Longest time to complete a serious musical piece of work

Great musical ideas come and go, we all have different approaches to writing music...I am sure that some of us have grown as people as time passes, and the music may also evolve as well, stylistically etc...

Just for fun, and perhaps for some perspective for the younger members of the forum - what is the longest time frame that people have actually taken to complete a serious piece of music?

For me, it would be about 17 years.

I started a piano piece when I was roughly 17 years old, never quite finished it. Was initially written in a way that was inspired by typical pop music at the time that I was into. I revisited it around age 20 and added a bit more to it during a time in my life where I was listening to more progressive rock. 14 years later, around age 34 - I put the finishing touches and completed it, and it retained a slightly jazzier/sophisticated feel near the end of the piece.

The piece itself isn't anything that I would consider special, some 4 minutes long for solo piano.

17 years a long time, though I wouldn't say I struggled at all or was obsessed with the piece. I held the musical ideas in the my life as I aged, and it was fun to complete the musical idea when the time came due :)

What about you guys?

Great topic, @Grant Weep ! I am sure that @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu will be able to contribute to this topic given as how he always says that he writes his music over long periods of time.

My Variations on "Deck the Halls" for Piano and Orchestra I started writing the beginning of and the 1st and Rondo Variation back in the late 2000's and only finished it more recently in about 2023 I think. So about 15 years. And there are other old works that I have access to that I am in the process of finishing and publishing thanks to the fact that I can open all my old project files with Cakewalk Sonar DAW.

Thanks for your idea for this topic!

Thx for your invitation, Peter.

My longest time taken is for my Clarinet Quintet in C minor. I started the piece in 2016 Fall, struggling a lot with my life and whether I can really compose, and finished the final draft on April 2022, which was my 1st post here on YC Forum. And I've recently just finished the revision of it for a final version of it, and if this also counts, this work took me almost 10 years to finish.

I am not one who love to be pushed by deadlines and commissions, hence still don't want to be a "professional" "composer". Music has their own lives and when they want to speak they will speak through inspiration. I never believe that by forcing myself would make good music at all; if I'm forced to write trash in order to fulfill commissions or for money, I will choose not writing at all. That accounts for 1 reason why I work really slow.

One example is for my String Sextet: I knew very well in March 2024 that the piece has to be end in a palliative and serene mood, in pentatonic style. But by then I only finished the first 20 munutes in despairing minor and minor and minor passages linger. I couldn't make it. I truthfully believed I could never finish the piece as I didn't figute out how peace can be achieved after such sufferings, after all tragedies, wars, deaths happening in the world nowadays. You can ask @Thatguy v2.0 and he knew I am not lying. (But a big thx to his encouragement) So after suffering some real life pain, recovet and one day I walked and listened to a Chinesr music grouping, I was suddenly inspired-truly inspired. Inspiration came out of nowhere and I knew exactly how to continue the piece and finish it in the way I never thought possible.

I always think that composer is just a pregnant woman (not people). Music just comes from God or Heaven or natute or whatever, and they never belong to you alone as they are only realized through you, hence never your own possession. (Although I am still retaining my copyright lol) That would need time to feed yourself with more nutrients from past human world and the nature, and the process won't be quick, and hence you can never expect your fruit to be born quickly. I am for sure no Mozart thus I can only slowly write my pieces with diligence and hopefully they go well. I wouldn't want to write trash and flashy and extravagant programme notes on my music's blah blah blah to lie to any listeners and myself. I hope everything I write is an honest representation of me, and that would take time too.

Another thing is technical: I need time to get familiar with my material and medium and skills in order to adequately write what I want. In my multi movement works the 1st movements are always the worst because I need time to know my music and digest it to write.

These are my brief explanantion of why I need much time to write.

Henry