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Back to my real work
Mar. 10th, 2004 10:48 pmSo now that I am done with applying to grad school, traveling to interviews and auditions, and have nothing left to do on that front but wait, I'm spending more time on my composing. And it feels good. Nothing else I do is quite as challenging yet deeply rewarding as my various musical activities.
I've been working on a sextet (flute, oboe, 2 violins, 2 cellos) since the summer. It's called St. Govan's Head, and was inspired by the place on the Pembroke coast in Wales. Matthew and I visited it on our honeymoon. St. Govan's is very remote - even the nearest town is a decent drive from there. And by town, I mean a wide spot in the road. St. Govan's is a small, 13th century stone chapel built into the side of a cliff right on the ocean. It's not a beach though, just a few yards of rocks between the chapel and the sea. It's very quiet and very beautiful. Something about that place made me finally understand what the solitary mysticism of the early Celtic saints was all about. And I got the idea for this piece.
St. Govan's Head is in three movements, each of which uses fragments from Gregorian chant as part of its material. I'm trying to evoke the sounds and atmosphere of that place, so in that sense, it's kind of impressionistic. I'm also experimenting with a looser conception of form and structure than I've had in the last couple of years. I'm letting the forms of each of the movements grow organically out of the ways I'm choosing to work with and treat the material. Unfortunately, this is causing the work to go slowly - I've gotten stuck a couple times. Hopefully I'll be able to get it finished before the end of this summer.
I'm also going to start looking for some composition competitions to enter. It's a part of my professional development that I have sadly been neglecting.
I've been working on a sextet (flute, oboe, 2 violins, 2 cellos) since the summer. It's called St. Govan's Head, and was inspired by the place on the Pembroke coast in Wales. Matthew and I visited it on our honeymoon. St. Govan's is very remote - even the nearest town is a decent drive from there. And by town, I mean a wide spot in the road. St. Govan's is a small, 13th century stone chapel built into the side of a cliff right on the ocean. It's not a beach though, just a few yards of rocks between the chapel and the sea. It's very quiet and very beautiful. Something about that place made me finally understand what the solitary mysticism of the early Celtic saints was all about. And I got the idea for this piece.
St. Govan's Head is in three movements, each of which uses fragments from Gregorian chant as part of its material. I'm trying to evoke the sounds and atmosphere of that place, so in that sense, it's kind of impressionistic. I'm also experimenting with a looser conception of form and structure than I've had in the last couple of years. I'm letting the forms of each of the movements grow organically out of the ways I'm choosing to work with and treat the material. Unfortunately, this is causing the work to go slowly - I've gotten stuck a couple times. Hopefully I'll be able to get it finished before the end of this summer.
I'm also going to start looking for some composition competitions to enter. It's a part of my professional development that I have sadly been neglecting.
