Ready to move on.

The recital was today!

After a stressful week, I'd like to say congratulations to everyone for some great work. There were actually some really amazing moments in the music I heard today, and I think everyone should be really happy with the work they've done.


After rehearsing my piece, there were some changes that I did have to make and I'd like to talk about them.
First, a section of my second movement was in the bottom octave of a piccolo, which turned out to be much more effective an octave up. I explored some extended technique in the cello, and figured that a tremolo on a muted bridge was a really cold sound that I used and was also very effective. The performers also took some time with the ending of the movement, and that is something I'd like to mark into the score. In the third movement, I discovered that some of the fast passages in the piano were very awkward and not worth the effort for the very tiny effect they have, so I let my pianist simplify them.

After this week, I am ready to move on from this piece. I could spend more and more tweaking and changing things, but at this point, I find myself ready to start something new. The next assignment looks to be like an interesting one. I'm thinking I will be doing the "recontextualizing a cliché" assignment. Even though I'm not entirely sure what this means (I'm sure it will be clarified),it sounds like a fun idea. Imagine a hardcore death metal style executed by a wind quintet... unless I'm misunderstanding the prompt...

What next?

Whenever I've written a multi-movement piece before, it's never occurred that my intended trajectory of the piece was not the best choice. For example I have two movements of this set of character pieces now, and they are the first and third movements.

What do I put in the middle?

I guess the trouble I'm having is I can't go back to my familiar ABA or Slow-Fast-Slow type writing like I intended. I have to now write something that isn't too much like the first movement or too much like the third.

I am just posting random reflections here, but maybe if I chose a character and stuck to it rather than just designated the character after the fact, I would successfully write something that isn't too much like what I already have? Or maybe I could just do what I have been doing, I'm obviously not going to write the same thing twice without realizing it.

Or maybe I should stop complaining and just sit down and write.........

Hey guys.

I figured it's time to write something new.

I just wanted to talk about how my piece has been progressing. Today, in a massive burst of productivity I finished the second movement. I made some controversial decisions. Let me talk about two of them.

• Among my second character piece which I've designated as "delirious," there are a whole bunch of decidedly tonal chords. I have a section where the piano shamelessly repeats a Cmaj and a Emaj chord back and forth for three bars. The reason why I do this is because much of the harmony refers to a polychord that I am in love with. C major on top of E major is a sound that I love. Also, there is a very blatant V-I cadence but both these chords have split thirds. I feel like these are allowed, especially since the semitone relationship between the thirds refer to the semitones in the C/E polychord.
• Second controversial decision. I close the second movement with the exact material from opening of the first. I feel like this excludes the possibility of a third movement, but I feel like it's such an appropriate way to end the movement. I might experiment with having this piece be the third movement. We'll see.

I just wanted to run this by everyone. I might have a more thoughtful entry later, but for now, it's nice to update everyone.