Annotations

Between commissions, between jobs. Just between. I decided about a month ago that I was going to make a statement. My postcard pieces were relatively successful, resulting in a composition prize, 2 conference performances, and a professional premiere. What didn't go right was that the prize-winning piece was never performed, due to the pandemic, and...

2. Finding the Rules

After Symbols and Signs, I needed to figure out a way of organizing my harmony that replicates that success every time and doesn't involve reinventing the wheel with every new piece. I had a commission for another wind ensemble piece, and I wanted to make sure that it worked.

1. Rationale

While I was a student, I thought long and hard about what makes a piece of music satisfying. For a while, I was obsessed by rhythmic and nonrhythmic events, in some part taking my cue from Lutoslawski's two movement concept of Hesitant and Direct. I was still looking for a way of organizing it harmonically. I spent over a year working on a ballet, Oyre's Garden.

Preamble II

My Symphony No. 2 was an important piece in many ways. I began working on it the summer before my Masters year. It was one of several pieces that came to me in a dream - not much of it, just the opening gesture, really, but that was enough for me to hop out of bed and write it down.

The Need to be New

Every once in a while, I present my music in masterclasses, and inevitably we discuss method. I am what you might label a post-12-tone composer, and from time to time students ask me if I feel limited by my method, perhaps being limited to the row, or whatever.