Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes) – An Echo That's Reversing

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.

(00:00) Pointillist emphasizing timbre
(00:34) Lyric/impressionist, wistful
(02:11) Bright percussive
(03:53) Driving percussive
(05:03) Spare with silences
(06:33) Vivace, humoresque
(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