My time at Civitella Ranieri was tremendously rewarding. I stayed in Granaio, the old granary, and Civitella supplied me with a piano and sound equipment. I had three main goals: I wanted to deepen my practice of improvisation, master the basics of recording, and compose new music. The first two of these went together: I had a laptop and microphone with me and devoted hours each day to recording my solo clarinet improvisations. These I edited into pieces that I uploaded, day by day, to an album on Bandcamp, which I made available free to the public. The album, “From the Granary,” is at

https://ben-goldberg–bag-production-records.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-granary.

On our visit to the Madonna del Parto in Monterchi, Dana Prescott introduced me to the poetry of Gjertrud Schnackenberg. In the Civitella library I found Gjertrud’s book “Heavenly Questions,” which had such a strong impact on me that I began writing a piece, “Archimedes,” in response. As the piece developed, and I struggled with questions of form and substance, I felt especially fortunate for the time, the space, and the artistic camaraderie accorded me by my residency at Civitella.