Phases of the accompaniment

In the sketching of the accompaniment for Mutability there have been a few phases through which the thematic ideas have gone. The sketch on the left contains examples of such phases.  (Click on image to enlarge)  Example 1 illustrates the basic, almost primitive gesture.  This is a two-beat quintuplet gesture that was to be transformed in many different ways.  I had initially chose the quintuplet gesture because the word "mutability" is a five-syllable word.  As you will see the quintuplet gesture is no longer the base for the accompaniment; however the number five will remain prevalent.

Example 2 shows the second phase of the accompaniment.  Here is the quintuplet gesture is replaced by two sets of triplets.  My intent here was to create a gesture that floats to the top and then tumbles down.  This is the phase in which I did the most experimentation.  Because of my amazing piano skills (please note the sarcasm) I entered this gesture into Finale.  From there I varied it through transposition and interval adjustment in order to try and find the sound I was looking for.  A couple of examples of the variations are included in example 3.

The fourth example includes the current state of the gesture.  After I had found the harmonic language I wanted, I decided to cut the tumbling aspect of the gesture.  I started to think that this last part of the gesture was too final.  It brings the gesture to a point of repose in the middle of the phrase.  This did not allow for the fluidity which I desired.  After settling on this I created two secondary gestures as contrasting ideas.  These are shown in examples 5 and 6.  From there, I assembled these gestures to create the introduction for the song.

All of the gestures in the introduction will be utilized as primary gestures for each stanza.  The "floating" gesture is used with stanza one.  The secondary gesture in example 5 will be used in stanza two.  The one in example 6 will be used in the third stanza, probably along with the "floating" gesture (not sure yet).  The fourth and final stanza will use a combination of all three gestures, possibly in a similar fashion to the introduction.

The Shaping of the Song

I have finally made, in my mind, substantial progress with the song Mutability.  The texture and the vocal setting are finally starting to take shape.  The texture is one thing in particular with which I have been struggling.

When I am uncomfortable composing for a particular medium, in this case voice and piano, I tend to fall back on compositional styles that are easier for me to develop.  This often includes slower devices, such as tempo, harmonic development and overall texture.  My tendency towards these things stems from the type of music I listen to.  My favorite composers include Kaija Saariaho, Gyorgy Ligeti, Tristan Murail and Olivier Messiaen.  These composers have a lot in common in terms of texture, harmonic development and melody.  I do not necessarily draw from specific pieces from these composers, but their output holds a tremendous influence over me.

Falling back on familiar devices is not a bad thing.  However, the piece I am currently working on is a song cycle for alto voice and piano.  Composing a series of songs, each in a similar vein become pedantic, almost boring.  Not only to the listener, but the performers and myself.  I need to challenge and push myself to do different things with the medium.

I have always had a clear concept of the texture for both the vocal setting and the accompaniment for Shelley's text Mutability.  The issue I have been struggling with is realizing that concept.  I want the accompaniment to be fluid, flowing freely.  Almost like waves that outline the harmony and carry the voice.  My concept for the vocal setting is a floating melody that sits on top of the accompaniment, letting the piano drive the piece rhythmically.

I have done a few drafts of both the piano accompaniment and the vocal setting.  It has taken me a few weeks to create the shape and texture the music has become.  While the shaping of this song has been a struggle, it is a vital part of the composition.  Now that the ground work is laid and the outline of the first stanza is complete, the other three stanzas should fall into place relatively quickly.

Listening Journal: October 19-25, 2009

Olivier Messiaen - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (1944) for piano -
   XV. Le baiser de l'enfant Jésus
   XVI. Regard des prophétes, des bergers et des mages
   XVII. Regard du silence
Krzysztof Perderecki - Clarinet Quintet (1993) for clarinet, violin, viola and cello
Kaija Saariaho - Stilleben (1988) for tape
Tristan Murail - Désintégrations (1983) for 17 instruments and tape
Pascal Dusapin - Comoedia (1993) for soprano and 6 instruments
Gyorgy Kurtag - Six Moments Musicaux (2005) for string quartet
Gyorgy Kurtag - Tre pezzi (1979) for violin and piano
Gyorgy Kurtag - Messages (1996) for orchestra
Anton Webern - Quartet, op. 22 (1930) for clarinet, tenor saxophone, violin and piano
Esa-Pekka Salonen - Insomnia (2002) for orchestra
Gyorgy Ligeti - Trio for violin, horn and piano (1982)
Billy Joel - Air (Dublinesque), op. 10 (2001) for piano
Igor Stravinsky - Tango (1953) for 4 clarinets, bass clarinet, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, guitar, 3 violins, viola, cello and double bass
Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maître (1955) for alto voice and 6 instruments
Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940) for clarinet, violin, cello and piano - VII. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du temps

Happy Birthday, Blog!

On October 17th this blog turned one year old.  I have enjoyed creating a journal for my compositions, listening, related events and compositional processes.  In many respects this blog has held me accountable for not only my composing, but my listening activities as well.  It is also fun to look back at some of my previous posts and read about the progress I made during the compositional process.  I would like to thank my family, friends and readers for their support.  I hope you continue to enjoy this blog!

Fall Projects Update

I have been looking at my list of pieces I would like to compose.  I have also been thinking about my next project.  In an earlier post I wrote that I will be doing an orchestration of Playing in the Shadows for the call for scores for the 2010 New Music @ ECU Festival.  The deadline for this call is coming up in a couple of weeks and I realize that I do not have enough time to meet this deadline.  Therefore, I have decided to put this project on hold.

My first priority remains the Dream Cycle.  I will be resuming work on Mutability this week.  On Tuesday, I finished editing the score for I Dream'd in a Dream.  I have decided to include A Clear Midnight as the fifth song (but not necessarily fifth in order) of the cycle.  As I get closer to finishing Mutability I will start thinking about the order of the songs.

I am not sure what my next project will be after I finish Dream Cycle.  I may try to find an outlet for the complete version of Off you go... and work on the rest of that piece.  I am also planning another collaboration with Micheal Vickers.  For this I have been brainstorming ideas for instrumentation, but I have not yet settled on anything.  I am leaning towards something with winds and strings as opposed to a standard quartet or quintet.  I am open to the idea of a "standard" ensemble, but I am not sure of what I want right now.  There is a lot I would like to compose, I just do not know what I would like to do next.

Listening Journal: October 12-18, 2009

Tristan Murail - Serendib (1992) for 22 musicians
Tristan Murail - L'esprit des dunes (1994) for chamber ensemble
Olivier Messiaen - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (1944) for piano - XIV. Regard des anges
Witold Lutoslawski - Grave: Metamorphosis for Cello and Strings (1981)
Kaija Saariaho - Jardin Secret II (1986) for harpsichord and tape

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today, I celebrate my 33rd birthday!  To celebrate I took Monday and today off from work.  I figured I had a couple of holidays owed to me so "why not?"  While it gives me time to rest, it also gives me time to do the thing I love...compose.  I am going to spend some time entering the revisions of I Dream'd in a Dream into Finale and look at my plans for future projects.  Of course tonight I will enjoy a big piece of the birthday cake my wife has made for me.

Overhauling the song

As I continue to look at my song I Dream'd in a Dream something does not seem right to me.  I like the motivic development of the accompaniment and the general outline of the vocal setting.  The aspect I realized that I do not like is the flow of the vocal melody.  The overall shape and contours of the sub-phrases are fine.  There is too much space between these sub-phrases that interrupt the continuity of the vocal setting.

My first approach to fix this issue was to tighten up the melody and delete some of the superfluous measures.  I worked on that a little bit, but I found that in the context of the accompaniment there are not many "extra" measures.  Then I thought of the idea of changing the time signature from 5/4 to 4/4.  This ended up being an easy change as many of the measures ended with half notes.  So, in essence, there were superfluous beats in almost every measure.

This change seems to work for the best.  I did need to drop three measures to tighten up the space between the lines of text.  Also, I have had to change some, but not many, pitches to fit better with the accompaniment.  Since I am not a great piano player, I will need to enter these changes into Finale and listen to the playback to hear for sure if this is the best solution.

Sketch process: I Dream'd in a Dream

When composing the song I Dream'd in a Dream the accompaniment was derived first.  I am not saying that the vocal setting was an after thought.  Rather, I drafted the accompaniment ideas first since they were the more prominent  musical ideas that came to mind.  Then as I was composing the vocal setting, I worked with the accompaniment to mould the two parts into a cohesive unit.

On the left I posted the initial sketch page for this song.  (Click sketch for full-size image)  The top system includes the ideas I toyed with for the introduction/primary motif.  The second system is where I started outlining possibilities for the vocal setting.  The third system is where I sketched the basic accompaniment figures for the second through fourth lines of the text.

It was when I worked on this part of the sketch that I began to see the song come together as a whole.  The text written below the thematic lines does not correlate to any specific rhythms or texture.  I wrote the text under the lines so that I could outline what text will go with what accompaniment.

From that point I worked on composing out the accompaniment, creating the form and structure.  When adding the vocal setting I found that I needed to tighten up the accompaniment making slight changes to the texture so that the two parts can work together, but that is a topic for another entry.

Listening Journal: October 5-11, 2009

György Ligeti - Three Pieces for two Pianos (1976)
Kaija Saariaho - Io (1987) for chamber orchestra, tape and live electronics
Kaija Saariaho - Lichtbogen (1986) for nine musicians and live electronics
Kaija Saariaho - Verblendungen (1984) for orchestra and tape
Tristan Murail - La Barque Mystique (1993) for flute, clarinet. violin, cello and piano
Kaija Saariaho - Petals (1988) for cello
Eric Stokes - Eldey Island (1971) for flute and tape
Tristan Murail - Le Lac (2001) for chamber ensemble
Olivier Messian - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (1944) - XIII. Noël

"I Dream'd in a Dream" sketch completed

This afternoon I completed the sketch for my song, I Dream'd in a Dream.  My intent for this song was to give the accompaniment a simplistic and open quality.  I feel as if I accomplished that.  Tomorrow, I will continue to input the song into Finale.  There are a few measures in which I need to fill out, but the primary accompaniment and the vocal line is finished.  As I edit the score and look at it more closely, I may decide to revise sections.  This is a natural process for me as I always continue to edit and revise my music as I enter it into Finale.

I hope to post some sketches of the song and talk more about the process in the next few days.  Right now I am happy this song is pretty much done.  Now I can refocus my energy on the song Mutability.

Enhancing the texture

This week I have been looking at the accompaniment for I Dream'd in a Dream.  For the most part the draft consisted of parallel octaves in both the left and right hands.  While this creates the simple harmonic language I am striving for, it feels a bit empty, almost too simple.  I have spent quite a bit of time at my keyboard playing the different passages adding different tones trying to find pitches to complement the harmonic language.  I am finding that all it takes is one or two pitches here and there to give the accompaniment that little something extra.

In addition I have taken another look at the melody of the first two lines of the text.  In this case I feel that there is too much space between the phrases.  With a relatively stagnant and repetitive accompaniment the melody needs to flow and move just a little bit quicker.  I have take out some rests and changed some durations to create the consistent flow it needs.

I am happier with the revisions I have made.  My hope is to wrap up the sketch for this song this weekend and return to working on Mutability by next week.

Holy Grail found

For the last six years I have been trying to find a recording of Kaija Saariaho's Io.  This piece is composed for chamber orchestra, tape and live electronics.  Io is a piece I have read about in various sources yet never heard.  A colleague of mine told me about a performance he saw at UC San Diego years back.  This only added to the mystery and legend of Io.

The only recording of this piece I could find is an out of print CD of Saariaho's music entitled Meet the Composer.  I have looked at various music stores, especially ones that specialize in classical music and no one could order it for me.  I have also looked online at various e-tailers and even eBay looking for this CD.  I even search the internet for a bootleg copy of the album to no avail.  This piece and this disc had become my Holy Grail.

That is until last night.  I happened across a website that had an "advanced" mp3 search engine.  So I tried the keywords "Saariaho" and "Io."  Sure enough, it worked!  The search yielded a listing for the meet the composer album.  So I downloaded it.  Now let me say that I do not normally download commercially available CDs without paying.  The only exception I would make is for recordings like this that have been out of print for years.

I finally got the chance to listen to this piece last night.  After years of waiting, I have a copy of the recording.  It was worth the wait.  The piece was better that I could have imagined.  The sound world drew me in right from the beginning and did not let me go.  I am looking forward to hearing it again (and again).

It is my hope that a new recording of this piece is released so that a new wave of people can hear this piece.  Needless to say, I would definitely purchase that recording.

Listening Journal: September 28-October 4, 2009

Stephen Gerber - String Quartet (1973)
Yehuda Yannay - The Hidden Melody (1978) for cello and horn
Iannis Xenakis - Evryali (1973) for piano
Olivier Messiaen - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (1944) for piano
    XI. Première communication de la Vierge
    XII. La Parole toute-puissante

Challenge update

This weekend I challenged myself to compose a song for Dream Cycle.  The text I chose was one I have been considering as an "interlude" song, Walt Whitman's I Dream'd in a Dream.  When finished this song will be the 3rd completed song, and 4th overall as I am currently working on Mutability as well.  I was unable to finish the song this weekend.  However, I did sketch out the entire accompaniment and the first two (of five) lines of text.  I would say that this song is about 60-70% completed.  After I finish the sketch this week, I will need to spend some time revising it.  I feel that there are a couple of measures that could use some tightening up.  Right now I am happy with my progress and I should be done with the song by the end of the week.

A personal challenge

In the past week I have been updating my website with some of the fine details about my compositions.  These details include performance history, movement titles and composition dates.  It is amazing to me how prolific I used to be.  There are some pieces which I composed in about a month or so.  These are not short, easy pieces either.  One such piece is Sleep's Journey for piano.  This is a six-minute piece that took me about six weeks or so to write.  Nowadays it seems as if it would take me six months to compose such a piece.  There are two pieces, Incursion for bass trombone and Not With, but Not Alone for flute, which took me two to three days each to compose.  Again both of these pieces are about six minutes in duration.

So I have been thinking about this and I decided to challenge myself.  I am going to try to compose a song for Dream Cycle this weekend.  This is a lofty goal for me considering that I have been working on this song cycle off and on for almost eight years now.  I decided to use one of the shorter texts that I have been considering.  I am in the process of composing a different song for the cycle, Mutability, but it is too long for me to challenge myself to finish this weekend.  The text is I Dream'd in a Dream by Walt Whitman.  The poem is only five lines, but the imagery and meaning is perfect as an interlude type song for Dream Cycle.

The goal is to compose this song this weekend.  It will be a tough challenge for me as voice and piano are two of the more difficult instruments for which to compose.  In fact I would be happy if I finished the song by the end of the week.

The value of good performers

In a previous post I talked about hiring performers and receiving great performances and recordings.  This got me thinking.  The price you pay for the performers is the cost of good performers.  What is the value of good performers?  Why should I go to the expense of paying a lot of money for someone to perform 8-10 minutes of music?

Well, the simplest answer is to get a good performance and recording.  Okay, I get that, but what does this really mean?  The performance happens once and it is over.  Usually the performance is captured in a recording and you can keep it.  When thinking about it, I realize that it is what you do next that makes the difference.

If you wind up "sitting" on the recording, then it does nothing for you other than add to your portfolio.  You can use these good recordings to help solicit more performances, either of the same work or another work.  Often, performers and conductors are interested in hearing a composer's music.  Providing high-quality recordings will more accurately depict the sense of style and technique the composer utilizes.

Building relationships, through networking and hiring performers can lead to more opportunities.  Performers who have played your music before may be interested in new works.  Also, the performers may recommend your music to other performers and conductors.