The Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble is really, truly done. I finished the fifth movement (written out of order; this is actually movement one) tonight.

I love the “Count Items” feature in Finale. As I wrote way back when I finished Turbine, that very fast piece has 32,889 notes over the course of 8.5 minutes and 303 measures. The Prelude movement of the sax concerto — the movement I finished today — has 11,038 notes in 73 bars, lasting only about 110 seconds. It is short, fast, loud, and shiny. (Sounds like me after a few sugary cocktails and too much butter.)

The score is ugly right now, so I’ll spend tomorrow cleaning it up, fixing the dynamics (they’re entered for MIDI, not real people), adding articulations, and making it look “correct,” matching the formatting of the other movements. I also need to make the wind parts actually playable. (There will be lots of dovetailing in the winds, leaving room for them to, you know, breathe.) If you’re curious to see the completely raw PDF, here it is.

The piece is about 22 minutes long with a 111 page score. As best I can tell, I started it on May 3, so it took exactly four months. It was “due” on September 1, and I can’t believe I’m this punctual. “Turbine” was 6 weeks late, and “Turning” was probably three months late. Granted, I still have to generate the parts for the concerto, and with a 22 minute, 5-movement piece for large wind ensemble, that will easily take a month. Ugh. At least parts are somewhat relaxing; I can just put on Podcasts of “Wait, Wait – Don’t Tell Me” and “Car Talk” (those are both iTunes links to the free Podcasts), relax, and click away.

And just in time! I wanted to have the piece completely finished before I started my first day of school — and that day, my first day on the faculty anywhere, is this Wednesday. That’s when I start teaching composition at Cal State Long Beach. It somehow takes me back to my own days in college… And this completely bizarre picture of me with my undergrad composition teacher (Donald Erb), and my grad school teacher (John Corigliano) — all at the American Music Center‘s annual meeting back in 2003. It’s a most-unflattering picture, which is why I love it. I’m blurry and sunburned, Dr. Erb looks rather confused by the whole thing, and Corigliano appears to be denying that he ever taught me. Good times, good times.

AEJ and I had lunch this afternoon at Pizzeria Mozza, Mario Batali’s (and Nancy Silverton’s and Joseph Bastianich’s) pizza restaurant in Hollywood. We’ve been a few times, and it’s always a treat. We don’t go often, largely because $70 for lunch is a lot to “stomach.” (HA!)

The place is very small, and it’s mobbed, both at lunch and dinner. Partially due to its size and decor, the restaurant feels very much like New York. The biggest difference is that the staff is all friendly — especially the hostess, who kind of oozed California sunshine (in the most charming way).

The only reservation we could get was for 1:45pm. We arrived at 1:20 (we were a little anxious), and we squeezed through the front door, only to wait until about 1:50 to be seated, all the while being subjected to the sights and smells of the pizzas as they passed by. Finally at our table, we were brought these little crunchy breadsticks — quite literally the size of sticks. Super tasty.

We’re having a heat wave here, with temperatures in the upper-90s, so by the time we sat down, I was thirsty, and we both ordered fresh-squeezed lemonades. I think they put a little club soda in them to give ’em a little fizz.

Our appetizer was the chopped salad, which my mom once described as “the best salad I’ve ever had in my whole life.” My life has been a little shorter, so it doesn’t mean as much coming from me, but I might say the same thing. The tomatoes are fresh and juicy, the salami is homemade, the spices are perfect.

It’s so good, it’s deserving of two pictures.

Each pizza is made fresh, so we had a few minutes between courses. Around 2:30, the place quieted down quite a bit. Here you can see some of the nice warm colors they chose. It really is a great room. (It was packed again by 3pm.)

Oh, and here come the pizzas. We went with one very traditional Margherita pizza with homemade mozzarella, tomato, and basil… (just check out that crust!)

… and for our slightly more adventurous pizza, salame gentile, mozzarella, tomato, and fresno chiles. This one was spicy — and the best pizza we’ve had there.

We were offered dessert, but this time, we passed. (We had some great desserts when we ate there for AEJ’s birthday.) I opted for a second lemonade.

The place is mega-yummy. If we win the $330+ million lottery jackpot tomorrow, we’re totally eating there daily. I may even buy the place. Then we can get super fat. It’s going to be awesome.

One of my newest pieces, “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” will be available on CD this weekend in Japan. (The CD also includes an insanely impressive high school band performance of “Redline Tango.”) I received my copies yesterday.

“Kingfishers Catch Fire” is currently unavailable in the US, and the Japanese consortium members have exclusivity until December. I’ll be publicly releasing the audio of the piece sometime after September 15. I’m pretty excited about the piece. So far, US performances are scheduled by a high school at Midwest, by Florida State University, by the UCLA Wind Ensemble, and by the Texas All-State Symphonic Band.

The sky here is usually cloudless, but we had a break from that last night, and as a result, a stunning sunset. I took the camera outside and grabbed a few shots from the front deck.

And here’s one, slightly less processed…

Both are (pretty blatantly) using the HDR technique, not necessarily well, and not intended to be realistically, but they’re pretty. And the water really was that pink.

Back to work! There’s a concerto due on Sunday!