Still playing hooky

We're packing up for our move, and I won't have any free time until the middle of November. Composing? Well, it's just one of those things that are getting pushed aside. I'm keeping my manuscript with me so I can write, after the house is emptied of our belongings. I may just orchestrate the rest of what is already written until I have something useful in my head.

Playing Hooky

I've just spent most of the last few days in Amsterdam. I thought about taking my concerto with me, but I decided against it. I wouldn't have touched it anyway. I was there for JD's conference, and haven't been there in about 10 years, so I wanted to have a wander. I might put some pics up on Facebook if I get inspired.

Now I'm home, I don't feel like doing anything substantial. I didn't sleep very well while away, and we rose very early for our flight this morning (4 am BST).

I need to get back to it sooner rather than later, but I've had a fair amount of work come in this week (including an arrangement), so we'll see what happens.

Testing things out.

I've written half of the first piano soliloquy and dumped it into Finale to try it out. Although it isn't the final program I'll use to set it, I did key most of the original version of Chaos into it, so I'm using it to make the adaptation, and expand it to a concerto.

I pretty much like what is there, although I'll need to flesh out more of the piano part. The first section will need some work on the strings, too.

This section is complicated to set, so I probably shouldn't waste too much time on it. I won't be able to get much of a good representation of the overall sound either.

At least it is still moving.

Finally, some composing time

The concerto is now three pages longer. I was able to use my full composing hour yesterday, plus about twenty minutes from the previous day.

I also had a revelation during my donut sleep last night. When I started Chaos, it was programmatic, i.e. based of the beginning of Paradise Lost - Lucifer's fall. Somehow, when I restarted it, I had lost track of that, and was composing "absolute" music. Now my head is back in gear, and the next section begins Lucifer's monologue. He's fallen and is now contemplating what to do next (in the filthy stench of Hell) surrounded by his legion of fallen angels.

Lyrical piano solo with a few orchestral interjections. This will use the progression I devised for the original improvisation. I may also include some improvisation here.

Never enough time

I try to set aside specific times of the day to compose and write. An hour for writing seems to be almost enough, but for composing, I find that my work day has a habit of creeping into that time.

Yesterday, I was left with only a half hour, and that just isn't enough time to get into the groove. Yes, I finished page 17, but I still don't have my head together for this free solo section. My original plan was to have it mostly improvised, but this early in the piece, I've decided I need some introspective, written music. When will the improvisation come? I don't know yet.

New sets

Now I have committed myself to finishing Chaos as a piano concerto, I had to go back and re-classify my sets. That is, my Chaos sets. I hadn't gone quite as deep with them as the original concerto sets, and these sets are 5+7, meaning they are harder to classify.

As before, I had to use overlap notes, or in this case a single note. This is important because the closing section uses the overlap, as I switch to six-note sets.

I: D F F# A C
V: Eb E G G# A# B C#

As I hinted before, I'm going to insert the progression from the improvisation section that I sketched before, although I'm going to write out more of a soloistic interlude. There will be some improvisation, but not as much. After that, it will be back to the free Chaos material and finish with another toccata-like section. As I mentioned before, this is a more difficult section metrically, so I may have to simplify it to accommodate the orchestra.

At least I'm rolling again.

Chaos and order

I now have a fully-scored 4 minutes of a piano concerto. I spent yesterday afternoon re-scoring Chaos, and while it might not be a conventional concerto, the pianist has a lot to do, playing almost constantly, but I still need to move things around a bit. The 16th-notes are relentless, and there is very little in the left hand. When Chaos was still a band piece, I was worried that the piano had too much to do. I'm not worried any more.

The midi sounds good, although I don't think everything is audible. I still need to tidy up the strings, but I'll wait until I've written the next section. That will be new material leading back to the free stuff of the middle section of the band piece.

There is some difficulty there, but I don't think it is too difficult. The weakest section of this orchestra is the strings, and at the moment they aren't doing too much.

I'm feeling much better about it now.

Chaos theory

The band piece. It's called Chaos. If I remember correctly, it is about 16-20 minutes long. Of course there would be some re-scoring to do, but I listened to the midi of the outer sections, and I think it has a lot of what I wanted to do with the piano concerto in it.

It has a free section in the middle, it has a tarantella section/movement at the end. It won't have the Parsifal quotation, but I can live without that. I think I would also still like to use the improvisation section from my concerto sketches, however, I would have to use the Chaos pitch sets, although I can use the same progression, since my set construction is similar.

I know this seems like a cop-out, but I was getting nowhere with what I was doing before.

What I worry about most is the difficulty of the orchestral part. I may have to water it down, and I'll certainly have to rebar sections.

So what is left to do on it?

1. Rescore for orchestra, expanding the piano part.
2. Incorporate the improvisation section into the middle section.
3. Write the ending.
4. Decide whether I want to add an introductory section. It starts with a bang right now. Based on the opening of Paradise Lost, it probably should, but I might want to expand the opening section in that case.

New beginnings

I started over again last weekend, but I think this isn't the one either.

In case you are wondering, I have two fall-back positions. I have always wanted to orchestrate Solomon's Seal as a piano concerto, and that is one option. I also have 2/3rd of a band piece that could easily be reworked as a piano concerto. The piano has a prominent role already, so it would be a matter of expanding that a bit and removing the saxophones and adding strings. I'm going to have another look at it. That would require the least work.

There is another option. I have the beginning of another piano concerto that was supposed to be for a small orchestra. There is less of it, but that could be expanded, or even incorporated into the existing plan for the current concerto. However, the pitch content is different.

A few notes?

I'm getting very discouraged right now. I need time and I don't have it. I'm too busy at work, and about about to getting commissioned to do another arrangement. That is satisfying, and it happens during my 9-6 work day. Due October.

In the meantime I'm sinking on the concerto. I'm having second thoughts about the beginning. It's too haphazard. I fiddled around in Sibelius for a while and came up with a bunch of notes. That doesn't take craft. I need to be more careful, and I need inspiration.

More procrastination

Why is it that whenever I finally get a good start on something I get ideas for something else? I never used to need deadlines, but this piece is starting to make me think that I will only really get down and dirty on it when time gets short. Maybe it is time to contact Maya about it for some inspiration.

Today's distraction: a new story (it always happens when I'm supposed to be composing)

Ongoing distraction: publishing the violin concerto, piano reduction, and then my sax music

Other distracting ideas: I'm thinking of arranging From Her Husband's Hand for cello and a sinfonietta-size orchestra. The orchestra is already small (2222/2200/2perc/str), but there seems to be a lot of market for the one-on-a-part variety, and that would suit accompanying a cello better as well. The alto sax original probably won't need much alteration, but I might try to make this more cello-ish, and that might require some thought.

Sometimes you've just got to write a few notes down

I had a radical rethink of the beginning of the concerto over the past few days. I had originally intended to start with a short introduction of 6 notes in the lower strings, and then pow! A woodwind flourish, and a piano statement.

After the dream, it became a pastoral string counterpoint, before the interruption. I had something entirely different in my head, though. I started writing the two melodies, and then it blew up into an atonal canon, building with the help of a retrograde cantus firmus in the bass to a huge climax at the piano's first entrance. I say atonal, but it centres on D (major!), but I don't think you would ever hear it. It is quite dissonant with full statements of the row, technically in a linear progression of I V V/VI VI V/II II V I. It's so blurred by the canon that you won't hear it. In the last bar of the accumulation it breaks the shackles of the canon as well as the rows, with a linear scale form of I, and leads to a pure dominant sonority, and a "motto" figure stated by the piano, harp and a few woodwinds.

The jury is still out, but I may have some interjections over the opening string texture (muted brass/woodwinds). Initially, it was going to be the piano, but I'm now thinking that would be out of place.

Is 2'13" too long to wait for the soloist? Perhaps. It was fine in a classical concerto, but it may be too much here. I'm going to have to think about it.

Next is the solo introduction. It probably won't be completely solo, but I need to balance that long string texture with something of equal weight, and establish my tonal boundaries.

More soon, I hope.

Stagnation

I spent some time on the second movement yesterday. I typed my progression into Sibelius and listened to it, just a series of ascending scales. It works - of course, it should, but it didn't send me running to a piece of manuscript paper to write down the movement in one big belch.

Instead, I came to the conclusion that I'm a beginning-to-end writer. The only times that I haven't written pieces in order, I haven't been happy with the result. No Free Lunch is better in its original 8 min torso, than it is in the commissioned five minute distillation. It just all seems in the wrong order. Inner Sanctum is a distillation with a difference. Like Stimmen, it appears in the same order in which it was composed. Okay, I didn't use everything in the final version, and it isn't what I originally planned, but both pieces work. Likewise, Remembering the Night Sky will never be as good as the Night Vision sketches.

You know what that means. It's back to the beginning. Of course, all my source material is still useful, but I can't write the second movement until I have a skeleton of the first. In any case, the second movement is really an interlude, and the other piece that I wrote the interludes first, that was all I wrote.

Still catching up

I had a strange dream last night. It was a dream of a dream, in fact. I was at a university where a rehearsal was taking place, possibly York (but different). I dreamt that I dreamt about revisions to my first symphony. Although at the end of the dream, I realised it was actually my second symphony. I could hear it very clearly. I was revising it as I was typesetting it (the original is a fair-copy ms).

When I awoke, I realised it was neither. I was dreaming a new piece. I remember hearing it clearly in my head. Unfortunately, it wasn't a piano concerto, but I might be able to incorporate the ideas into it. A slow section of widely spaced string harmonies (open 5th & octave), two lines of which overlapped. The first movement had a series of interrupting chords that in the revision were preceded by glissandi or runs up to them in the winds.

I'll have to think about it.

Back in action

I have now slept in my own bed four nights in a row, but I've still been busy. I have been away visiting family in the US followed by a business trip to Copenhagen, with frustratingly little time to compose or write. After that I spent a few days at the York Festival of Writing, which I'll tell you about in my writing blog later.

The trip to Copenhagen was highlighted by lunch with Per Nørgård, whom I haven't seen for a few years. The performance of my arrangement of his Bach to the Future had been postponed due to schedule conflict, but we sat down to discuss it before the rearranged performance next year. It was nice to learn that he had no changes, and that he was completely happy with my arrangement. We also discussed a future arrangement (which shall remain confidential until it has been commissioned). Also, my sinfonietta arrangement of Helle Nacht has been recorded and should be released sometime this year.

Now that I'm back, I need to catch up on some work, and get down to composing this piano concerto, which I discussed briefly with Per, specifically the amount of improvisation in the second movement. I'm coming to the conclusion that I may have to write a suggested version, if I ever want it to be performed. I also need to get down to some writing.

I've sent out a few copies of A Point of Amber Light, and Per suggested I contact Danish radio. My next publishing project will be the violin and piano version, before I settle down and publish my saxophone music, which has a greater chance of being performed.

A Point of Amber Light now available on Amazon.com

My violin concerto, A Point of Amber Light, is now available on Amazon.com.

If you are interested in purchasing it from the Createspace site, I'm happy to provide a discount code to friends for a significant reduction in price. Just send me an email.

Performance materials available separately. I'm happy to send the solo violin part out in pdf form to any violinist interested in performing it. The version with piano accompaniment will be my next publication, hopefully.

UK customers can find it on Amazon.co.uk, but it is listed as out of stock. For now buy it from Amazon.com or Createspace.

Solomon's Seal now available at a lower price

They have cut prices at my supplier, so I decided to pass the savings on. You can also purchase it as a pdf to save 44% and print it yourself. Being a mobile form piece, that means you can arrange the pieces in the order you wish to perform them.



I'm still planning on posting an excerpt from An Angel's Kiss, but I've had a pile of work come in, so I'm rather busy right now.

Update on the concerto: I've sketched a chord progression for the second movement. The piano will improvise on a different progression over the top of it.

A Point of Amber Light now available for purchase.

My violin concerto, A Point of Amber Light, is now available on Createspace.

If you are interested in purchasing it, I'm happy to provide a discount code to friends for a significant reduction in price. Just send me an email.

It should appear on Amazon.com in 5-7 days.

Performance materials available separately. I'm happy to send the solo violin part out in pdf form to any violinist interested in performing it. The version with piano accompaniment will be my next publication, hopefully.

Theory 101.1

OK, I lied. Today I devised the tonal relationships of the sets from the inversion of the row.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly rather, the set relationships turned out to be the same. I've never used the tonality of the inverted row before, so I expected the relationships to be inverted as well. I'm not sure I'll use the pivot tones with the inverted set, since they just extend the chromatic.

This is the primary material for the second movement, so I'm ready to begin sketching harmonic progressions for it. Once I have those, I'll start devising the textures. Remember, the movement will comprise a series of aleatoric textures over which one or more instruments will solo, and the piano will improvise over the top using a progression that may or may not match that of the instruments below.

OK, next time, I WILL post an excerpt from the one of the source stories.

Theory 101

I'm going to have to explain my rationale at some point, so it might as well be today, since I screwed up the labeling my sets a couple of days ago. This is the hard stuff.

After looking more closely at my sets, I discovered two more sets that overlap by 4 pitches. To classify them I had to resort to my pivot pitches. One of those sets shared an additional pivot pitch. Two of the sets that shared 3 main pitches contained both pivot pitches.

So I've got:

I is O0a
V is O0b
O5b shares 4 +1
O11b shares 3 +2
O1b shares 3 +2
O6b shares 4
O7b shares 4
the rest except O3b share 3 +1
O3b shares 3

My classification system mimmicks traditional tonality using substitutions (like jazz). And my substitutions are classed by how many notes they share with the tonic.

I shares all
V7 shares none (my dominant complex is really the vii, not V)
VI7 shares 3
III7 shares 2
IV7 shares 2
II7 shares 1

Using that hierarchy my sets are classed as:

Tonic
I O0a (+O6a as V/IV)

Dominant
V O0b

Subdominant
IV O6b
II O7b (+O5a as V/V)

Pre-subdominant
VI O5b (+O7a as V/II)
III O11b, 01b

The complement (a) sets of the above become V of x. Choosing between IV and II was arbitrary and may be adjusted when I start comparing the secondary dominant sets. I've discarded all the 3 and 3+1 sets, since they are all the grey in-between harmonies. They won't show much in the way of harmonic progression.

During the main tonal centre parts of the piece, these are probably the only sets I will use. That will probably be the first and third movement. Generally, I'll use them in "functional" harmonic progressions. I've used this method before, and it really does create harmonic motion.

For the middle movement, I may invert the row and re-classify. I haven't decided yet.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Tomorrow I may post an excerpt from the story this is based on.

More distractions

Yesterday, I was struggling against a work deadline and went out in the evening, so no composing. I'm still thinking of the pivot tones between my sets, and have decided that should work.

But ...

Instead of composing today, I put my publisher hat on. My set of short piano pieces, Solomon's Seal, is now published on Lulu.com, either in download form (£4.95) or in paper form (£8.95). I'm going to try to get permission to post a recording of it on my website, but here is the link for the sale copy:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/solomons-seal/14858450


I'm considering publishing the violin and piano version of A Point of Amber Light next, but there isn't a facility for publishing the violin part. I'll probably make that available through a free link to a pdf. I'm not sure yet.

Crash, Bang

Warning, warning. That does not compute!

I thought immediately of Robot in Lost in Space. Having plunked for Plan B on my sets, I was smacked in the face by combinatoriality. Combinatorial tone rows are those that can form a 12-tone aggregate with the last half of one of its transpositions. In serial music that opens up some possibilities, but in set-based composition that does just the opposite. It means that the dominant set has the same intervallic makeup as the tonic, providing no progression.

When I shifted my set to begin on F#, that is what happened. O0 and O6 were combinatorial. I've tried to compose with combinatorial sets before, and all you get are grey harmonies and static progressions.

So I'm back to plan A.

O0:
I: C D Eb E F# G
V: Db F Ab A Bb B

The biggest overlap between I and another set is 4.
O1:
V/V: C Eb E F F# A
V/II: Bb C Db D E F

That makes my sub/pre-dominant function. That isn't the final classification. I usually give two classifications based on which side of the grid the set appears. X or V/X.

I haven't gone that far yet because I am considering overlap or pivot pitches. As I stated yesterday, I'm concerned about how chromatic the sets are, so the answer may be to add the first note (or two) of the second half of the row to expand the set. This has the possibility of dampening the progression, so it has to be used sparingly. The other option is to resort to 5 and 7 note sets. Here, it probably isn't practical, since it doesn't add much flavour to the I set. It just adds another whole step (A), and making it a 5 note set just drops the G, another semitone.

Pivot pitches are probably the way to go.

Next, I'll finish the classification and decide on pivot pitches.

Diversions

Yesterday, I decided to create a row matrix. Unsatisfied with the idea of devising it manually, I decided to create a spreadsheet that would automate the process. That probably took twice as long as it might have otherwise, but at least now I can make matrices just by plugging in O0.

Interestingly, my row is in E, but I'm planning my pitches to centre around D. In fact, I will probably emphasize the middle of the row, rather than transposing it to D. At present the first 6 pitches are 5 4 6 7 8 9 from the series (rather than starting at the beginning of the row). It leaps from my nominal Tonic set to my Dominant set after 3 notes. (I'll explain my harmonic system in due course.)

Next up is devolving the row into pitch sets, and classifying their transposition.

Tonic (I): C D Eb E F# G
Dominant (V) Db F Ab A Bb B

I'm a little concerned about the number of semitones in the two sets, so I may consider shifting the row to start on the F#:

I: D F F# G A Bb
V: C Db Eb E Ab B

That might give me the more expansive sound that I'm after. I could use both, of course. I'll probably decide today.


On another note, I received the proof copy of my violin concerto on Monday. I made one change to the cover, so I have to approve it once more, but it should go on sale next week on Amazon.com (and eventually other outlets). ($30, but I'll offer discounts to retailers and others, if you are nice to me.)

I'll post a link next week. I'm also going to make my saxophone concerto available soon.

The Matrix

Yesterday, I had a look at the tarantella to derive a row from it. Before you think that writing 12-tone music is so 1950, I should tell you that this isn't 12-tone. Yes, I use a row, but only as a source. I usually divide it into sets that I classify harmonically, and use unordered. Saying that, I like the row that resulted from choosing the important notes from the RH of the tarantella. It's very chromatic, but I mostly chose notes after a leap or a direction change. I was forced to step down to the left hand for the last three notes. Here's the row as it stands:

E Eb C F# D G A Bb F Db B Ab

What I like about it is that it contains every interval, and has an open feel. The set from the discarded version of the concerto was too closed and dissonant. There are seconds there for dissonance when I want it, as well as thirds and fifths for when I don't. As the orchestra is amateur, I need to be mindful of dissonance saturation. This won't sound like Appalachian Spring, but it should have an open airy prairie landscape feel. It will just be more like a prairie at night.

I still need to sit and internalize the row at the piano before I derive the matrix and set classification, and that may have to wait until Wednesday, as I have busy days today and tomorrow, as well as a rehearsal tonight.

I ordered my copy of Parsifal yesterday.

Quiet

Today was a quiet day on the Concerto front. I created a sketch book to work in. Usually, I compose right into full score with a just few loose pages of sketch. I used to always carry a sketch book with me to put ideas in, so hopefully this will help keep the piece active in my thoughts.

I also discovered that I didn't own a score to Parsifal, so I'll have to order one. I thought we had one downstairs (an old vocal score), but that turned out to be Gotterdammerung.

I discovered that we'll have a contrabassoon in the orchestra, but not a bass clarinet. It's probably not as useful, but as I haven't scored any music other than a few bars of cellos, basses and clarinet, I'll just keep within the parameters.

Once I derive my pitch material, I'm going to start on the second movement. That should be the quickest to compose, and I'd like to get it into Maya's hands as soon as possible, since she will have to devise her improvisation around what the other instruments are playing. I need to contact her soon anyway.

By the way, you are welcome to comment on these posts. I've noticed that there are already a few readers, and it is nice to have some kind of feedback (preferably positive).

At some point, I will also post a chapter of An Angel's Kiss, just for your reference. It will probably only be from the first draft. (I'm planning a major revision of it.)

In the Beginning ...

Since last summer I have been contemplating writing a piano concerto and even wrote a few notes. In fact, I have about ten pages of sketches, but about a month ago, I decided to start over. I've been too busy working on a novel to think about music, and to be completely honest, nothing was coming. I was even considering giving up composing altogether.

That was until 3 am this morning.

I woke up with ideas, ideas other than just a little double bass figure that began the first movement. Suddenly wide awake, I was afraid to allow myself to fall asleep in fear that I would forget everything. Around 4 am, I decided to connect it with a diary, this blog, which will document the steps and thought processes I go through as I write this piece. Some of it may prove boring and mechanical, but (as you will read below) it will have a literary basis, some of which will appear here.

My big problem over the past few years is that my writing has eaten up my composing energy, and it is my thought that this blog will correct that.

Out of mind, out of sight.

That's the problem. If I'm not thinking about composing regularly, ideas are stillborn. I sit in concerts and come up with grand schemes that are forgotten by the time I've driven home.

Before I go too far, I should get the mechanics out of the way. This concerto is for Maya Irgalina and the Scarborough Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Shawn Matthew, an amateur orchestra that plays in the Spa there. It's a scenic venue overlooking the North Sea, and I've even written some fiction that starts there. The performance will be in March or May 2013, and Shawn is thinking of Brahms, Symphony No 4, and Stravinsky, Dance Concertante, as well as some chamber music to begin the programme. That sounds like a little too much music, if you add in my 20 minute concerto. I expect he'll revise his plans.

On to the concerto ...

At around 5 am, I decided that I might connect it to a novella I wrote a few years ago called An Angel's Kiss. In it, a famous concert pianist is about to give a recital when a woman with golden hair runs up onto the stage and kisses him. He finds himself unable to continue, and even touching a piano causes a panic attack. Not wanting to leave his audience cold (it was a gala charity concert), he summons a girl from the crowd who impressed him in one of his masterclasses. She plays the concert in his place and wows the critics.

It turns out that she is the sister of the woman who kissed him, but who had died in the WTC on Sept 11, a year earlier. The pianist and the girl become inseparable, but I'll leave the rest until I publish the novella. One other relevant fact is that the pianist has a dream to someday conduct Wagner's Parsifal. I'm considering using a few brief Parsifal references in my concerto.

I'm also thinking of connecting the concerto to another novel of mine, Diary of an Affair. The story is, of course, about an affair, but not the obvious one that spurred him to write the diary. The protagonist is a failed composer who works for a music publisher (in marketing), representing their composers at concerts. On the way back from one of his trips, he falls in love with a young American pianist (and composer) just starting at the Royal Academy in London.

Again, I'll stop with the plot there, but he eventually promises to write a piece for another composer who he has loved since he was twenty (who adores him). It turns out to be a concerto for the American pianist. Aside from the infidelity, a thread running through the story is his writing of this concerto. I'm not sure how I'll use it yet. Maybe just some of the gestures he describes.

Also, this concerto is about the night, perhaps a windy night. It's a dark room with twinkling lights. It's poetry (I hope).

The piece with be in three movements.

I. Seduction - I'm not sure what that really means yet, but it may mean some seductive melodies and sensual harmony. I've just written a few notes as a guide.

II. Romance - this is mostly an improvisation for the pianist. I'll set up a series of chord textures over which one or more soloist will play written solo passages. The pianist will improvise with the chords and outside the chords (anti-chordal). There may also be some wind and brass punctuation.

III. Tarantella - Several years ago I wrote a little 12 bar passage I called the "Yippee Tarantella" That will form the basis for the movement, which should culminate in a transformed quote from the trumpet tune at the beginning of Parsifal. I'm not sure that will work yet.


Next, I'm going to see if I can derive some pitch material from the Tarantella.