This past week at Hilltop has seen Crystal and me both successfully through the dreaded flu, somehow functioning on Advil and Musinex.  Amidst the sniffles, coughs, and sneezes, I got up to the end of the “B” section (in an ABA’ form) in my symphony’s third movement, and beyond to the length of about six and a half minutes out of ten total, which is just one of the four movements that will total over forty minutes.

Author copies of my new book, The Sound of Beauty, came in the mail and have been sent to those who preordered it. Of course it was fun to open the package, and of course our cat Noah had to be right in the middle and on top of it.  Click on the “book” tab above to see details about it and how to order a copy.

We had family over (at arm’s length, due to colds) for a lovely cookout and went to see a local production of the musical The Secret Garden. We mourned a family friend of Crystal’s parents and made arrangements for her to sing at his memorial service in October. He was a pilot, and I am doing a recorded track arrangement for her to use of the little-known but beautiful musical setting of the classic poem “High Flight” that was sung by John Denver.

See you again next time. And this week I leave you with an unpublished demo recording of the song I composed based on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “How Do I Love Thee?” from my musical theater show, Dear Miss Barrett, sung by Crystal Kurek. (See the show link above for more information.)