Category: Compositions

Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)

This started late in the month because of an extended stay in Curacao, but the structure came to me almost immediately. I’ve been wanting to try to bring solo instruments in more prominently. The last study at various points gave the melody to solo violin and viola; here I’ve used the violin throughout as a proper soloist. The intent was to have the contrasting sections be a dialog between soloist and orchestra (like so many concertos), but to think of them not as separate entities but the same. An internal dialogue. It’s more conceptual than actually achieved.

Melancholy statement (soloist)
Chorale (orchestra)
Minimalist perpetuum mobile (soloist)
Prelude and fugue book-ended with reference to chorale (orchestra)
Closing lyric statement (soloist)

For the soloist sections, I would create a general sketch of the melody then insert measures as I orchestrated to either extend a phrase or add a new idea for variety. It’s very much like painting, where rough ideas become more precise as you progress. The orchestration, at least for the soloist sections, has much more color that the previous studies. I’m getting confident with a wider range of instrument combinations. That being said, for the soloist I did not verify that the double- and triple-stops were actually playable or at least comfortably playable. That skill is definitely a work in progress.

I’m continuing to run against limitations in playback, mostly crescendos and decrescendos, so I end up adding over-detailed dynamic markings. And I heard pizzicato and harmonics in certain areas but those are almost completely unavailable with Musescore. I had to settle for staccato and ppp respectively.

(Realization: I remember at the beginning of the year, I was concerned that I would over-rely on explicit repeats and not be able to create sections that are written variations as repeats. I happily have not fallen into that type of laziness.)

Next up is a toccata with percussion added.

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Orchestral Study #6 (space)

Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)

Six months. It feels like a milestone.

I wanted to work through a sonorist piece that emphasized texture over melody. Threnody is the canonical example, but there are many directions you can go by subverting the concept of harmony or rhythm. I couldn’t get close to there and probably never would but the ideal gives you creativity to find your route.

The idea of the opening bright harmonic declaration was there from the start. I don’t think I had an overall structure in mind but rather some germinal ideas, many of which didn’t make it into the final score. Honestly, I’m not sure the final structure holds together because I walked around through so many different themes so inconsistently, but it still feels like a whole. There’s an inconstant consistency.

This is the first time I ran against limitations of the scoring software’s playback not matching the intent of the score. I need to get high quality samples and maybe move on to mixing each part. This is a long way from Study #1.

Much of this grew very naturally and I feel like I could be more expressive in this style. There were several ideas that just-did-not-work, but the immersiveness felt natural. I didn’t go far enough.

The fact that felt more acute this month: with a fixed time frame, it’s difficult to know when you are done, when the piece is done. It makes an artificial constraint on the arc of emotion you’re trying to achieve and may rush any interesting sequences that could be elaborated on. Obvious. But each instance of compromise is different.

Six months?

Next up is uncertain; the other months were not. Previous months I had a task queued up (variations or vivace or lyric) but not now. I’m out of the country for a week, so maybe it’s good to turn off and wait for the next impulse.

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Orchestral Study #5 (variations)

Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)

I say this every time, but this one felt like a failure early in and, except for the last section, still does. It’s because the muddy harmonies and overfull orchestration that I could never get right. It reminds me of a watercolor when you layer too many colors: a grayish, uncertain mess. This one also took the longest to complete because of my unhappiness throughout. Lesson learned?

The goal was a passacaglia-type work, but I think of it now as four variations without a theme. My intent always drifts as the ideas start to reveal themselves. The first section doesn’t have the clarity to come across as a thematic jumping off point, but it does set the harmonic structure for the three sections that follow. Second section: a chatty variation with runs swapped across the instruments. Third: long held notes in the horns while oboe, bassoon, and violas jump around noisily as background radiation. Fourth: the longest and the one that flowed out very naturally. A brash, more harmonically clear and confident statement split in the middle and the ending with a more uncertain theme using solo violin, viola, and cello.

Next up may be a sonorist piece. I’m using a classical orchestra just for simplicity (it’s enough of an effort to learn with just this limited palette) so I’m not sure how well that style will communicate.

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Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)

Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)