Zugunruhe continued…

So now my piece is finished, and I’ve rather neglected this blog, but I promised I’d write more, so here it is. 

It’s the first time in quite a while (nearly five years) that I’ve written a piece and been happy with the result; previously I’ve finished a piece and thought, “well, its ok I suppose, but I wish I had another week to change that bit”.  There has been some of that this time round, but much less than normal.  I’m my own harshest critic, so its inevitable really.  

The workshops have been really great, and haven’t thrown up as many problems as I’d expected.  I’ve kept the extended techniques that often characterise my music to a minimum, which may have made life a lot easier, but there are so many notes in this piece that to add lots of extended techniques as well would have been too much.  That said, this piece is concerned with a kind of ‘information overload’, as I mentioned in my last post, but that comes from the density of information presented all at once, rather than the type of information.  In other words, at the opening, there are many gestures and harmonic ideas superimposed, in such a way that each one is almost unidentifiable.

Throughout the opening, more jagged gestures begin to come to the fore, and move around a limited harmonic framework, before blurring into a moment of aural cleansing.  In other pieces, I would consider this a ‘moment of clarity’, where the harmonic ideas behind the piece are presented in their simplest form, usually a chorale.  To an extent, this is also the case with this piece, but the chorale is blurred into the the glissandi gestures.  

Thats all I want to say about the piece itself, as I said before, I’m not keen on blow by blow accounts of pieces, its never a good as just listening to it!

Steven

Hi Rob, I’m quite pleased you’ve asked a couple of questions to get the whole thing started; I was in a bit of a quandary about it, being a few weeks into the project!

My piece, Elusive Tangibility V: Zugunruhe, is the penultimate part of a cycle of works, beginning with Elusive Tangibility I: Lone Shade for clarinet solo, and through gradually increasing instrumentations to Elusive Tangibility VI: Pyroclastic Drift for orchestra.  Each piece is based on the same harmonic procedure of expanding chords, and also on the idea of something that can be seen, but has no physical presence we can touch, such as ghosts, steam, and fire.  This ties into my obsession with timbre and also my penchant for very diffuse orchestration. 

I originally came across the term “Zugunruhe” in an article in The Guardian a few weeks ago.  I’ve been interested in unusual words for some time now, and just how specialised and/or underused a word can be.  You can read the whole article here. 

Zugunruhe actually means “migratory restlessness”, or “the migratory drive in birds”.  Firstly, I just thought it was a great word, which had all the gravitas that a title needs, but also being unusual enough not to lead the listener into the piece too much, and finally with a definition that could lead to interesting music – after all, many documentaries feature panoramas of huge flocks of birds in flight, and its always very striking.  In response to Mica’s post, I had actually seen that documentary, but I’d completely forgotten about it until I saw that video – its just amazing, a bird that can imitate whatever’s around it, including a camera!

I’m not generally a big fan of programmes in my music.  Although much of my work has an extra-musical stimulus, there is almost never a direct ‘storyline’; but a particular gesture in the piece might correlate to an idea in the original stimulus – in this case, the concept of migratory restlessness in birds.  At the focal point of my piece, for instance, there is a series of glissandi gestures that evoke a flock of birds forming constantly evolving shapes in the sky.  I’ve found a youtube video of it, but unfortunately the best I could find was an advert for a well-known lager brand, here.

The workshop a couple of weeks ago was great, and helped me to consolidate some of the ideas in the piece, particularly in the opening, which features the most dense and complex material in a deliberate ‘information overload’ which gradually draws itself into focus.  Since the workshop, I have rewritten the opening section wholesale, to keep the same density of material, but with more subtle orchestration than before. 

I think that’s enough for you all to digest for now, I’ll post again soon with some more details about my general approach to composition.  I’ll try to keep it brief next time!

Steve

Mica

thanks for listening to it
\er
I don’t recon the piece will inclue beats in particular its more the unclearer noise im focusing on…
anyway hears a good video Steven will probebly know it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuFyqzerHS8&feature=related

x mica

Gavin

Hey there, well I thought the first workshop was great, although listening back from the MD recording was pretty strange. You hear things that you never heard on the day, I’m sure if that’s a good or bad thing!?

I’m not sure why I like fast music so much, I think it’s sometimes harder to write than slow music and I like to push myself, I guess lots of notes comes with the job and I like to keep the players and listeners on there toes, I’m such a bander!!!

I was brought up surrounded by a family of brass players and classical orchestral music was never really on the menu. I think many of the dances in my piece are from shows, musicals and pop idioms. There is a jazz waltz coming up in the next session but I’m not convinced this has come direct from pure jazz but rather filtered through other popular music and funk is almost always in my music, not so much so in Rage Dances, yet!!!

Really looking forward to the next workshop!

Gavin

Gavin Higgins – myspace

Hi there, I forgot to add that I have a myspace where you can listen to a bit of my music. its www.myspace.com/gavinhiggins

 hope you enjoy!

a few weeks in…

So you have all been scribbling away for the past couple of weeks, how’s it going? I listened to some of your stuff Mica on Myspace (loving Golden phone!) which has a kind of anarchist/urban/electro-pop/comic/dance feel (that was the best I could do …improvements anyone?!) is that vibe going to surface in your piece for the LPO ensemble? Would the players know what to do with it?! I know you mentioned skating through radio frequencies and picking up the random jumble of stuff that exists on the airwaves. How is it working out practically?

Jason – your approach to the first workshop session we had was very experimental, did you find that the players gave you enough to work with and have you found a solution to your water-valve brass yet (you may have to explain!)? Do you enjoy this kind workshop process – how do you cope with the limitations necessarily imposed on your output?

I was wondering, Gavin, where your inspiration for the dance themes that are flitting through your piece came from (did you say funk or am I making that up) and what is it about fast music that draws you – is it just the challenge or maybe its the latent brass-bander in you eager to make everyone play more notes per second than is actually possible!? How do you guard against notes for notes sake?

Steven, your piece is based upon quite an abstract concept, does it have programmatic elements or is it just the sense of zugunruhe that you are trying to move towards or perhaps even crystallise? Also I saw that your work is numbered: 5 – what happened to the other four incarnations? How long has this idea been an important one to you? Tea break over, lpoyoungcomposergeek signing off…

Welcome to the composers’ blog

Last week, four talented young composers began a series of workshops with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Mark-Anthony Turnage.  We’ve asked them to post their experiences and thoughts about the workshops and how their ideas for their next composition are being shaped by this process.

Alison Atkinson – LPO Digital Projects Manager