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Pillars and Swarms
Hi everyone!
I know I very rarely post anything on here - not because I don't want to but because the recordings I have of things are copyrighted by the performers (and they'll set me on fire if I put them online). However, as part of my finals I had to write a piece for Wind Ensemble and Piano solo that as yet is unperformed so all I have is midi. Originally it was intended to be quite a short piece, but it ended coming close to 5 minutes.
It's quite different from most of my other pieces in that the starting point was essentially gestural. These two gestures were deliberately contrasting - chords that expand from small clusters into wide spacings (with a swelling dynamic that is then cut off and swells again) i.e. 'pillars', and 'swarms' - restless contrapuntal material that is based on a single idea/motive. I worked out how these two musical ideas would interact largely as a graphic score before writing any music at all, which helped to give me a sense of direction in the work.
Although I feel that the work is finished for now, if it's ever going to be performed (which is vaguely possible) I'd be looking to go over it, and perhaps introduce some new material at some point to prevent it stagnating too much and perhaps spend more time making the piano 'crashings' a little bit more sophisticated towards the middle of the piece. The ending could do with a little bit of slowing down also.
I'm happy with the energy it has however and like the overall feel even if there are parts that could be enriched and more detailed.
All comments appreciated.
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