Solitudes: Week 7
Hello hello, and welcome to week seven of my current project: Solitudes! For those of you new to this blog and project, I am working on a two-movement work for solo piano. Each movement is an homage to a composer I admire; the first, entitled “Andromeda Fragments” is a minimalist piece inspired by the works of John Adams, and the second, “Seafarer,” is influenced by George Crumb. My goal is to have the entire work finished by April 30th so I can submit it to publication.
I am very excited to announce that this week marked a huge milestone - “Andromeda Fragments” is finished!*
*Okay, well “finished” is perhaps a slightly overly-optimistic term; I still have to get feedback from Dr. Kay He (my incredible composition teacher), and as I have mentioned ad nauseam in previous posts, engraving is a detail-oriented process that I still need to go through. With that said, all the material is on the page and I don’t expect much to change in the way of music itself. As the remaining steps to be taken are somewhat less challenging and should go by quick, I am confident in saying the movement is virtually complete.
My final round of sketches for this movement. I ended up expanding these six gestures for the final minute of the movement - roughly 1/3 of the entire length!
This week, finishing the final third of the first movement was my goal and I am happy to say it was met. Frankly, this was probably the easiest and fastest section of the entire piece to write. There is a lot more repetition than earlier sections, and I envisioned this ending section as an extended journey back to the opening motive. Because of this, virtually all of the material is generated from gestures that came earlier in the movement. It ends with the exact same gesture from the opening, but this time in a higher register and with the sustain pedal instead of detached staccato notes.
As you can see, this is an expansion of three of the different gestures from my sketches.
The biggest challenge I faced this week was simply making decisions as to how the movement should end - quiet and sustained? Bombastic? Exactly the same as it began? I opted for a combination of the first and third options. Initially my plan was to keep the detached nature of the first two-thirds going until the end, but in a happy accident I found I really loved the transition to these rolling, pedaled gestures with long chords underneath. It gives the listener a chance to cool down after the sharp, dissonant chords in the climax. Ultimately, I think the movement became really balanced in its form: a long buildup, a climactic stretch of incessant clusters loudly articulated, and a long wind down back to the fragment that we started with. I knew from the start this was roughly how the structure should be, but the challenge (and excitement) came from figuring out exactly what that climax and wind down would be.
In the end, I am immensely happy with how this movement turned out. I don’t often feel completely satisfied when I reach the end of the piece, but in this case I feel I’ve successfully communicated what I set out to, even if the journey there took me in some interesting and unexpected directions.
Next week begins a sharply contrasted movement that will heavily feature inside-the-piano effects. It is a challenge I am both daunted and excited by! Until then, enjoy “Andromeda Fragments:”