takes a Gibbons or a Bach, a Beethoven or a Holst. These too stood faithfully in their training in a long tradition.