Chamber CD - Day 36

Monday, December 11, 2006
12:06

Chipping away, just chipping away.

This piece is very hard to work on, like sculpting marble. Every hit of the hammer and chisel yields very small results.

And if I may stretch my metaphor a little further, what also makes this a lengthy process is that I am looking into the marble to find the form.

I don’t have a clear idea for the language, just a concept – to write something “pretty” without resorting to diatonicism, using a free chromatic language. It’s hard.

So every day is just small little marks of the chisel, then stepping back to see what form is emerging.

Adding notes, moving notes, removing, changing, moving bits around, connecting, disconnecting, changing the rhythms, displacing the meter, lengthening phrases, shortening, nip and tuck, chip, chip, chip.

I can see something taking shape now. It’s faint, but it’s there.

Chamber CD - Day 5

Friday, November 10, 2006

9:38:01 AM

I am listening to Ravel’s piano music this morning. The Prélude from Le Tombeau de Couperin starts off great but loses me halfway through the development section. So that brings to my attention the necessity of clarity in development sections. It’s too easy for development sections to get cluttered with directionless explorations. At this point I will aim for simple and clear design and direction.

I like the Menuet a lot, it has a very clear melodic and formal plan. Things build through great arcs with clear direction. Of that suite I also like the Rigaudon and the Toccata.

And things have to be cool, man. The music has to grab you by the collar, pull you in close and say “listen to me!” and not let go.

***

10:46

I am listening to Benny Goodman now.

His improvisations have so much music in them, thank God for these recordings. In jazz, solo sections are like development sections, and Goodman’s improvisations are better than most composers development sections!

Magical improvisers like Goodman and Django Reinhardt did not create mechanical explorations of the material but great, melodic lines with direction, dramatic shape and virtuosity.

There is so much fun and vitality in this music. That is what I want.