I have begun to write a connecting story line for the Hungry For Heaven song cycle, in the hopes that we can turn this into some sort of stage production. Here are some possible characters:

Ricardo Cantore (baritone) – a middled-aged family man discovering poetry as a way to express his past and future in the light of heaven

Magullo Miento (instrumentalist) – an optimistic yet shy young man who uses music to express God's presence in family and friends

Salie Serdna (tenor) - a mountain climber seeking God at the summit where warmth, oxygen and mobility are in inverse proportion to light, sight and existential awareness.

Falsifar (bass) - a demon who tries to silence the manifestations of Spirit

Impala Vine (soprano) – a single mom who has lived in the dark shadows of circumstance, but now sees God in tangled vines, and follows

Bridget du Liban (alto) – a great grandmother who has been ready to go to her reward in heaven for 30 years and prays every hour

Meus (little girl or boy) – the fool as represented by a chubby little cherub who is always looking for attention and toys. Both comical and tragic at the same time.

Trinity - a golden tabernacle hung from gnarled vines (not sure yet if it will appear to speak and produce music)

The Church Choir (a director, preacher, organist and chorus of 12 to 16 people) – churchgoing people who help Ricardo and Magullo lift songs to heaven

Magullo is a guitarist (acoustic and electric) who has a platform on the left side of the stage from which he plays in half-light throughout the entire work. He speaks eloquently with his music. Ricardo is the lead character who delivers most of the soliloquies. He interacts with the other singers and with the church choir. The church choir is in half-shadow, on the right side of the stage. Magullo represents individual prayer. The choir represents communal prayer.

- Richard Schletty

Letter from David to Richard - 7/18/2008

Hi again Richard. Are you here? It´s been a long time since we don´t talk!!
Yesterday I invited Bridget to take lunch at my home and after that we went to the swiming pool. Before she came with me to Madrid to work and she solve some of her stuff. We had a nice day.

As you know I proposed to one our students to write a play about Hungry for Heaven. He called me yesterday because he is starting to write some sketches but he need more informations or basic lines. He say that is quite difficult to engaged all song in one idea but he can do it. Also he ask me if he could add some funny or comical ideas in the play. I think that is a good idea. What do you think? I´ll give to you his email to talk with him. His name is Juan Antonio (aka "Monty"). He speaks and write perfect english.
Have a nice day. Best grettings,
David

Letter from to Richard to David - 7/18/2008

David:

I'm am happy you were able to spend some time with Bridget.

I look forward to working with Juan Antonio. Please send his e-mail and give him mine. We could also talk using Skype.

I am willing to change the lyrics on some of the songs to create a more connected story. Yes, humor would be a good thing to have. I need to finish the 6th movement. Things are starting to slow down a bit with work, so this weekend would be a good time to get back to HFH. I am sorry it is taking so long, but my ideas about searching for truth, beauty and meaning in life are changing with time. That is a good thing. I really don't want to force the lyrics and melodic lines. They must be gifted to me when the Spirit deems it right.

Yes, the fool as represented by a fat little cherub named Meus -- always looking for attention and toys.

God bless you.

Richard Schletty

As prompted via David by Juan Antonio, my stage treatment co-writer, we are tentatively adding this character to the cast:

Meus – the fool as represented by a chubby little cherub who is always looking for attention and toys. Both comical and tragic at the same time.

Juan (aka "Monty") is a student at a university in Madrid, Spain, where David Gómez is an assistant headmaster. David tells me that Juan is very creative and has a special sense of humor. This humor will be a good ingredient to add to Hungry For Heaven.

- Richard Schletty

Monty,

Nice to meet you. I am so glad you are willing to help develop a stage treatment for Hungry For Heaven. David had told me that you are creative and have a special sense of humor. I like that. It will be nice to have humor in Hungry For Heaven. It cannot be entirely weighty and serious.

Please feel free to suggest drastic changes to lyrics in any of the movements to help form a unified story line. Nothing has to be kept as is. I wrote the lyrics without really having any preconceived notion of what this was to become. It is a search for meaning and joy under the light of Heaven. Please, use total freedom in conceptualizing a performance. It can be from one to two hours in length. If it is to be a symphonic-rock concert, then there is less concern about connective tissue between the movements. If it is to be a symphonic-rock musical or opera, then we need to have a story where the characters interact and come to various conclusions and fates (outcomes) along the way.

Please see what I have written so far about the HFH stage play, opera or concert (we are not yet sure what we are creating). I just added a character named Meus.

http://hungryforheaven.com/hfh_stage.html

As I said, any of this can change. You have total freedom. The opus is the work of the Spirit, as David described to me at the very beginning. We want the song cycle to be an affirmation and praise of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Richard Schletty

André,

All of the Hungry For Heaven raw soundtracks are here (under Project Chronology), along with the vocalized versions (under Finished Movements).

http://www.hungryforheaven.com

Do you have QuickTime Pro? If so, you can download any of the MP3s by using the pull-down menu of the QT player.

If you don't have QT Pro, let me know and I will provide the raw tracks to you. The raw soundtracks are essentially unaltered in the voiced versions, except for gain, equalization and timing adjustments. In one or two movements, I did replace a few percussive elements with better versions.

The stage performance is a "pipe dream." Maybe you should just do one movement as a demo. I would prefer movement 1 or 10 to begin with. I could approach a potential promoter, arts organization or impresario with a single notated score, in an effort to raise funding for completion of the writing and for the actual production.

The most difficult part, I would imagine, would be guitar, synth and percussion transcription. David gets quite elaborate with those sounds. I may be able to ask Yeman al Rawi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDRNDtHk_HI for help with that, as he has a program he uses to transcribe Classical guitar to tablature and conventional notation. Perhaps you two could work together on orchestration. I feel you could be a huge help to Yeman (15 years old) who is struggling with virtual instrumentation. You know how to select and space instruments and assign dynamics and tempo. You have an excellent sense of phrasing and counterpoint.

The tracks are pretty good, but in places momentum is lost or the sound is too sparse to carry the singing. See what you think.

I hope to be able to make this project come true. If so, I will pay you for your transcription work and additions.

Size of orchestra? I don't really know. Use this as your basic layout: http://library.thinkquest.org/22673/orchestra.html

The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra www.msoa.net of Minnesota does a fine job. They play at St. Matthew's Church every year. This year's concert is February 1 http://www.msoa.net/SeasonProgram.html#3A. I will see if I can get a count of instruments. Pretend you are scoring for MSO. From memory, I would say they have about 35 members in the orchestra.

Let's figure this, for now. However, after you listen to David's soundtracks, you may find that several of these instruments are not necessary.

3 first violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 1 contrabass, 1 electric bass, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 tuba, 1 saxophone, 2 clarinets, 1 French horn, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 piano, 1 synth keyboard, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 electric-synth guitar, and 2 percussionists (1-3 timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tubular bells, celesta, tambourine, xylophone, triangle, Chinese gong/tam-tam, rain stick, castanets).

For voice, I want a small chorus of men, women and children (12-18) and 4-6 lead soloists (some of whom step out from the choir). Here is a rough idea of the characters, but I am a long way from creating a libretto!

http://www.hungryforheaven.com/hfh_stage.html

No hurry on this, André. Just something to think about. You have a tremendous talent and I have a real-world project which I think I can sell. Many people have expressed great interest in Hungry For Heaven.

Richard Schletty

From: André van Haren
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:02:20 +0100

I would like to help out with the orchestration Richard, as long I have handles to work with. Do you have recordings that I can use to transcribe from or if you have good ideas of what you would like to hear in the orchestration, so I have something to start with. I only hope I will not make something out of it that doesn't fit your style. Also, what about the size of the orchestra?

André

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Correspondence with André van Haren (www.andrevanharen.com) - 1/20/2009

André,

Perhaps the best approach, initially, is for you to review the orchestral sections of each of the ten movements and create virtual instrument "additions" that add spice or fluidity to the those passages. I can take your separate, discrete MP3 tracks for each movement and mix them into the Logic Express project.

I know there are a few weak spots here and there, but I am just not sure what instruments or percussive effects can be added to blend in and strengthen the music. Also, some instruments sound slightly artificial, so perhaps you can overlay, for example, some of your own software strings or woodwinds or horns or percussion to give it a more real sound, or to bring the sound "forward" (as David has sometimes added too much reverb).

This effort would represent stage one -- to make a compelling CD to be sold at CDBaby.com and iTunes. I plan to re-record much of my lead voice. I also want to add more fullness to the choral sections (it would be nice to add women's voices rather than me sing falsetto -- unless I am going after a male schola sound).

Stage two would be the notation of the music so that it could be performed live by a combination rock band-orchestra. This would come AFTER successful CD sales and some guarantees of funding for writing and production.

I think this puts less pressure on you and helps you ease into the feel of the music as David Gómez envisions it.

Let me know what you think. If you want to do software additions, I can provide the BPM tempo for each movement.

One example of a need to fortify is the last minute or so of the 10th movement. This should be a grand finale with joyous sound and full chorus (shouts of alleluia?), ending in a quiet return to the leitmotiv of the opus.

Richard Schletty

From: André van Haren
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:38:31 +0100
Subject: RE: Hungry For Heaven raw soundtracks

Richard, I see orchestrating all 10 movements as a great challenge. I would love to try it as long I am able to stay in style with what you want. I will dive in it with the first movement to see if I can do something with it. I believe for both of us this isn't an easy thing. If you are able to get it performed in the long run I'm happy already, because that would mean I will hear my orchestration played by a live orchestra! Tomorrow, (it's night again here) I'm going to listen to part one and try to get a grip on it.

André

Letter to William Schrickel (www.msoa.net) - 2/3/2009

William Schrickel,

This is a premature notification of a work in progress, but I thought I would introduce myself and my collaborators who are working on a symphonic rock opera -- a project that someday will hopefully be performed in the Twin Cities and elsewhere.

The project is Hungry For Heaven <http://www.hungryforheaven.com>. The music is by David Gómez Sanz (a native of Segovia, Spain). The lyrics and vocals are by Richard Schletty <http://www.richardschletty.com>. A score (in PDF format) is being prepared with the able assistance of Dutch orchestral composer André van Haren <http://www.andrevanharen.com> who now resides in Sweden.

We are looking for resources and ways to develop and realize this project. I would love to have you review our notated scores and libretto as we produce them. We are looking for grant opportunities and potential benefactors. You can get a real good idea of the songs which comprise our song cycle or opus by going to the site and clicking on the links under the section "Finished Movements." Also, please click on the "Symphonic Rock Opera" tab <http://www.hungryforheaven.com/hfh_stage.html> for a rough of idea of casting and storyline.

I want to send to André samples of your orchestra's performances so that he can begin the daunting task of notating the virtual orchestral sounds which David Gómez has created on his Macintosh computer (using Apple Logic). Will a recording of last Sunday's fabulous Family Concert at St. Matthew's be available for download or purchase? I am particularly interested in snippets from the Rouse, Dvorak, Bernstein and Copland pieces. These will help guide André in his selection of instruments. I am providing a scanned version of the February 1 MSO concert to André so he is familiar with your orchestral layout. Attached: MSO Family Concert_2009-02-01.pdf

A reference who will attest to my artistry and commitment is Fr. Stephen Adrian, pastor at St. Matthew's Parish, whom you know well. I was a cantor and choir member at St. Matthew's Church for 40 years but now cantor and play guitar at St. Mary's Church in downtown St. Paul (Mary Joy Rieder, music director).

Please note that André van Haren has many compositions available for performance (pieces both for orchestra and for voice & piano). I encourage you to spend some time reviewing his samples at his site. If you know of any opportunities for André for commissions or composer residencies in Europe, please feel free to contact him directly. A sample of a recent collaboration I did with André is here:

This World is not Conclusion (text by Emily Dickinson)
Description: http://www.andrevanharen.com/news.htm
MP3: http://www.box.net/shared/fr6t05xbh0

I look forward to your kind reply,

Richard Schletty
Performing Songwriter

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