The Project's Origin

About the Musical -- English, 中文 (Word DOCX)

The Project's Current Status

The Project’s Libretto, Choreography and Music -- English

The Project’s Libretto and Choreography -- English, 中文 （Word DOCX)

A detailed plan ("Prospectus") to create the performance, including budget

Seeking Sponsorship! (Word DOCX)

Chinese translation of the poem (Word DOCX)

All of the music by Don "Orfeo" Rechtman contained herein is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

• The project's current status December, 2024

• The completed portions of Ode: Intimations of Immortality, including orchestrations.

The project's current status

December, 2024 -- Completed!

• 31 December: All orchestration completed;iIt is now performance-ready!!!
• 22 December: completed and published orchestration of verse 10; started work on orchestrating verse 11, the final verse.
• 18 December: completed and published orchestration of verse 9.
• Since August, there's been lots of work but little updating of this page! Verses 1-8 have been orchestrated; I'm currently working on Verses 9-11 and will complete them by the end of the year. I am in conversation with a theatre to get assistance to update the budget page; upon its completion I will explore crowd funding options to help support the realization of producing the fully staged version of this musical drama sometime in 2025.

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I [try to!] maintain a weekly update of the project's status on this page. Here you can follow the progress as the Ode approaches its completion no later than August, 2024 October, 2024. [NOTE: The term "publish" used below refers to posting on this web page.] To see the libretto, print out the music, and listen to the music, go to the Libretto page.

Week of August 18, 2024

• Updating of this site is still in process.
• Packets for promoting and marketing the Ode were updated and prepared.
• I was in Hong Kong on the 11th and 12th as a Judge in the annual International Arts Festival for Children & Youth. Performances ranged from recitations to dances, songs, and choral works. Troupes and families from all parts of China and all walks of life participated.
• I was in Shenzhen's Pingshan district for activities in an ongoing "Drama Carnival." I'll add a link to my performance there as soon as it is available.

Week of August 11, 2024

• Updating of this site is still in process.
• Materials were handed to members of the recent Shenzhen Phantom of the Opera cast; I am hopeful that someone will have an opportunity to look at the submitted materials.
• Another update-free month has passed. While editing has still been ongoing on the updating of the piano/vocal score as well as progress in orchestration, much time was taken away for routine (nothing serious!) medical stuff as well as reorganizing this website.

Week of July 14, 2024

• The completed update of the piano/vocal score of Verse 2 has been published here.
• I am preparing materials to present to members of the current Shenzhen performance of Phantom of the Opera.
• A month has passed without any updates. However, editing has been ongoing on the updating of the piano/vocal score as well as progress in orchestration.

Week of June 9, 2024

• The completed Verse 6 orchestral score, conductor's score and orchestra instrumental parts have been published here.
• The three projects have been reduced to one project at this time, the Wordsworth Ode Musical.
• Editing continues on the updating of the piano/vocal score as well as orchestration.

Week of June 2, 2024

• This website has been updated to include information for the three projects currently under way.
• Editing continues on the updating of the piano/vocal score as well as orchestration.

Week of May 26, 2024

• Once again I'm behind in my updates! (I'm posting this on May 20.) I'm still updating the Ode's original piano/vocal score with corrections from years of review. I was also in three small performances and in meetings regarding teaching musical theatre programs. I have also completed the necessary documents outlining the plan to fundraise to complete the orchestration, as well as bilingual (CN and EN) versions of the documents. Those will be published her after final review and editing, still an ongoing process.

Week of May 5, 2024

• I got rather behind in my updates! (I'm posting this on May 4.) Much of my time has been spent updating the Ode's original piano/vocal score with corrections from years of review. I was also in several small performances and meetings regarding teaching musical theatre programs. I have also completed the necessary documents outlining the plan to fundraise to complete the orchestration, as well as bilingual (CN and EN) versions of the documents. Those will be published her after final review and editing.

Week of April 21, 2024

• Completed and published the orchestra version with AI-created voices of verse 6. This will be used as a model for the complete work.

Week of April 14, 2024

• Published the orchestra version (no voices) of verse 6.
• Work on preparing the vocal/orchestral mockup of verse 6 continues. Thus far I have voices singing the words (sort of) of the text; I still have a bit of a learning curve for the ACE Studio program: get the voices to sound realistic, get the phonetics correct; add vocal dynamics and breathing; and then add in effects such as reverberation and multi-voices for the chorus parts.

Week of April 7, 2024

• On April 2, I discovered and installed ACE Studio, an AI voice generating software package. I am learning the program, and will use it to create more realistic demos of the choral portions of my choral music.
• I just had my birthday celebration, April 1st!
• On March 25, I "discovered" and installed the instrument playback software NotePerformer. I'm revamping my Sibelius MIDI renditions of the music, as their instrument sets are far superior to those that come with Sibelius, and they also rival many of the higher priced orchestral sound sets.
• I've been editing verses 1, 2 and 6 of the Ode to transfer from Finale to Sibelius notation; while the conversion software is good, it is not fool-proof, and several notation effects are inaccurate or even missing. I've also caught several incorrect notations in the original Finale files published in 2002.
• I have the good fortune to work with a Masters student from Michigan, Daniel Kim, who is helping with the orchestration. I can do the orchestrating, but for me it is a long and arduous task; he is an amazing natural at orchestrating! He will share the credit for the orchestrations in the final published and performed work.
• Been busy, and have not kept this status page updated.

Week of March 17, 2024

• The vocal/piano version of Verse 2 has been notated in Sibelius, but is yet to be published. I'm currently going through a book of edits I created several years ago to get the full piano/vocal score updated in order to facilitate the orchestration.

Week of March 10, 2024

• The March 3 live stream focused on resolving Sibelius software's inability to easily accommodate two time signatures in a score. A workaround was determined after the livestream through a discussion with Daniel Kim, who is doing the bulk of the orchestrating work. The baritone solo sings in 6/8 time to a chorus and piano accompaniment in 4/4 time. At first, the most viable solution we could come up with is to create a hidden staff in 4/4 in which the rhythm is accurately notated, and arrange for the visible but silent staff to have a correct rhythm in appearance. On closer inspection, I decided to keep all staves in 4/4 and notate triplets as needed.
• It was wishful thinking that the March 3 live stream would be the second ever tech trouble-free event, but unfortunately, bugs still prevailed! The actual productive live stream time took place between 8:30 and 9:10.

Week of March 3, 2024

• I published the draft orchestration of verse 6, as it includes the complete ballet sequence. The live piano/vocal recording does not include the ballet.
• Because of the Feb. 25 livestream difficulties, I have published draft versions of the orchestration for verse 1 of the Ode, so you can hear what I'm currently working on. Most of the work involves cosmetic adjustments, but there may be some additional tweaks to the orchestration itself.
• The transitional livestream held Feb. 25 lasted only a half hour. The technical bugs I thought I had fixed showed up again about 20 minutes into the livestream, making it impossible to play the music! I'll fix the problems once and for all by the March 3 livestream.
• Due to copyright issues, the composing of the Ugly Duckling is no longer public. Focus has been shifted to orchestrating an already composed work that was performed in 2002, a setting of Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality.

Week of February 25, 2024

• Focus is shifted from working publicly on composing "The Ugly Duckling" to working on orchestrating the existing composition Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality. I'll be completing the orchestration for the first verse and begin on the second verse.

Last modified: 01/18/25