I’ve talked about finding a natural stopping point and conclusion multiple times on this blog and in class, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot as the course comes to a close. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of my life, and especially this semester, in rehearsals for various instrumental ensembles. Rehearsals are an opportunity to develop and refine the music; moments of perfection can be found in rehearsal if only due to pure repetition. Concerts, however, have little room for perfection, because of energy, nerves, human error, and countless other reasons. This is a kind of imperfection I’ve pretty much learned to live with, if only because there’s still half a program left to play or a completely new program to be performed in a couple weeks.

I think it’s partly because of my acceptance of this imperfection that I’ve allowed my perfectionism to run rampant with this project; WordPress’s seemingly endless customization possibilities have also helped. All of these options make it even more difficult to determine when any aspect of the site is finished, as “completed” or “polished.” Currently most of those decisions are about minor details including image placement, font size, and menu order, but sometimes I look at the site and wonder if the larger design features, like the theme, are actually the best out there, and if there’s not better plugins or images than what we’re using. My hesitance to declare the site “complete” extends to the research side of the project, though I’ve resigned myself to what’s on the site already do to the time constraint. There are relevant sources and topics I was barely able to touch on in the site due to lack of time, and conducting interviews about the public liberal has never seemed more important.

To return (sort of) to my original topic, most music has clear and natural endings marked by double barlines that are frequently telegraphed tens of measures in advance by the harmonic structure. Right now, this project has its own double barline approaching in the form of our presentation on Thursday, and I can already hear the crescendo of the V-I cadence. While I have no doubt that the site will be satisfactorily completed by the presentation, there’s a chance I’ll be changing minute, barely visible details until 1:59 on Thursday.

That being said, I’m astonished at how the site has turned out–I never really thought it could be so coherent and professional. This course has taken me farther out of my comfort zone than anything in my academic career, and I’m incredibly grateful.  While the significance of the work this course is doing increases daily, and I hope more students have the opportunity to participate, I need an intermission.

Thanks to anyone who has been following this blog (and actually made it through this post).