Styles, Textures, and Timbres

This morning I lost myself in arranging the hymn tune "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" for string trio (violin, viola, and cello). Next month Edris, Pat and I are going to play in church. I wanted a place to play some of my arrangements.

My arrangement was inspired by the blues and Dixieland, if not harmonically, then stylistically. I find myself listening to various music and trying to translate that into string sounds. I know that the timbre is different between, say, a cello and a trombone, but it will be interesting to hear what it actually sounds like when we rehearse. "Pat, could you make this glissando sound like a trombone?" Just can't ask the midi to do that for you!

First Pass Finished!

Firefall first draft is finished! All 5 min. and 13 sec. of it.

Now to do a bit more arranging.

Quartet Arrangement

One of my composition assignments last year was to arrange a hymn. I used God of Abraham and Sarah found in the New Century Hymnal and arranged it for SATB choir, organ, and chamber orchestra. Yesterday and today I turned that arrangement into a string quartet and played it with my friends in the Lemonwood Quartet tonight. It's hard to get a sense of how it all sounds when you are playing in the quartet, but I think it went pretty well. Perhaps they will indulge me and play it again at next week's rehearsal.

Expanding Ideas

As I finish my first draft of the Firefall movement, I am trying to self-edit by hearing what James and Bill would say to me. I know that I can dwell on a musical idea/phrase/measure for longer than 2 seconds, and I work at expanding my ideas into paragraphs/whole ideas. What I like about using Sibelius is that it is so easy to insert measures into the middle of the music, and today I added about 15 seconds of music into the middle. I had thought about how I might manipulate my already-formed ideas during breakfast this morning, and that is how I have spent my morning. Now I need to figure out how to bring the firefall to an end.

Summer Composing Goals

I am about halfway through the Firefall movement of my string quartet. I am hoping to finish the quartet this summer. I am starting to get ideas about the 4th movement - a Scottish ballad - something lyrical.

Other ideas for this summer: Elementary String Orchestra arrangements, a String Trio version of my choral anthem based on the hymn - God of Abraham and Sarah, Celtic Duets (two violins, violin and cello).

Happy Birthday, Igor!

Happy Birthday to Igor Stravinsky!

Firefall

Hooray! After a week of writing down scraps of ideas, and over a month of mulling, I wrote the first 30 seconds of my Firefall movement this morning. Now I have an idea of where I am headed. I find the first part of composing the hardest, or most frustrating. Once I get started, I feel much better.