Work on the piece has been slow but satisfying. Well, unsatisfyingly slow but what little has been produced lets me see a way forward. I’ve become much more tonal but am using the structural and procedural techniques that I used in Figures to organize that tonality. And I have better headphones good god the sound was awful for several years.
Slowness has occurred the last few months. Passive voice. I know the cause is that I’ve focused on learning Italian, but a few years ago when I was on a death march at work, every night I still took at least 30 minutes to work on my Symphony No. 1. Those days haunt me for their dedication under stress.
There’s no excuse.
A couple of years back I purchased the score for Finnissy’s piano collection English Country-Tunes, a beautiful score and equally arresting music. The first time I listened to it it deeply terrified me. Following that, and following along with the New Complexity composers, I purchased Ferneyhough’s Lemma-Icon-Epigram. Another stunning piano work. (And one, equally, I’d never be able to play.) Since then I’ve purchase a couple of other beautiful modern scores.
First part here. Second part here.
First part here. Second part here.
I had come across Samuel Andreyev‘s YouTube channel while spelunking modern performance videos. I found the video of his analysis of Ferneyhough’s String Trio while working on the first movement of my Symphony No. 1 and its ideas resonated with me. Just recently on Friday 19 Feb, he released an interview he did with Ferneyhough on the previous Wednesday (a week and a half prior). It’s an hour and 40 minutes, so I’ll be taking it in parts while listening to performances of the referenced music when available.