Maybe the dark and the cold, and the often murky weather this time of the year make people think of death more often than otherwise. Whatever the reason: November seems to be a month where many orchestras combine with choires to perform various requiems and masses. One famous piece that is not a requiem but strongly allude to death, is Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, which was the composer’s last major orchestral work and premiered not long before his death in November 6th 1893. It is a piece with strong emotional connotations; permeated by a sense of loss and sorrow, but also with a streak of revenge or triumph that eventually ultimately succumb to loss and sadness, with the halting heart leaving the listener at the end.

Here is, in the back row, the brass section from last Sunday’s concert of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony. From left to right are: Jaan, Per-Arne, Me, Anders, Björn and Erik.

There will also be a Christmas – New Year’s Sale here. From December 1st throughout the 31st there will be 15% off on all arrangements, and 20% off on all compositions. Take the chance to buy some new, exciting, challenging and fun charts for your band – to get a fresh start after the holidays.

Before: Piano wrapped in plastic bags and surrounded by tucked away stuff.

What should have been a simple and brief window renovation, turned out to be the Work-In-Progress from hell. The company doing the renovations took our windows out to do much of the work – such as changing glass, painting and carpentry – at their shop, and we found ourselves having to live with just some poorly fitting tarpaulin umbrellas over the empty windows for more than a month. Because autumn is now setting in here in Sweden, things got cold (the draft!) and damp in the apartment, and since we live by a fairly trafficked street it was also noisy. To keep my electric piano safe, I had to pack it in thoroughly and for more than a month I have been unable to do any serious writing work at home.

After: Piano unpacked, connected to its outlet and played for the first time in over a month. On the stand is the score for Guitar Pastime Suite part 1 “Pick Your Point”. Partly due to this abysmal renovation still not completed.

Today I am finally unpacking my workplace! After tidying things up I plan on a composing spree this weekend.

This year’s summer sale is over, but between 1st and 31st of December, there will be a Christmas-New Year’s Sale.

(Did things finally work out with the renovation? No. We finally got our windows back after a serious delay, but the job was poorly done. This is by no means over…)

Sweden is right now in a severe drought, with large areas not having had rain since early May. Combined with a – for Swedish conditions – heatwave, with about a month of temperatures around and above 30C, or 86F, trees and lawns are now yellow, brown and autumn-like, and in forests around the countryside wildfires are ravaging unprecedently.

In such circumstances, a trombonist has to take shelter in the cool of his basement to get some proper bass trombone practising.

Fortunately, the Summer Sale is unaffected by drought and wildfires! Take the opportunity to buy new, unique Big Band charts at a discount – to keep your band practising during summer recess. 20% off on all compositions, and 15% off on all arrangements.

The Summer Sale this year is from 2018-06-01 throughout 2018-08-31. The discount is 20% off on all compositions, and 15% off on all arrangements.

Take the chance to buy some exciting charts and get a kick start for the band at the first rehearsal after summer break.

I wish you all visiting here a really nice Summer!

From today, Past Masters, the third movement of the suite Guitar Pastime Suite, is available in the web shop. The work on this suite fell severly behind schedule due to much work and the disrupting loss of my computer, but finally the chart is edited and uploaded here.

Also a correction would be in place here. In the post from September 22, I said that the nights are longer than the days from the automnal equinox until December 21, the winter solstice. This is not the case. The correct description is that the nights are longer than the days between the automnal and the vernal equinox, approximately between September 21 and March 20 – whereas the winter solstice marks the end of the nights getting longer, and summer solstice ends the days getting longer. All this on the northern hemisphere.