To ensure that you get the most out of posts on this blog, I ran a poll in this post to know a little about how you read music notation and how you would describe yourself. Here are the results:

How comfortable are you with reading traditional staff notation?

• 68% (74 Votes) – Very comfortable
• 18% (20 Votes) – I can with a little effort
• 12% (13 Votes) – I can but it’s very difficult
• 2% (2 Votes) – I can’t read music at all

Total Voters: 109

How would you prefer music to be notated in posts?

• 79% (85 Votes) – Traditional staff notation
• 17% (18 Votes) – Both of the above
• 4% (4 Votes) – Piano roll notation

Total Voters: 107

I would describe myself as a (check all that apply):

• 23% (74 Votes) – Film music enthusiast
• 12% (37 Votes) – Film composer
• 11% (35 Votes) – Vocal / instrumental performer
• 9% (27 Votes) – University / college student
• 8% (25 Votes) – Classical composer
• 7% (22 Votes) – Other
• 6% (20 Votes) – Television composer
• 5% (17 Votes) – Film music collector
• 5% (17 Votes) – Video game composer
• 5% (17 Votes) – University / college professor
• 3% (10 Votes) – High school teacher
• 2% (6 Votes) – Music journalist
• 2% (6 Votes) – Filmmaker
• 2% (5 Votes) – High school student

Total Voters: 120

I must apologize to you as it has been well over a year and a half since my last post here, and some of you have asked whether I would return to the blog and why there has been such a long break. This blog is something I intend to always continue, though I hope to keep posts much more regular from now on. As for the break, a lot has been going on over the last two years.

Back in 2015, I obtained a new position as Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Coming from Canada, there was a tremendous amount of work not just to immigrate but to “plug in” to the new city and get everything set up. I’ve also been adjusting to the position itself, which has many more responsibilities than I had before due to the school’s large graduate program. I also prepared many new courses from scratch and have been producing as much academic research as I can, as one must when on the track towards tenure.

Just before I began this new position, my wife and I had our second child while still in Canada. In fact, I left for Tallahassee two days after he was born to start the new job! As I said, there’s been a lot going on. I did manage to get the six Star Wars posts out after all this craziness had begun, but things got considerably busier after that with the courses I was teaching, the research I was doing, and with finding a new place to live, and I simply could not get the time to devote to the blog.

Now, however, life has settled down just enough for me to return to the blog and, with any luck, keep it going more regularly. First, I must fulfill my promise to write about Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. Hopefully there’s still a new thing or two I can say about it. After that, I would like to go back to Classical Hollywood and visit Max Steiner’s great score for Mildred Pierce.

In short, many thanks to you all for returning here and continuing to support my analyses and writings. May you enjoy what future offerings the site will have!

Warmest regards,

Mark (aka the Film Score Junkie)