ECM Reading

We finally got our pieces read by the ECM last week after weeks of worrying and stressing about what they would think of them and how they would turn out. It was definitely a very rewarding and positive experience to see our pieces in the hands of trained professionals as oppose to the land of midi provided by our pirated copies of sibelius 6.

I enjoyed hearing my piece come to life, but there was definitely a few sections that I was a bit confused with and wasn't sure if it was my fault as the composer for not being clear of it was just a simple matter of it being its first read through with the ensemble. One section had the main motive in the Piano (around the 1:4o mark) which seemed a little bit buried. Also, at the 2:50 mark I intended the 16th notes to be equivalent to the 8th notes, which instead ended up to be an awkward transition. Overall, the transitions in my piece were definitely lacking but I did enjoy the form and my attempt at using similar material throughout the piece seemed to be a bit more effective than it tends to be.

Hearing the concert and the pieces presented the night prior to the reading really made me want to go back and re-write my piece entirely, but I'm glad I got this piece read too. It turned out much better than I had anticipated, although I feel like I still have a long ways to go before I am truly satisfied in writing a piece. Let's hope I can work some magic within the next week and a half!

ECM concert

Last night I attended the ECM concert. I wasn't expecting the ensemble to look as it did, especially with the electric guitar and only one of each instrument, but it made a lot more sense as the concert went on and you got to know more of what they were about. The writing styles of the composers were certainly a shock as well. I think my lack of familiarization to contemporary music definitely led me to be ignorant to what type of compositions to expect. Once I heard them I immediately wanted to go back to my piece and rewrite it to make it more suited to their style.

I enjoyed seeing the use of electric guitar in three of the pieces. Once again, I never knew how to approach such an instrument in an ensemble such as this. It was interesting to see the guitarist use effects, which was something I never considered outside of 'pop' music. I think I would definitely want to write for an ensemble and incorporate an electric guitar.

I think my favourite piece of the night was 'Binding the Quiet', by Christopher Mayo. I thought all of the pieces were great, but this is the one that stood out to me the most. I really liked particular how the instruments interacted in this piece. It was great that they had the composers come up and talk before they began the piece because then you were much more aware of what to listen for and certainly gave me ideas for future pieces. An overall great experience.