A Follow-up Response

I recently sent the scores and parts to three of my bass trombone pieces to bass trombonist Jonathan Warburton.  Jonathan is someone who contacted me back in January asking about my bass trombone pieces.  I sent Jonathan Incursion for bass trombone, Concerto for Bass Trombone and Chamber Orchestra and Obscured Ruminations for bass trombone and chamber orchestra.

Jonathan wrote back to me a couple of days ago telling me he received the scores.  He seems to like my Bass Trombone Concerto.  He has asked me for the parts to this piece.  He also commented that he has almost learned the solo part.

I am excited about this.  Not only do I get my music into someone else's hands, but it sounds like there is a chance that the concerto will be performed again.  It may also lead to an opportunity to expand this piece by adding a couple of movements or the composition of a new piece for Jonathan.

Composing Session: August 14, 2010

Yesterday, I began working on expanding the fourth movement of Trackings No. 2.  I moved to the fourth movement from the second because I need to take a close look at the third movement before I can work on it.  I may need to reconsider some of the techniques I use in that movement.  I felt that my time is better served right now working on the fourth movement as I have a good idea of how to expand and revise this movement.

The primary melodic ideas are composed in 4/4 meter.  However, instead of the typical eighth note groupings of four groups of two, I use the grouping 3+3+2.  This grouping allows for an asymmetrical feel within a symmetrical meter.  Most of what I was able to accomplish on this movement was making editorial notes for what I intend for the piano to do on the original cello and double bass sketch.  In the next day or two I plan on incorporating these edits into the score.

The main thing I worked on yesterday was the diagrammatic sketch for Time in Memoriam.  I began by reviewing my notes for the types of elements I wanted to include within each section of the form.  After adding a few more notes, I began to sketch the shapes and colors for the first two-and-a-half to three minutes of the piece.  Eventually I will go into more details about this type of sketch, but suffice it to say that these shapes and colors will help me to identify which instruments will be playing where and for approximately how long.  When I created this type of sketch for Obscured Ruminations, it gave me a complete picture of how I wanted the piece to unfold.  I thought that it would benefit me to do this type of sketch for this piece.  So far I think it has as I am beginning to get a clear idea of the scope of this piece.

Collecting my thoughts

There are a lot of different ideas running around in my head for Time in Memoriam.  At times these thoughts and ideas become overwhelming because I am unable to write to write some of them down and sometimes I just do not know where to begin.  Instead of jumping in and composing the piece, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to step back and try to get a clear picture of the scope of the piece before zooming in and focussing on the actual music.

On Thursday I decided to approach this piece in a manner similar to that which I used in composing my Master's Thesis, Obscured Ruminations.  First off I considered form.  What type of form do I want to use?  The potential proportions of each section.  After that I thought about the structure of each section of the form.  Do I want to use specific forms within the larger form?

After the issues of form were decided I started to make notes about what types of things I wanted to include in each section of the form.  Mostly, these notes are in general terms, though there are a few specific ideas which I already had in mind.

All of this leads up to my next step, which I will work on a bit today.  I am going to make a diagrammatic sketch of the piece.  This sketch is going to be a graphic representation of the contour, density, texture and color of the piece.  This was something that I did before composing Obscured Ruminations and it really helped me to understand the overall scope of the piece before taking on the sometimes daunting task of composing a large ensemble piece.

So far the outline I have created for Time in Memoriam works for me.  I now have a good idea of the scope of the piece.  As I create the diagrammatic sketch, the piece will come into focus allowing me to be able to understand the concepts of the piece and how it will unfold over time.