Men arriving

This will need to be brief. It's 1am and I've only just finished work for the day. I have orchestrated one and a half songs today, which feels like a good place to finish. There's not much else to say apart from that I'm totally knackered. We've been moving keys about to suit the singers a little better today. The slightly peculiar thing about writing for an ensemble of women is that, in order to make them sound rich and full, you have to push them to sing both very high and very low. So finding the right keys for songs is both very important - and fairly tricky when your songs cover large ranges.

The men in the cast came into rehearsals for the first time today and it subtly changed the energy in the room which was very interesting to watch. Thrilled to report that two of the cast are first language Welsh speakers, so I was able to enjoy listening to them speaking Welsh to one another.

That's all I can write. My bed awaits. See you tomorrow...