Hello again! It's great to be back after another hiatus during the Third U.K. series of 'Yearnings for Home', which was organized before I had started this page. I'll be sharing some highlights slightly more frequently to catch you up with all that has happened in the interim. Also, my camera is currently broken so no document scans :-( (A new one is on the way! :-) )
When composing, the question of the musical outcome hangs suspended, how will it sound? This is a simple query, but at present it carries the weight of an entire opera on its shoulders. A fascinating aspect of writing scores is that they can only ever answer half of this question. As composers, we work closely with performers and other musical staff to uncover how this other half will come about through an intense process of workshopping, rehearsing, and editing that provides the eventual outcome.
It’s a curious phenomenon. You hear in the performance the codependent intertwined halves of the compositional process: one part plan; one part agreement, on-the-fly improvisation in the moment, and compromise to meet the needs of the performance venue. It is neither wholly improvised, nor wholly planned, but a dance between these two things. A great composition should always create something that could never have happened by accident, wheras an improvisation forms beauty out of coincidence and instinct.
Consider the temptation that you feel as you compose to travel down either one of these paths. The glorious freedom of interpretation and improvisation that leads to magical musical moments that are simultaneously unmissable yet fleeting contends with the comfort of greater degrees of specificity, precision, and and finesse. I have always believed that the true beauty of music lies in an event horizon between those extremes that is something we can strive for, but rarely attain.
As I write this opera, there are numerous instances where I feel the strong tug in both directions. I’m currently working on ‘3 – He’s been to the Academy’, which is Mrs Blake’s opening passage. Yet here I arrive at a conundrum – how to complete the right-hand part in this highly reified and antique-styled aria. How can I create a sense of Mrs Blake straining to be free of her situation?
We’ll discover the answer together in the coming weeks. In the mean-time, how would you approach this compositional issue?