Composing Today

30 January 2007

Made some good progress on the third section with the flute solo. The solo is written out and some, at least half of the accompaniment. There are some nice ensembles that are brought about by the switch of the piano into the flute’s role in this section: Bass, Horn, Trumpet; Trombone, Clarinet, Violin; Percussion, Viola, Cello; and Piano, Oboe, Bassoon. I’ve given the Piano ensemble tiny notes widely spaced and slow with the oboe and bassoon holding these out. In the violin trio, I’ve taken the tremolos within the flute part and split the difference to create the three lines, the trombone provides a nice foundation. I was talking with David Cohen yesterday and he made a comment about how in the large ensemble you can have such a play of instrumental colors and I think the ensemble change rotation did this to a certain extent. To provide more colors in the trio, I think the solo substitution rule is a good one. To wit, it takes the solo instrument for each section – solo is a relative term – and has it replace the new soloist in the instrument rotation. So for instance, the first soloist was the percussion, so in the second section, the percussion takes the place of the next soloist in the instrumental numbering. In the second section our soloist is the piano (#9) so the percussion becomes #9 for the remainder of the piece. The piano when it reenters the traffic patterns of the instrumental rotation replaces the next soloist in this case the flute (#1) for the remainder of the piece. The flute will replace the next soloist, I’m leaning toward the viola (#10). Within each section, I’ve been laying out the entrances/exits of the soloists vaguely intuitively, thinking of the narrative of the section. In the third section we’ve had a tempo merge and the normative tempo is now the quarter-note at 72. I’m also leaving the choice of soloists up to intuition – though as the piece progresses my choices will be more limited.