Robbie vs Suggestions

Last thursday I finally got my first reading on my string quartet, which was also the first time I head the piece myself. Although being a bit tricky to recreate, it was great to hear it being played by real musicians for the first time. No foolish midi instruments to discourage anything.

So far this piece is definitely a whole lot different than anything I've written in the past. So far it is broken up in to two main sections. The first section being very sparse using a lot of space and only revealing fragments of a line. The second section is based entirely on atmosphere and the instruments are mainly used more percussively than melodically. The next step is to figure out where I want to go with the piece. Steve suggested that I develop the first section further, hinting at the second section slightly at the beginning and then really open up with that second around the golden mean, which is more or less what I had in mind. Kim, however, suggested that I write a piece entirely on the second idea of muting all the instruments except for one and throwing around a melody to that one instrument.

Currently I have decided to keep writing the piece the way that steve suggested while still keeping kim's idea in mind when I'm focusing on the second section. That way if I feel as if that section could be strong enough to stand alone as an entire piece then I can just go for it and make the other section in to something else.

I've also spent more time this week playing around with the violin that I have at my house. I didn't want to resort back to the piano and I wasn't too fond of the idea of listening to the midi either, so I figured that this would be a good way to hear some of the ideas without falling in to the same traps. It also helps when figuring out how to write the lines for each instrument as well.