Tag Archives: Wind symphony

Working on a string quartet

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I don’t remember exactly when, but I think it was sometime in my second year in the music program as an undergraduate, that one of my teachers said something about how a string quartet was a hard group to write for. I had initially thought that I’d write my music drama with a string quartet accompanying the five singers. But my mentor Christian Asplund recommended thinking of the possibility of a different constellation, and I settled on two clarinets, violin, and cello. Here is the page where you can hear Stone-waltz. And here is the page where you can find Electricity-dance, two of my favorite pieces from the drama The Exchange.

A few years ago I approached Don Peterson, who was then the director of the Wind Symphony at BYU. I was interested in writing a piece for his ensemble. He asked me if I listened to a lot of band music? And the truth is, I hadn’t really done that. He gave me several of his ensemble’s recordings and I started listening to them all the time for a while. It helped me get a feel for how the ensemble works, what different roles the different instruments can play, etc. It took me a while to complete the work, but I still have the first movement and it hasn’t been played yet. Holler if you know of a band that wants to try it! I call it Acceptable, and the title might bring to your mind grading at Hogwarts. But it’s actually derived from scriptures in the New Testament.

There are several that talk about acceptable sacrifices to the Lord, such as this one: 1 Peter 2: 5. “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (italics added).

Well, I have tried playing string quartets one time when I lived in Rundvik. I had gathered a few friends from the folk music ensemble (Umeå spelmanslag) and we got together for a few months and played some quartets. I know playing chamber music can really improve your overall playing, and besides, it’s just a lot of fun. Your part is really important, but it’s so playful because it’s constantly interacting with the other parts. And nobody else plays exactly your part, so it’s a good challenge.

A little while ago I had the idea I should try my hand at writing a string quartet. And instead of having to check out CDs or buy them, I can now just stream them. So I made a playlist with a bunch of Felix Mendelssohn and Bártok quartets that I could play while driving, cooking, watching kids climb, or whatever I needed to do with only using half a mind. And recently I had a first rehearsal with some other string players to try out quartet playing. It was exhilarating! The music is so beautiful, and it’s fun to try and give the composition justice in our interpretation of it.

One day a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to work on a solo piece, but I had left my notes at home. So instead I just started a score for string quartet. And today I pick it up again. All that listening will probably affect the way the quartet sounds! I like more augmented triads, and I like to think that I’m not still in the harmonic language of Mendelssohn, beautiful as it is. But the playful interaction between parts, that I hope to retain. The figures going from one instrument to another. The importance of landing on a chord that sounds like the harmonic language I have chosen. It needs to feel like one piece that fits together with itself, if you understand my meaning.

Create something each day

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I give out two parts this morning from yesterday’s work. I have never actually written for guitar before, and I’m uncertain how it’s going to go over with the guitarist.

It turns out he’s been reading TAB notation, but that is something I am completely unfamiliar with. I’ve written it on a normal staff, and he reassures me that he can translate into the format he knows better.

I get to my computer, and I’m kind of dragging my feet today. That song I started working on earlier this week is itching at me, but I don’t know what I’m doing with it. I decide to just do something. I write in the right hand of the piano to accompany the melody line I wrote a couple of days ago. I find that adding in one more voice actually does a lot to inform the way the song will go – harmonic changes, interplay between voices, and in turn, the bass line, if that isn’t one of the first two.

Yesterday I did a scripture hunt for the word “Perfect.” I don’t know who will be wanting to play it, but I have this idea for a three-movement piece for wind symphony. I wrote the first movement some time ago, but I never got it performed, and I kind of lost heart and didn’t write the second and third movements yet. But I had found my notebook with my ideas for the second movement, and yesterday I worked on the ideas for the third.

It’s easy to just go on being busy without creating something. But I made a goal to create something each day, even if it’s small. One thing it has done for me is appreciate the Sabbath more. I’m kind of spent after trying to create something for six days straight, and it gives me a better rest.

Last year, I was practicing my viola so much all the time, that I started to feel an inflammation develop in my arms. After starting to observe a Sabbath rest one day a week from practicing, my inflammation went away, and I don’t have that problem anymore.

Another thing I notice is that when I play music, I am happier. So when I feel heaviness lowering down on me, it’s usually a good cue to go play some music.

I write some more of the piano accompaniment. Last night, I also listened to Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht. It is not quite as esoteric as his later works, and I felt it was very moving. Somehow, as I’m writing today, I find that his harmonies are still ringing in my head.

And I fill in the rest of the accompaniment to how far I’ve written. I’ve long looked up to Franz Schubert, who cranked out hundreds of Lieder in his short life. Or Charles Ives, who wrote lots of cool songs, which I was first exposed to from a piano teacher at Södra Latin. Maybe that is how it is: once you find the harmonic/melodic language you favor, it’s much easier to put out a lot of music quickly, if you just show up and keep doing it, a little each day.

After getting in a good practice on my viola, I feel very happy. I’m back working on writing the song, and I find the melody flowing to me easily. Suddenly I’m out of lyrics. Is this the end?

Unlikely. It feels like it needs some repetition. So I’ll figure that out, sometime soon, but not today. I add in the right hand of the piano accompaniment for the next 41 measures, and I’m starting to feel tired. I’ll leave it for tonight, and get back another day to this song.