Concert tonight!

The preparations are pretty much done, and some people say they are coming, so it should be fun to present all this new stuff tonight! Wanted to post one more sampling for people who are curious what the music will be. Of course I am going to think about Bach if writing for solo violin (I always tell my students Bach is like the Shakespeare of music, super famous because people get something out of it). In the pandemic I decided to try my hand at writing a Chaccone, and see what I could come up with. Some strange mournful chords form the basis for this (there is always a descending bass line in a Chaccone and that is always fateful and dramatic) and then it proceeds with theme and variation. Here’s a bit of it.

More sneak peak

So far, I have two suites of music in the works and nearly ready for next week. Although they need some more practice before then, I couldn’t help messing with different, goofy idea I had for more solos. When I was in high school and learning a Mozart concerto I suggested I might like to create my own cadenza drawing from fiddle styles I was learning to improvise in. My teacher replied that would be like putting garlic in a chocolate cake! So I didn’t do it then. But now, all these years later, I thought “What happens if I combine the themes of that Mozart concerto with fiddle style and create a new piece with it?” Will it lead to anything useful to anybody? There is still something humorous to me about this kind of thing. I’m not sure but maybe it is because we’ve been conditioned all our lives to think of concert music as one thing and everything else as less serious. Anyway, I may subject people to something like this on Thursday, if it’s ready. For now, here’s a little bit of this experiment.

Progress

Ok. Kid birthday happened last week, 20 of her closest friends in the park and rec building…and my writing time was a bit less! Now coming back to it as of today and finding that the last part of a suite seems too much. Maybe going to cut that piece out. I think some people say “Kill your darlings” and Brian Eno says something like “Cut your favorite part and see what happens.” Thinking about that, then Suite 1 which is based on Covid times may be about done. I have another suite almost done, themed on another trauma of mine (this could be the trauma album, I think to myself, jokingly). Going to see if I can learn the new music some of which is notated but now needs to get practiced. Two weeks to go and that seems doable, maybe. Going to test some of this music (the first suite) at the Macalester Music department this week for their casual Thursday gathering. This will be a good test run for things.

Here is the piece that I will probably break off the group it was intended for and use alone for other things. Imperfect recording here, but I was happy with the sonic quality. It sounds like Air Studios in London, where I was able to travel through the magic of AIR reverb from Spitfire Audio (I don’t get any kickbacks here but it’s the coolest reverb I know).

What is the process?

Again in 1 and 2 syllables words, here is my latest update:

Grouping things into suites. A few of them, if time will allow. Maybe up to 3 but I think at least 2 will be ready for the concert. I have been liking going back to playing violin as the main way to get ideas which I had not been doing as often when writing for groups. Only problem now is that I end up with a lot of voice memo brainstorms so at this point I still need to make some real choices as to what is what. But really I am getting there with a 2nd suite, I think, and hope to knock out the one that was going in my head last night and again early this morning. The first suite is from deep Covid, but today I am working on a second which also tries to follow a storyline from my life. One thing I like about music is that we can tell a story but it is still abstract. The notes may seem to outline something but they also are just themselves. They sort of stand for something and play in your mind against and around a story (if it is revealed) but the music also has its own logic. I am having fun with how the music leads me somewhere. Sometimes I have to steer it back on course if the mood is lost, but I have a feeling I may be doing more with this concept, which really started, I think, with the last big writing project I did— that is, trying to capture something about my parents’ parents lives in a piece for orchestra. Anyway, I am now trying to make choices and get a little more “planfull” with the music. I may need to start writing down some of the phrases if not more.

Why write solos?

Here is a bit about this current project of writing solo violin music, written in in one syllable words just for fun.

It was the deep covid time and I was home bound for sure. Did not have time to get quite to the end of things, but did start some solo music while I also fed our less than one year old and hung out with the one who was 4 at the time. Then I thought I might get more done prior to now…but it did not quite come to pass! This year though, both kids are in school so it is time, I thought. I will do the old music form covid time and I hope to also do at least one new batch of things. I can’t help but think of Bach when I write things for just one “viol.” And I hope to tell a story with this music, or maybe trace a few story lines...we’ll see. For now, I have to get to work. Just a month or so to go. Some of it is in rough form while some is near done. Much to do and have to tell the hurried part of my brain that music starts with quiet. That, I think, is true in a lot of ways.