A breath.

Now we take somewhat of a breath after all the toil of the first project. Overall I thought that my pieces went well in performance, the first two especially. The third one I'm not overly happy with, compositionally. The guitar part still bugs me and I feel as though it's lopsided. I may make a couple of changes to it on down the road after all this madness settles down.

Who knows.

The Avant-Garde Ceilidh

I feel like this is an article that I can relate to very easily as I lived in that sort of environment growing up. While there were a few acts that came into town now and then, Goose Bay never often saw big names. After a while there were hardly even any local acts. So my friends and I for years would have ceilidh-like times where we just got together and jammed and everyone contributed. There was a very strong sense of community there.

I totally agree with the author's musings on the excessiveness of show business these days. I feel like live music these days has become very impersonal in many ways both in the way we see live music and the way we listen to music on our own. Most people don't even buy cds anymore. This is one of the things that really interests me about avant-garde music. There is often little choice but to see performances in small, personal settings. Certainly, if our society continues in the destructive way that it's going there will be no choice but to return to the fundamental, communal musical practice of the ceilidh. And I can't say that I wouldn't welcome that.

Three.

So today I finished my third piece. I've shortened the title simply to 'River'. It's meant to represent how the character has reached a place where they are in tune with the timeless clockwork and now takes the things that made life complicated in the first piece (i.e. the tense and jerking interactions between the two instruments) and accepts them and moves with them through this river.

I've done a fair bit of simplifying to this piece. I've entirely gotten rid of the 7/8 idea that I originally had and instead have written the guitar part with swelling chords. I've also decided to write the whole first section of the guitar part in harmonics, the timbre mixes much better with the piano now.

Down the hatch!

Riding the colossal wave.

After meeting Phil Nimmons and David Braid this week and watching them play I feel possibly more inspired than ever. They have this way about them and you can tell that they are entirely in tune with the soul of the universe. It is the groove, our heartbeat, I believe that everyone's heart beats in sync. There is rubato of course but overall we are all connected by this universal groove. I feel like my next piece should have a sort of free, jazzy feel to it because it's meant to represent the character's existence after they realize the soul of the universe (the timeless clockwork) and how upon this realization they are able to be in the moment and ride that colossal wave, the same way Nimmons and Braid do. It's actually amazingly convenient how they came to town at this time because they sort of unconsciously put the final piece of my puzzle in and now I feel like I can explain what I'm trying to get at now.

The timeless clockwork is another word for the soul of the universe, which is the thing that we are all a part of that connects us all. It's based on consequences, an interconncted web of action and reaction, one thing in the beginning of time caused something else to happen, which caused something else and so on until the world we know was cultivated. The realization of this web helps us to accept things as they happen and be in the moment. This is the realization that the character has over the course of the first two pieces. In the third one he has realized the timeless clockwork, he is in the moment, hence the free jazzy feel. He's in the universal groove that Phil was talking about, and nowhere else. I guess it's sort of like Buddhism from a musician's perspective. Riding that colossal groove.

I hope I did an ok job explaining myself.

tock.

Last night I finished my second piece. I use the term 'finished' loosely however; I plan to change some things already even. This piece is entitled 'Timeless Clockwork" and is meant to demonstrate the way that I view the universe. It's a bit deep I know and perhaps I'll write another blog entry explaining my philosophy. For now I'll just explain what my musical intensions were. I tried to create a sense of constancy but also a sense of timelessness at the same time. To do this I wrote the guitar part in steady 8th notes, very repetitive-like. Meanwhile, the piano is very sporatic and hard to pin down metrically. Thus 'Timeless Clockwork'.

tock.

it flies.

Captain's log: Sunday September 20, 2009. 3:13 pm.

So I played my first piece 'Far' (in its inches-from-finished state) for the class on Friday. Overall I think it was well received, the criticism gave me a few very good ideas for this piece and future ones also. One was that I should try making the ending chords thicker in texture to further build the tension that I am trying to create. I totally agree with this. Another suggestion was that I try elaborating on the opening material via transposition. This idea did not occur to me as I was composing but I think it will enhance the atmosphere of the beginning that I am going for. This is also an idea to keep in mind for future pieces.

Al fin del día, mi máquina vuela.

On the Verge!

After a four-and-a-half-hour stint in a practice room my composition is on the cusp of completion! All that's left to do is put the finishing touches on the guitar part, and of course print it! I've decided to call it 'Far'. The character I'm attempting to capture in this piece is the feeling of mystery when one glimpses something far off in the distance and can't help but be fascinated by it. To capture this I've used quick inquisitive motifs along with pauses and lots of sustain pedal. It is almost two pages long and lasts about a minute. Now I'm just wondering how it will fly in performance.