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I have created this site in order to provide performers, listeners and composers with a description of a composer's experiences with the creative process. The posts will provide discussions of the inspirations, challenges, and successes of a composer from the inception of the piece to the culmination in performance. I will provide a link to where you can see and hear the works in progress. Comments and questions are always welcomed. They will not posted unless you grant me permission.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Spades (Death) continued

Today, I was able to complete the first movement. The form turned out to be an Introduction plus ABA'. I began in the B section. I had written measures 20-23 yesterday, but I was not sure where it would take me. I started by repeating measures 20-23 but had the last measure build into the climax at measures 27-29. I also varied the repeat a bit by extending the euphonium line by one note and changing the tuba rhythms to occur a half beat later in measure 25. After the climax, things quiet down in measures 29-32 leading to the return of the A section. This section begins down a minor third from the original statement for the first two measures and then it goes back to the original tonality. Measure 40 leads to a quiet ending instead of crescendoing as it did in the first appearance of A.

Two things occurred to me while working today. The first is the varied emotions one goes through when dealing with death. The introduction has both sadness with outbursts of anger. The first A section is like a dirge that grows in intensity leading the the B section (which begins at measure 21) that has a sardonic laugh (staccato 16th notes) with a building anger. The last A section is dirge-like again, but this time with more of a feeling of acceptance. The second thing I realized was that in all likelihood, this piece will be one continuous movement. I am trying to keep the entire piece around 8-9 minutes. Because of this, there is not a lot of time to develop the ideas and one continuous movement should create more of a sense of continuity. Besides, if you have read my other posts, you know that endings give me the most trouble. So now I only need one ending instead of four! The other endings of the sections will serve as transition instead of endings.

To see and hear what is discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/suitsuiteblog.html

Dr. B

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