scott blasco, compositeur

I’ve not come across this before.  Interesting, if nothing else:

“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

–article 11 of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed at Tripoli on November 4, 1796–approved by President John Adams and ratified by the Senate in 1797.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.”

–C. S. Lewis, THE WEIGHT OF GLORY

Today I got the most recent scores from my publisher. First is my marimba quartet, Momentia/Minutia, which was premiered last November (though I see it is not yet available from HoneyRock’s website; technicalities, you know)…

And then there’s the chamber version of my Concerto for Marimba and Chamber Orchestra, arranged for marimba solo, two pianos, and three percussionists.

These are added to my Marimba Fantasy, which was completed last year, and should be joined soon by the full version of the concerto and by Psalm 13 for Two Sopranos and Two Percussionists.