Recontextualization.

Hello, it's been such a long time since I made a post, so I want to write a little bit tonight...

Firstly, I want to talk about the progress that this new "recontextualization" composition has taken. It's been a couple steps to get to where I am now, and there's still more left to be written.

1. Finishing my 3 Vignettes, I had not even considered that there was no time to be burnt out from composition. I felt totally exhausted of ideas; this had been the longest and most focused compositional challenge I'd ever put myself to. Even more so than a band piece. I have a few band pieces, but all are written in a very familiar harmonic language. Then all of sudden, yes Mitchell, you do need to compose another piece before the semester is over.

2. Coming up with a new idea. Starting this new piece was so difficult. I had decided that I wanted to recontextualize metal music, as kind of a comment to the amount of metal that I tend to be surrounded to without paying much attention to it. All I knew from the start was that I wanted power chords and a wind quartet, which isn't necessarily the most helpful prompt. Open fifths. What to do there? Anything. I had played around on the pianos at school trying to find an idea, any idea, that I could develop into a piece, but I was really not happy with anything. A couple classes went by where we discussed the project (some people would be composing for voice and others would be recontextualilzing clichés and genres). I mentioned that everything I came up with was garbage, but the advice I was given was that very few ideas are actually as bad as you think. You just have to run with one because there's not enough time to labour over the piano searching for the "perfect idea."

3. Delving into a genre I was very unfamiliar with was interesting. What I had was an idea, and two chords. I would decide that these would form a kind of introduction that I'd heard in some of the progressive metal that I am slightly familiar with. This would get me as far as the "fast section," where I would let loose. The comments I received in this stage of the game were promising. Some would not see how this was metal. Others would be able to see it coming.

4. Last week I finally reached the point in the composition where I would totally exploit the open fifths. Writing this part of the piece was very fun. In two mega-productive spurts of focus, I churned out about 90 seconds of music which seemed to move away from power chords and then back. This seemed solid to me, and the class would tend to agree. But am I "recontextualizing" or am I "copying?" At this point I'm on the fence; it could go either way. A piece that is based on an interval found in every kind of music can barely be said to be copying just one kind, but where am I going with it? I am thinking that at this point if I am not explicitly told I'm missing the point, then it's best not to worry, but at the end of a semester, who is ever caught not worrying about something?

So I am hoping to finish the piece this week. Either the piece is going to end with a bang or it will come back to the original introductory material. I have yet to decide, and I may never make the decision. Sometimes it's the piece that decides when it's time to finish...

Then I have to rehearse it, that should be fun!