In which the artist realizes how long he's been away from his art.
Goodness, it's been a while since I talked about composition.
I completed my first piece for orchestra this past semester. It's also the longest single movement piece I've written (so far). In addition, it was the first piece that I approached from a purely textural and chordal perspective: little to no melody in the whole thing, and what little there is was derived from a non-diatonic source (simply leaps of major thirds alternating with minor seconds; probably going to use it again since it gives a nice illusion of diatonicism.)
I also set two Christmas Carols and accepted a couple of commissions that I have no idea when I will write them. The Christmas Carols are an anthem-style setting of Coventry Carol (which isn't particularly good), and a hymn setting of a short English carol "Hush, all ye sounds of war" that was probably written around the first World War. (If you're interested in hearing it, I can email you the midi file of either one along with a pdf of the music. You can mention it in a comment.)
This semester I'm studying with a wonderful jazz musician by the name of Laurie Altman, and he's wonderful. He's making me eat my artistic veggies: getting me to play jazz piano, at least at a rudimentary level. In addition to the piano playing, I have to set a jazz tune for string quartet, and develop four measures of a sample piece. On the other hand, he's open to letting me study some other aspects of jazz with him, in addition to showing me the basics. I'm really looking forward to this.
Right now I'm working on an unpaid commission for my wife: a few themes for characters in a play. It's more getting back to my roots than some of the other stuff on my plate, so it's a lot of fun, but not without its own challenges: I'm trying to write it for only two instruments, which means there will be solo lines. I really haven't gotten comfortable with solo writing yet, so this is an excellent opportunity.
Oh my. I thought I had more to say, then realized that I don't at the moment. Well, more later I suppose.
I completed my first piece for orchestra this past semester. It's also the longest single movement piece I've written (so far). In addition, it was the first piece that I approached from a purely textural and chordal perspective: little to no melody in the whole thing, and what little there is was derived from a non-diatonic source (simply leaps of major thirds alternating with minor seconds; probably going to use it again since it gives a nice illusion of diatonicism.)
I also set two Christmas Carols and accepted a couple of commissions that I have no idea when I will write them. The Christmas Carols are an anthem-style setting of Coventry Carol (which isn't particularly good), and a hymn setting of a short English carol "Hush, all ye sounds of war" that was probably written around the first World War. (If you're interested in hearing it, I can email you the midi file of either one along with a pdf of the music. You can mention it in a comment.)
This semester I'm studying with a wonderful jazz musician by the name of Laurie Altman, and he's wonderful. He's making me eat my artistic veggies: getting me to play jazz piano, at least at a rudimentary level. In addition to the piano playing, I have to set a jazz tune for string quartet, and develop four measures of a sample piece. On the other hand, he's open to letting me study some other aspects of jazz with him, in addition to showing me the basics. I'm really looking forward to this.
Right now I'm working on an unpaid commission for my wife: a few themes for characters in a play. It's more getting back to my roots than some of the other stuff on my plate, so it's a lot of fun, but not without its own challenges: I'm trying to write it for only two instruments, which means there will be solo lines. I really haven't gotten comfortable with solo writing yet, so this is an excellent opportunity.
Oh my. I thought I had more to say, then realized that I don't at the moment. Well, more later I suppose.