Category: Music

1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

I came in with the intent of exploring a more atonal, pointillist style, to move in the direction of Elliott Carter in texture but without the metric modulation. Then after finishing the first statement, I had the idea to use that statement as simply the first of a set of pieces in different styles. Short preludes or interludes. The prime number seven jumped into my head, and the basic ideas for all but #6 were pretty clear from the start.

1. (00:00) Pointillist emphasizing timbre
2. (00:34) Lyric/impressionist, wistful
3. (02:11) Bright percussive
4. (03:53) Driving percussive
5. (05:03) Spare with silences
6. (06:33) Vivace, humoresque
7. (07:41) Descending lines, from plaintive to content

Total time: 11:44

#s 1 and 5 are in an atonal language that I’ve dipped into before and am really loving. Again, I use Carter as the jumping off point.

#2 is where I wish I could write long, romantic melodies. This ends up being a little 70s-movie-music-trite, but still has its moments.

#s 3 and 4 continue with a percussion language I learned in study #8. The percussion parts come very naturally, but I worry that they appear as both a repetition of ideas across the different pieces, and as too chaotic in expression, not complementing the rest of the orchestra.

#6 was a good lesson in sticking with a difficult piece until you find a solution to what’s blocking you. (For study #5 that solution never came, but it was still worth the failure.) In this interlude, I was stuck for a couple of days after the first statement and finally came up with a framework of scales that shift diatonic key every few notes. It gives a nice, non-dissonant atonal hum without being a generic octatonic or whole tone scale.

The concept for #7 was there from the beginning but, as is common, ended up manifesting a wider range of ideas than I expected. The surprise achievement: I approached the noisy beauty of Schnittke that I thought I’d never get to. Really very, very happy with that. (And, surprise! metric modulation made an appearance.)

I ran over time this month just because of the volume of ideas (which really should have been explored more fully on their own), and also because even though I was “finished” about a week ago, several felt jarringly abbreviated so I returned and fleshed them out. I have never regretted revisiting and extending a piece.

Not sure where this goes next. I’m again drawn towards the atonal pointillism of #s 1 and 5 (this is the same intent I had at the end of last month).

orchestral-study-9

1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

Updated 26 Aug 2019

My focus for this piece was to start scoring percussion.

The music has some instances of #6 (mildly dissonant, held clusters) and some of #2 and #4 (fringe-tonal counterpoint with imitation across voices). I’m getting my footing with having a consistent orchestral style though still learning and experimenting.

1. Prelude with dissonance (A1)
2. Rapid polyphony with increasing complexity in the percussion, using timpani, snare, and cymbal (B, C, and D1)
3. Return to A in style, with gradual reentry of polyphony from previous sections as an extended bridge (A2)
4. Chord progression and arpeggiated melody from D1 with written repeats (D2)
5. Short coda with percussion (E)

Once I got the first notes down for the polyphony and percussion, I was surprised how easily those new elements flowed. I had to reference Piston for the limitations of the timpani and the range it can handle, but snare and cymbal pretty much explain themselves. Like the allegro in #4 this was kindof exhausting; there was an inner conflict of how easily it flowed and just how much music I could manage in this style. And, even though I feel it’s relatively complete, the month puts pressure on how much to put in. I’m beginning to think, after these 12 are finished, of the limitations I’ll encounter writing longer, 20+ minute pieces.

Next will likely be a spare, arrhythmic study with further exploration of articulation in the strings. Before that I will go back to #5 to fix a section that I just, just hate.

orchestral-study-8

Updated 26 Aug 2019

Piston showed the timpani with trills but the playback from Musescore sounded awful so I switched to tremolo. Much better. I also exported the score in four parts (woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings) as wav files and mixed them in Audacity with some reverb and stereo separation.

1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

This started late in the month because of an extended stay in Curacao, but the structure came to me almost immediately. I’ve been wanting to try to bring solo instruments in more prominently. The last study at various points gave the melody to solo violin and viola; here I’ve used the violin throughout as a proper soloist. The intent was to have the contrasting sections be a dialog between soloist and orchestra (like so many concertos), but to think of them not as separate entities but the same. An internal dialogue. It’s more conceptual than actually achieved.

• Melancholy statement (soloist)
• Chorale (orchestra)
• Minimalist perpetuum mobile (soloist)
• Prelude and fugue book-ended with reference to chorale (orchestra)
• Closing lyric statement (soloist)

For the soloist sections, I would create a general sketch of the melody then insert measures as I orchestrated to either extend a phrase or add a new idea for variety. It’s very much like painting, where rough ideas become more precise as you progress. The orchestration, at least for the soloist sections, has much more color that the previous studies. I’m getting confident with a wider range of instrument combinations. That being said, for the soloist I did not verify that the double- and triple-stops were actually playable or at least comfortably playable. That skill is definitely a work in progress.

I’m continuing to run against limitations in playback, mostly crescendos and decrescendos, so I end up adding over-detailed dynamic markings. And I heard pizzicato and harmonics in certain areas but those are almost completely unavailable with Musescore. I had to settle for staccato and ppp respectively.

(Realization: I remember at the beginning of the year, I was concerned that I would over-rely on explicit repeats and not be able to create sections that are written variations as repeats. I happily have not fallen into that type of laziness.)

Next up is a toccata with percussion added.

orchestral-study-7

1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

I say this every time, but this one felt like a failure early in and, except for the last section, still does. It’s because the muddy harmonies and overfull orchestration that I could never get right. It reminds me of a watercolor when you layer too many colors: a grayish, uncertain mess. This one also took the longest to complete because of my unhappiness throughout. Lesson learned?

The goal was a passacaglia-type work, but I think of it now as four variations without a theme. My intent always drifts as the ideas start to reveal themselves. The first section doesn’t have the clarity to come across as a thematic jumping off point, but it does set the harmonic structure for the three sections that follow. Second section: a chatty variation with runs swapped across the instruments. Third: long held notes in the horns while oboe, bassoon, and violas jump around noisily as background radiation. Fourth: the longest and the one that flowed out very naturally. A brash, more harmonically clear and confident statement split in the middle and the ending with a more uncertain theme using solo violin, viola, and cello.

Next up may be a sonorist piece. I’m using a classical orchestra just for simplicity (it’s enough of an effort to learn with just this limited palette) so I’m not sure how well that style will communicate.

orchestral-study-5