Sunday, March 1, 2009

Fast Forward

What a great concert. I'm really impressed with everyone's work, both from the composers and performers. There was a lot of variety and I really enjoyed myself. Good job everyone!

I've been slowly working on the next project. With so little time left it's a little daunting, but I really would like to write for orchestra. I have a few thoughts in mind already. I'd like to write in (modified) sonata form. Instead of jumping in headfirst, as I think I did last time, I'm taking a more sectional approach with this one. I'm coming up with theme/theme groups first so that I know how the piece will move from the beginning to the end, and then I will develop those ideas to create all the intermediary steps.

I've already sketched out a preliminary theme 1. For my second theme group I want the melodies to be based on the traditional pentatonic scale used in Okinawa--do mi fa so ti do. I've played around with it before and it's a very neat scale. I've been listening to some traditional Okinawan music to see how it works (the melody, that is--I will probably invent my own harmonies), what kinds of rhythms they use, as well as use of percussion, if I can fit it in.

It all sounds rather ambitious, I know, which is why I will try to get the theme groups ready as soon as possible and start looking at instrumentation. If I don't have that moving relatively soon, then I might keep the same ideas/structure and look at perhaps using a smaller ensemble.

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