kenjari | (no subject)

I finished my piano trio, The Floating Land, last night. It only took me about six weeks to write, and I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm beginning to think that I compose better when I do it quickly.
Oddly enough, I'm really going to miss working on The Floating Land. I almost didn't want to finish it in a way. I based the piece on gamelan music - or more accurately, gamelan music as filtered through my ear and imagination. The two outer sections take their inspiration from Javanese gamelan while the central section is reminiscent of Balinese gamelan. I love gamelan music (both kinds), and I've even played Javanese gamelan. I guess that's why I didn't want to leave this piece - I have so much affection for gamelan music, and even just the sound of the gamelan itself. I liked living and playing in that sound world for a month and a half.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Because everyone, from 1900 onward, must write a piece inspired by gamelan. It's entertaining, though--you can BS your way through a lot of 20th-century music history exams by working the gamelan into each and every one of your answers. :)

See, I have actually played and studied gamelan, as my post notes. I'd still be doing it if time and opportunity allowed. It's not just something I heard a couple times, thought was cool, and appropriated. Gamelan (especially Javanese) is much more to me than just a way of giving my music a more contemporary veneer, or of faking my way through some exam questions. I'm not in the habit of using sources of inspiration/material that are without true personal significance to me.