OK, folks! Manufacture has been ordered, so....
Here's the OFFICIAL announcement!

Dangerous Liaisons - Complete Original Concept recording
Release Date: 12/13/2011

Pre-release orders may be placed now. Shipment will be made on or before the official release date, in time for the holidays.

And that's a nice thing too, because what do you get your fellow theatre pals, and musical fans, when they've already got everything out there? As you'll see at the website, "BRAND NEW - Your musical-loving friends don't have THIS show yet!" So surprise them with a dramatic wollop they never saw coming!

I'll note also that there is already a Piano/Vocal Selections songbook available as well, including 10 stand-alone numbers from the show, solos and duets for all voice types. It's a beautiful special edition that would also make a great addition to any collection. (A hint to all youz guyz constantly looking for unique audition material.)

As for the recorded cast members, I'll remind you that I am contractually obligated to provide you with a copy of the recording. You'll have the opportunity to collect yours at the cast reunion/listening party, when we'll finally get to hear the whole show all put together! This will be sometime in the early new year, I would presume, after the holidays clear outta here. We'll be working on that next. Anyone able to recommend/provide a suitable venue (probably 35-45 people)?

I know that some cast have moved away, and I'll be attempting to make alternate arrangements with them.

Well, here we are, can you BELIEVE it!?
Next task...  take it to the stage!

Hello all,

Just wanted to put the word out to everyone that I plan to have the CD released to the public before the end of August, 2011. That's just around the corner!

It was originally due out last October, but was postponed as a part of some logistical strategy. That now is cleared, and plans are being made for the production of consumer-ready versions of the show's entire original concept. Initially, the recording will be available exclusively only at www.MelpomeneMusicGroup.com, although distribution will widen later.

This is merely an update. A formal announcement will of course be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.

Thanks to everyone who helped realize this performance!

Malcolm Caluori

Competant orchestration comes with many joys. I simply love the fine details marked in a score that indicate things that people just wouldn't even think about! This is what "Stuff You Never Knew About Music" is all about.

I'm sure you could figure out that the four strings of a violin (or any of the instruments in its family) plays the low notes on the low string (G) and the highest notes on the high string (E), and moves from the lower strings to higher strings as the music gets higher, right? But did you know that sometimes a composer will specifically indicate that a passage of music be played on a particular string? You may have heard of Bach's "Air on the G String" (the violin piece, not a fan blowing a bikini). Why would a composer do this?

Well, firstly, a violinist can play most notes in more than one way, unlike a piano where you can only make middle C sound if you hit the ONE correct key on the keyboard. If for example, a violinist wishes to play the F on the top line of the music staff, it can be played on ANY one of the four strings. The lower strings simply require that the hand move further up the fingerboard in order to make the string short enough to produce the higher note. Simple enough, right? But the question is "why"?

Primarily, there are two reasons. Did you ever think about the fact that since the lower strings are thicker than the higher strings, yes they all sound like a violin, but they each have their own subtle character. Without analyzing them individually here, let it be broadly stated that a thicker, wound chord of catgut (like the lowest string, G) will generally produce a ... fuller ... richer sonority than a thin string (like the highest string, E, which is practically a wire). Makes sense.

But if you recall that playing a particular passage of music on a lower string requires your hand to move up the fingerboard to a higher "position", thereby shortening the string, you will instantly understand that a short string vibrates much faster than an "open" string, and thereby tends to express a much more intense energy in its sound than if you played the very same notes on a higher string but with the hand in a lower position. Get it?

Since there is not usually only one way to play a passage of music on a violin, the performer is generally free to sort through the available options when playing through the music, in order to facilitate the easiest or most effective manner to do the job. But, sometimes the composer will specifically ask for a passage to be played on a particular string, in order to ensure a particular intended result.

Other reasons include the fact that, since the fingers are also used to create vibrato, by wiggling the hand while playing a note, if you play a note on an open string, where the fingers are not used, then you cannot produce vibrato. This dry effect is sometimes also specifically intended, and so a performer will be instructed to play the note without vibrato, or on the open string. But this is also another time that the sheet music might ask for playing on a lower string. If, say, a passage contains alot of E's, or sustains a held E for a while, and the composer does NOT want that dry sound of the open string to interrupt the continuity with the other notes in the passage, but wishes to ensure that a pleasant vibrato may be sounded, then he will be sure to mark the music so that the passage is played elsewhere than on the E string, so that the fingers must always be used. Did you ever think about that? Very clever.

WOW! It's 08/10/10, everyone. How time flies!

My very dear Dangerous Liaisons cast and project followers, the time draws very near, indeed! While I like to send you these updates at every step along the way, the "mixing" step for this recording has lasted so long that you haven't heard much since our ACT I EXPOSITION listening party. (That was fun.) But now, since you are hearing from me again, guess what that means ...

The Mixing is done! True, after the break-in and loss of equipment, hardware, software and the ACT I working data, the newly completed ACT II mix does not quite match the acoustic of what remained to us of the ACT I mix. In fact, it sounds better. It sounds fantastic! I just wish that I still had the working files for ACT I, so that I could put that final polishing on it as well. But we'll live with those differences instead of starting the ACT I mixing work all over from scratch, eh? (For the time being anyway; perhaps one day, I'll do a nice "Remastered Release" of the recording. But for now, LET THE MARKETING BEGIN!)

Now, I'm not talking about the marketing of the recording so much as using the recording to begin the marketing of the show for production. So now that the "Mixing" step is complete, the next step is the "Mastering" of the entire audio stream of the show, into the 3CD set that you've all been waiting for. A new step, and thus a new Public Update. But guess what? ...

The Mastering is done, too!! Due to the nature of the project, a good deal of the work of mastering was completed along with the mixing work. So when the time for mastering actually came, the process went much faster than I had anticipated. Basically all that was left to do for the mastering was to balance the volume from scene to scene, so that they all sounded at the same level, and then chop the whole thing up into CD tracks. Burn and BANG! You got your Masters. All three of 'em!

SOOooo ... The NEXT step: The packaging and insert prototypes have already been developed and in place for some time now. Updating the CD case's back cover contents will take, oh, a few minutes. So now I am working on the larger job of completing the insert booklet. As you recall, this will be where the entire recorded cast will be credited by name. It will also contain Principle Role headshots, the complete libretto, etc.

The thing that makes the task a bit longer is that the libretto cannot simply be cut and pasted, or else the booklet would be WAY too fat. The libretto must be completely reformatted for CD insert presentation. But the libretto IS already written, so it's only the reformatting that needs to be done, and I'm guessing that that will take, maybe, a month at best. The rest of the booklet won't take long to design at all - just a few days. With the packaging in place, and the CD labels designed (also a quick job), all that remains is the duplicating of the packaging and the CDs, and we're off and rolling!

ATTEND THE DANGEROUS LIAISONS EXPO!!

All of this means that we're just about ready for the next get together, to finally hear the whole show! And to get your copies! And to make the formal premier introduction of the musical Dangerous Liaisons to the world! Be thinking about this meeting, and please DO send your suggestions for possible venues. This time there will be a bigger group, assuming that all (still-local) cast members attend, including, perhaps, some industry folks and others.

So, so happy to be finally making this announcement,

Malcolm Caluori

Composer, Project Coordinator

Melpomene Music Group

P.S. If you haven't visited the new website, it's much improved. Though still under construction while other tasks are more pressing, the Dangerous Liaisons sections of the site are pretty complete. And you can listen to clips from the recording. Take a look, sign in (for free) and let me know that you visited!

http://www.melpomenemusicgroup.com/