Final edits for Flit completed

Yesterday afternoon I completed the final (for now) edits on the score for Flit for flute. After I finished entering the dynamics and expressions I listened to the piece through the basic MIDI playback. There were two sections in particular that I did not like.

One was the transition in the middle of the first section. These measures did not make sense to me, they did not fit. I cut out three of the measures and composed a transition the rhythmically and thematically made sense.

The next area that needed fixing was in the B section. In this case I mostly had to adjust the rhythms of certain measures. The rhythmic motion just seemed to stop.

So now the piece is finished. All that is left to do is send the piece to Greer Ellison and arrange a performance.

Sketch score for Flit is completed

Yesterday afternoon I completed the sketch score for Flit for flute. The piece ended up being just over six and a half minutes in duration. I think I like the way the piece turned out. The form is ternary with the sections of A B A’. There is a slight diversion in the A’ section going back briefly to B. This could be considered a form with in a form.

I am looking forward to entering the score into Finale and then being able to send it off to Greer Ellison. I hope she likes the piece.

First look at Flit

Here is a first look at my flute piece Flit. I realize the image is not the best, but I do plan on scanning the sketch and posting it at some point. This sketch encompasses the first 28 measures, about a minute in duration. Flit is almost complete and I hope to finish it within the next two weeks.

Composing Session: June 12, 2011

For the second time in two days I was able to spend a few hours composing.  During this time I completed the middle section of Flit and pushed through to sketch most of the final section.  My goal for this weekend was to finish the sketch of Flit.  While I did not reach this goal I am happy with the progress.  The underlying goal was to get myself motivated to compose more than I had recently.  I have a clear vision of the remaining section of this piece.  It will not take too long to finish the sketch for this piece.

Working towards my goal

Today I feel like I have accomplished a lot.  I completed the first section and at least two-thirds of the middle section.  As it stands the piece is almost four minutes long.  My goal for this piece is about six to seven minutes, so I am well on my way to the goal.

The one issue I keep thinking about while working on Flit is the number of movements.  There will be three distinct sections in this piece.  I keep wondering if I should make this a three movement piece.  There are two fundamental reasons as to why I am leaning towards keeping Flit as a single movement piece.  The first is because that is what I want.  The other reason is that some of the thematic and rhythmic material of the first section will return.  To me this will tie the piece together making it more logical to keep it as a single movement form.

Composing goal for this weekend.

For this weekend I have set a composing goal for myself.  The goal is to finish the sketch for Flit.  This is a somewhat lofty goal, however it is a reasonable one.  Right now I would say that the flute piece is around thirty to thirty-five percent done.  I do have sketches for a middle section and some ideas for other parts of the piece.  If I were to include these ideas in the previous completion percentage, then this piece would be over fifty percent done.  Conceptually this is not a hard piece to compose.  It just takes time to sit down and write it out.  Regardless of the stage of the piece after this weekend, I do plan on getting a sketch of at least the first section to Greer Ellison by Sunday evening.

Wrapping up the intro

Yesterday, I finished composing the introductory section of Flit.  This section consists of twenty-two measures and sets up the thematic and some of the harmonic language to be used in this flute piece.  I even composed out a transitional bridge of six measures that leads into the next section of the piece.

With just over a minute's worth of music completed I feel as if this piece is coming together nicely.  My goal is to have this piece completed within three weeks so that I can send it to Greer Ellison and give her enough time to learn the piece before the August 13, 2011 concert of the Festival of Contemporary Music.  Otherwise I will need to find a different piece to program soon.

Opening Strong

Yesterday I sat down and composed the first fourteen measures of Flit for flute.  When I started to work on this piece again I really thought about my concept of the piece.  What did I want it to convey?  What is the spirit of the piece?  When I think of the words flit or flitter I think about birds.  In particular hummingbirds and how they would suddenly change direction in flight or stop and hover.  This is similar to the spirit of what I am trying to capture.  I am not trying to create the imagery of hummingbirds, rather essence or lightness of their mannerisms.

With this concept in mind, I took another look at the sketches I had created and arranged fragments in various combinations.  This process focused on the motives that encapsulated the concept I wanted.  The piece starts off with some short figures connected to long notes.  I did not want too many notes at the beginning,  My intent is to build upon the motivic and harmonic material over time.

I am happy with the start of the opening section.  The figuration is a little more thought out and will hopefully lend itself to better development over time.

Composing Session: May 24, 2011

I spent some time on Tuesday trying a different approach to Flit.  While is was my anniversary I found myself with about an hour of free time.  So I decided to work on a couple of things.  The approach I took this time was more lyrical.  There was a flute theme I dropped from Time in Memoriam that I thought I would like to try to expand.  I composed a four measure introduction and then moved into the melody.  The only issue I have with this melody is that I keep hearing it in my head as I had it orchestrated.  I am having a hard time hearing it as a solo melody.

While the lyrical approach was a good way to look at this piece, I feel like it does not capture my intent as an opening.  It is likely that I will use this lyrical material later on.  I do think that this piece will need a slower, more lyrical section.  I have not yet decided if Flit will be a single-movement or a multi-movement piece.  Nevertheless there will be a couple of distinct sections.

Taking a step back

The other day I wrote about my new flute piece titled Flit.  I think I may have put the cart before the horse when I talked about the light and quick nature of the motivic and thematic ideas.  As I am trying to work them out I am finding it more and more difficult to continue and develop these thoughts in a fluid and coherent manner.  I have decided to take a step back and look at this piece from different angles.  I am not necessarily abandoning the light and quick concept.  Rather I do not want to back myself into a corner that is hard for me to get out of.  One option I am considering is to start with some slower, lyrical material building into the light and quick motives.

Beginning a new piece

On Saturday I began work on a new piece.  I am composing this piece for Greer Ellison, a flautist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I met Greer a couple of years ago when I composed Shadows of Dreams for the flute ensemble she conducts at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  The title of the  piece is Flit and will be for solo flute.  I chose this title because of the light and quick nature of some of the motivic and thematic ideas I began to work with.

Starting a new piece is always fun.  There are so many possibilities for the piece.  There are lots of new ideas to try and old ideas to develop in a different way.  My hope is that this piece will come together more easily than Time in Memoriam.  That was a piece that underwent a few formal revisions before growing into its final form.

I am looking forward to getting into this piece.  This is definitely a more intimate piece opposed to the couple of wind ensemble pieces I have composed recently.

Trackings No. 2, movement 5 - score completed

On Wednesday I completed the 5th movement of Trackings No. 2 for cello, double bass and piano.  The title of this movement is Dream.  In this movement I worked with disjunct themes and ideas.  I tied them together with an underlying harmonic progression.

With the completion of the 5th movement this means that all six movements of Trackings No. 2 are complete.  At this time the only thing left to do is to edit the score in its entirety.  All of the movements are in one file, I just need to edit the six movements to make sure the formatting is consistent.

Over the next few weeks I will be shopping the piece around trying to see if there is interest in it.  I am not going to limit my search to cello, double bass and piano performers.  I will check out piano trios and if I need to re-orchestrate the piece then so be it.

Feasibility of Performance

As I have been working on Trackings No. 2 I have been thinking about the ensemble.  This piece is composed for cello, double bass and piano.  This is an uncommon ensemble and I have been wondering is it the right ensemble?  Like all composers my hope is that this piece will receive multiple performances.  With this instrumentation I wonder about that.  The thought of changing the instrumentation has crossed my mind, but to what?

I guess I could re-score it for a piano trio of either violin, cello and piano or clarinet, cello or piano.  Neither of these ensembles really excite me for this piece.  After some deliberation I wonder should I really care?  I mean of course I want this piece to be performed, but the instrumentation is not too off-the-wall.  I figure I will leave it as a cello, double bass and piano piece for now.

I am not ruling out any instrumentation changes.  I am just saying that right now I do not feel it necessary to take the time to make the changes.  However, if a performance opportunity arises for a different instrumentation that would work for this piece, then I will change the instrumentation.

Trackings No. 2, movement 3 - score completed

Today I completed the 3rd movement of Trackings No. 2 for cello, double bass and piano.  As I mentioned in an earlier post I opted to scratch the original sketch in favor of another sketch.  This new sketch came together easily.  I tried a couple of different orchestrations prior to settling on the grouping of cello and piano right hand and double bass with piano left hand.

Now that the 3rd movement is completed all that remains is the 5th movement.  My goal is to complete that movement in the next week or two.  I have already sent the score and MIDI realization of the 3rd movement to Micheal Vickers via email.

Scraping a sketch

Today I sat down to work on the 3rd movement of Trackings No. 2.  This piece is in collaboration with photographer Micheal Vickers.  Originally the sketch for this movement focused a lot on natural harmonics.  I had kept this in because I thought it would make for an interesting and colorful movement.  After spending some time with it today, I realized that it was not worth keeping.  I did not care for the harmonic world I created.

Sure, I could have salvaged some of the material and made it better.  I thought about it, but decided it was not worth my time.  Instead, I decided to bring back the sketch that was going to be the final movement until I decided to end the piece is a different style.

I think this other sketch will allow me to create some good, contrasting material to the movements that will be around it.

Time in Memoriam: parts done and sent

Last weekend I finished editing the parts for Time in Memoriam.  At this point I feel like I am becoming a pro at extracting and editing parts.  Earlier this year I extracted and edited the parts for Night Sky for Adam Noel's concert band.  I still need to finish editing the parts for my Bass Trombone Concerto to send to Jonathan Warburton.

On Sunday night I sent the parts in PDF format via email to Lee Morrison, director of the New World School for the Arts High School Wind Ensemble.  Lee said that they will read the piece sometime this week and he would let me know how it goes.  I am looking forward to hearing feedback about the piece.

A busy month

April 2011 was a very busy compositional month for me.  Which is why I did not post as many entries here and my Listening Journals were short for a couple of weeks.  All-in-all it was a good month.  I finished Time in Memoriam including the editing of the parts.  I set up my next new composition, though I have not decided on the complete instrumentation yet.  I also received a request for a set of parts for my Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra.

In addition to all of that I had to review submissions for the 9th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music.  This is a process that takes up a lot of my time.  However it is something I have enjoyed doing for the last nine years.  The program for this years FCM is set and more details will be made available in a future post.

I look forward to what May will bring.  I hope to stay busy, yet be able to spread out the projects.  It always seems that everything comes to me in bunches.  For once I would like a little breathing room between deadlines.

Time to turn out the parts

About ten days ago I sent Lee Morrison the score for Time in Memoriam via email.  He wrote to me today saying that the piece looks good.  As it turns out the ensemble has a concert on Friday and then they are going to start looking at new music.  Lee has asked me to email him the parts so the wind ensemble can read the piece next week.

This is great news.  So I guess now it is time to turn out the parts so that the New World School for the Arts High School Wind Ensemble can read Time in Memoriam.  Unfortunately this adds a lot to my already busy work load.  I am working on re-extracting parts for my Bass Trombone Concerto to send to bass trombonist Jonathan Warburton.  I am also in the middle of re-orchestrating Off you go... for a possible performance in July.  For this piece I am changing the percussion part to a piano part.  I am going to be busy, but it is all good.

Time in Memoriam score is completed

On Saturday, April 16, 2011 I completed the score for Time in Memoriam.  This wind ensemble piece is composed for Lee Morrison and the New World School for the Arts High School Wind Ensemble.

There were times in the compositional process in which I wondered if this piece would ever be completed. The form and direction changed so many times that this piece hardly resembles the diagrammatic sketch I created when I first started thinking about this piece.

I am excited to have completed this piece.  I am happy with the way it turned out.  I look forward to receiving feedback from Lee.  It is such a relief to finish a piece like this.  The next step is to extract, edit and print the parts.  That is when the whole package will be done.

A reason for revision

Yesterday I was talking to one of my friends and he mentioned that he is looking for music for a concert coming up in July.  The ensemble has an interesting instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. However, I do not have any pieces for that type of ensemble.  He told me that a subset of the ensemble would work as well.  I started thinking about Off you go... for flute, cello and percussion.

Off you go... is one of my favorite pieces that I have composed.  I have been thinking about expanding it into a large scale work for years now.  I have also considered changing the percussion part to a piano part.  This concert opportunity gives me a good excuse to take another look at the piece and change it to a flute, cello and piano composition.

This change is not at all difficult to do as most of the percussion part is for the vibraphone.  I would need to recompose the sections that use suspended cymbal and brake drums.  That should not be hard.  The main priority would be to keep the same or similar rhythmic ideas.  I do have a couple of ideas of what to do in those sections.

The ensemble director would need the score soon to decide if they want to program the piece.  So basically I have until the end of April, in other words this week, to get it done.  I am confident that I can have it done on Saturday to send to my friends so he could pass it along.