Alicia's first commission

I was deeply immersed writing my opera today when my daughter Alicia came and said "Daddy, I want to commission you a piano piece for me to play. I want my own piano piece". The commission fee : 1 euro. Well, I certainly cannot reject a commission of this importance. By a very important commissioner. And hopefully without being cut by tax this time.

So, I wrote a very short piece in just 5 bars for her. But then I thought, this could be the beginning of a series of "haiku" for piano. It would be fun to write those sketches, one every day, after finishing my main work, the opera. In fact, those haiku can be used as a material for some bigger pieces, each concentrating on a certain colour. Let's see if this is realistic and I'll have some really tiny "mikrokosmos" for piano, for my dearest Alicia to play.

My vocal score "Tembang Puitik" almost sold out

I couldn't believe it myself. My manager, Chendra Panatan told me that my score of 25 songs for voice(s) and piano "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" (see my entry in February 08) have been sold about 900 exemplars. 1000 ex. were printed for the first time last December. Ok, ok, this is far from the amount sold of Harry Potter or Da Vinci code, but for vocal works by an Indonesian composer this is quite unbelievable. To be honest, I am quite surprised, proud, and thankful to the mostly Indonesian singers who have bought my score. And also very grateful that you don't make photocopies out of it !
So, Chendra is considering making a second printing of another 1000. Will he succeed in selling another 1000 ? We sold that amount (no, no, we sold just under 900) in about 4 months. Yeah, this year I will be celebrating my 40th birthday, and many events are being organized everywhere to celebrate it, so there will be opportunities to sell them. Anyway, I know Chendra works miracles, so I told him to go ahead and boldly do it.

Since the score was released, I had written about 20 more songs, for all kinds of voices. And of course, some excerpts from my opera I am writing now can be arranged for voice(s) and piano. So, I am thinking of including them in the new score to be sold. Anyway, thanx guys, for your appreciation for my music ! May God bless you all singing my songs over the rooftops of the world !