There’s a different scent in the air, on this fifth day. I already miss working with Martha, Hillary, Barbara, Abby, and Janet on my wind quintet. They were such a fun group. Still, the slightly slower pace is rather welcome. I enjoyed a very relaxed morning, working on the blog a bit, catching up on email, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch.
At lunch I met up with some other fellow musicians who invited me to a rehearsal of their Dohnanyi sextet for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and piano. It’s a wonderfully lush piece of music, perhaps a tad on the melodramatic side, but it’s a melodrama that wouldn’t be out of place in a silent film or anything by Alfred Hitchcock.
Following this, I was in for a real treat. The first piece of music I wrote back in 2005 after starting grad school in Madison was my String Quartet subtitled “For a New Latitude,” a title that not only indicated I was working in a brand new city, but also because it represented a clear shift in my sound world. Everything previous had been, well, pretty basic, square, and conservative. But, now I felt that there were no limits, especially after becoming acquainted with the work of Ligeti, Crawford, and Crumb. The problem, though, is that my name isn’t Ligeti, Crawford, or Crumb, so this terribly difficult piece has sat on the shelf since I finished up the fourth movement in early 2006.
It was marvelous returning to it, however. The JACK Quartet had read through the second and third movements some years ago, but that was under very limited time without much time for questions and comments. But, I was terribly grateful for that moment to at least finally hear some of it. Today, however, I got to work with Andrea Schultz, Masako Tanagita, Kate Vincent, and Maxine Neuman, and I had a chance to listen to them read through all four movements. And what a treat it was!
It was somewhat strange returning to this music, though. It was like looking through a window rather than seeing a reflection in a mirror. There are so many things in the music that I wouldn’t do now: using so much Italian, for example, in favor of just indicating metronome markings over allegro non tanto, frenetically switching back and forth between col legno, arco ord., and Bartok pizz. within the space of a couple measures.
Speaking of the Bartok pizz., my how I was in love with it! So much so, in fact, that I feel I overused it, Don Crocket himself saying, “I think it’s better without the Bartok pizz.” And I agreed absolutely, that it would be better if used sparingly and only at more dramatic moments.
But, again, what a treat it was to hear this music, and how fantastic it was to receive such helpful feedback from the performers.
So, that’s it. Things are clearly already starting to wind down, sadly. This isn’t to say there’s nothing left to do, only that the end is near, and we’re preparing for the moment.