I am nearly finished Heart - I keep delaying posting because I think - a few more days and I'll have it up, I will post then - but then RL gets in the way and things get postponed again.
But! I am on the last stanza, and anticipating a finish this week. I have really enjoyed doing the second half of this song. Really, if you take out the RL-necessitated delays, this is one of the pieces where 80% of the stalling was caused by 20% of the song (namely, the "rung like a scream through the night" stanza). I am looking forward to getting it finalized. It might not be on par with V2, but I think the music sounds pretty nice for most of it and has some interesting elements in the second half that I am pretty smug about. But a quick question before I bring it to the finish: how do you feel about a slower fade out - yea or nay? After "or take your final beat", I imagine it would fade out over a line or two... or three or four. It is, after all, the final piece of Act 1. Do you have any plans for visuals at that point that would be ruined by too short or too long a "musical tail"?
In unrelated news, I am almost done the rough draft of Dawn.
I have the Epilogue and some appendices to translate, and then a once-over-at-least read through. I expect that
this project has a realistic probability of getting to a presentable shape before the New Year. It's weird that both of Amarie's songs are in their own way fueled by that book - Wind by the initial emotional impression, and Heart now by the impressions left at the tail end of the translation. I am so excited to be able to share Dawn, you cannot imagine. Well no, you most definitely can. But you get the point. Just like the Zong, this seemed massive and impossibly long when it started, and now the finish line is in sight. And it's sort of coming into sight for Zong as well - after this piece, we will have just two more, and then the Final Trio, and then fixing the early ones, and then the "bow" (a potpourri of snippets from each character's theme music?), and then a "bloopers reel" featuring the best of Much Ado About Nargothrond, and then anything else that comes to mind after that. No biggie.
I like your breakdown of the scenes for Epilogue. I agree that the fewer unnamed characters the better, unless it's dictated by fitting together better with other scenes. And you mentioned your vision for Truth before, which I think would look totally epic and very Truthy.
I did not know Matilda had a musical. I should look it up for the fun of it (
Maggots!). Somehow I always heard the principal's name as "Trenchpole" back when I watched the movie, so I've learned something.
EDIT: I actually
almost finished Heart this very weekend. Needs a little volume balancing, so that the last line is not super loud out of the blue, but it's nearly there. Just lacking the fade-out, which I imagine to be similar to the intro in style but getting quieter rather than louder. The bit at the end is an alternative take for "Give me the words / or take your final beat" - I can't decide which one sounds more natural, the first (extra beat) or the second (normal beat, slowdown). Of note, the slowdown can be applied to either or removed from either, but the extra beat I can't decide on, and for now have both versions to ponder. If you have a preference I'll go with that, otherwise I will just keep meditating on it until I get pulled one way or the other.