photo credit: mitch98000
Composing most of the day, which consists of jumping around different parts of the score, notating down little fragments, slicing things apart and together.  Get bored in one area and then you jump into another.  Every once in a while, you get a giant swirl that you can hear the whole piece [...]

Continue reading " A Swirl of Fog "

photo credit: matthew_moss
An interest group of composerly sessions these last few days as I work through jump starting the middle movement.  Seems that composing off the seat of my pants produced some rather mundane materials – boxy phrases and harmonies which I found annoying and for a while useless.  I had hopes that it [...]

Continue reading " Studies "

photo credit: Wolfgang Wildner
Morning spent reviewing the opening phrases I had been working on; then, shifted gears and started taking a different tact – not scrapping but composing anew.
Worked on a bit of accompaniment.  Surprising how you have one idea and then you can’t seem to get it exactly what you want and you [...]

Continue reading " A Mind of It’s Own "

Song organization is occupying most of my compositional time these days, as I try to get a handle around educating myself with the craft of song writing.  After fishing and perusing the billboards for what I thought were signifiant artists – artists who’s production was balanced and who emphasizes good writing / lyrics –  I have finally [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status "

photo credit: rossaroni
I think I’ve been avoiding writing again on this blog for a number of reasons:  the aversion of committing to anything concrete and final regarding the changes to my own musical life; my growing disgust in some ways for the classical and contemporary music world; and maybe the fact that I no longer for some reason [...]

Continue reading " Changes "

A scattered week, I failed for the first time to write any posts on progress and general thoughts.  Too wrapped up in day gig materials, but did manage to squeeze in a few pleasant  evenings at the keys working on the opening of the cello piece.  I’m continuing my survey of American female rock / pop [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #86 "

A week of fluid creativity.  I began heading into this piece by laying out the score in Sibelius and working on the opening.  I love the vagueness and unsettlement of it.  Its going to be a slow write though, as I investigate the exact proportions of the rhythm and harmonic movement…trying to keep away from [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #85 "

photo credit: Emery_Way
A satisfying hour plus at the piano tonight reaffirms that I’m making headway with this more wriggly dog of an idea as a basis for the first cello piece – an extemporaneous jazzy feel thats hard to pin down in the confines of barlines and ledgers.  However, we’ll play a bit more [...]

Continue reading " Dog number one gets loose and grabs something "