Sorry, but once again, I have to make this really short. My jury portfolio is due precisely a week from today, and I have so much work I have to do to finish it on time. For those who are unfamiliar with juries, it's when you meet with all the faculty in your department, they look at all the work you've done over the past year, and (in my case) they ask why I have so little to present at the jury itself.

Again, I'm so sorry to make this so abrupt, but when it comes to either passing my jury or pontificating in this update, I choose the jury. Additionally, things might be a little more hectic here over the next month, and it's likely updates won't be as concise and happy-go-lucky as they should be, but it's rapidly approaching the end of my semester, and my personal life has been rather tumultuous lately. I ask for forgiveness.

Music Submissions - music@rpgamer.com

This week's audio selections Processional March No. 2 (Final Fantasy I, IV, VI, VII) Matthew Liam Smith This is an expanded version of the Wedding Processional I submitted not long ago, transposed down a semitone from E major to E-flat major. Rather than simple A-B-A-Coda form, this is in rondo form, with the Bridge theme as the main theme of the rondo. (I chose this form because of the similarity between the three character themes - I wanted to prevent the piece from sounding too monotonous.) The episodes are, in this order, Rosa's theme, Aerith's theme, and Celes' theme. The episode featuring Aerith's theme includes a brief quote of one of the bell motifs from Sergey Lyapunov's Transcendental Etude No.3 in B major, "Carillon" (written 1901), while the episode featuring Celes' theme still includes the Anglican hymn "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" as a countersubject, and throughout there are many references to Rachmaninov's "church bells" motif. In the coda, all four Final Fantasy themes appear simultaneously before giving way to the hymn and the Lyapunov quote momentarily; short fragments of the three character themes are then heard under the hymn tune and then under the bell tune and over the Bridge theme in the final bars. I must admit to lacking the necessary technology to orchestrate this piece, but if anyone is interested, let me know! Prologue (Wedding Processional Remix) (Final Fantasy) Patrick Waters While the entire project is relatively far from completion, this is the last section of what will be a nine-minute wedding processional. After having finished this part, I moved on to some school projects, returning to edit some controllers and expand some of the piano parts. The ensemble is the largest I've worked with yet, boasting four of each basic woodwind instrument (with appropriate piccolo, alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon doublings), six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, two tubas, percussion battery, three harps, two pianos, two organs, and strings (three violin, two viola, two 'cello, and two contrabass parts). Incidentally, this is my first attempt at orchestrating music from the Final Fantasy series.   Most Wanted    A wedding march remix (see this update)!