Narrowing the Scope

About a week ago I had described a musical idea that stuck in my mind as I was listening to a piece by Webern.  I began sketching this idea and I became attached to it.  Well, as I have been working on this quartet, I have been trying to focus on the scope of this piece.  What is my overall structure?  Will this be a multi-movement or a single-movement piece?  What kind of sound world do I wish to create?  I decided that this will be a single-movement work.  This decision is in large part because many of my recent works have been multi-movement.  I want to challenge myself to write a longer piece in a single movement.

With this decision, I have had to look at the varying sketches I have created.  Some will work in this piece, however some will not.  The sketch mentioned above fits into the latter category.  The idea is solid, but it is not suited to work in the structure and sound world I have created.  Most likely, I will be using this musical idea in my flute, cello and percussion trio, Off you go...  This is a multi-movement work I began in 2003 of which one movement has been completed.  This piece may receive further discussion in a future post as it is a very important piece to me.

The point of this entry is that I have finally narrowed down the scope of this piece.  I have gone back and forth lately on whether this is a single-movement or multi-movement piece.  Since I have now figured out my direction I may go back and review the sketch score and see if revisions may be necessary.