Study in C

Allegedly, Arnold Schoenberg, the father of twelve tone atonalism, once said, "there is still a lot of good music to be written in the key of C", meaning that you can take a key, a group of notes that represent a tonality and create an interesting piece of music. You can create something that has never bee written before. The key of C is the most prosaic of keys so the challenge to make something interesting in the key of C is significant. 

One day, I  decided to take up the challenge and see what I could compose in the key of C. I came up with this piano piece that I call a Study in C. To me, the thing that makes the piece interesting is that I  feature the tritone, an interval that I was always taught never to use or to use sparingly and only briefly, in passing so that the sound does not linger in the ear. Well, most of what I compose goes against what I was taught, but isn't that always the way? In this piece I use the tritone obsessively. It gives  the piece a driving quality, an obsessive quality. It started out as an idea, a whim, something inspired by this aleged utterance by Arnold Schoenberg. I guess that there still is many good things to write in the key of C. Maybe I will see what I can write for the piano in all of the other keys.

What I like about this piece is the relentless forward motion of the piece. By the end, it has a driving quality that is almost hypnotic. I was very satisfied with the result of this little experiment in the key of C.

Part of my inspiration for this piece comes from the music of Terry Riley, one of the proponents of minimalism. The other part of the inspiration for this piece comes from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier collection, not any one piece in particular but the ethos of the entire collection.

Here is the link for the video on Youtube 

MEMORIES OF BARCELONA - GAUDI

I have finally finished the last section of Memories of Barcelona. It was inspired by the wonderful, fantastical architecture of Antoni Gaudi. This is the same Gaudi who conceived of the idea of the Sagrada Familia which inspired the second movement of Memories of Barcelona. Needless to say, I was very impressed with Gaudi.

As I was writing this piece I wanted to emulate the architecture that I saw in Gaudi park. the lines of the buildings and decoration have a certain baroque flowing quality . I wasn't going to try and imitate the Baroque style of composition, that would not be authentic, but I did want to capture the flowing ornamental feeling of Gaudi's work. That is what I tried to do in this composition.

Other than Bach, I can't think of another compose who I had in mind or listened to more while I was writing this piece. I listened to Bach's Well Tempered Clavier played on the guitar. I did listen to the music of Leo Brouwer. I don't how his playing and compositions influenced the piece but I did enjoy listening to his music.

Just as the middle section of Memories of Barcelona was slow and somewhat ponderous, I wanted the third section to be light and quick. I also felt that this feeling of lightness and quickness was more representative of Gaudi. The entire section is five minutes and thirty seconds ling long more or less. Again, I didn't want the section to be too long. I figure that when there is no more to say, a composer should just end the composition, so that is what I did. There is no resolution. There is no satisfying final cadence to let you know that the piece has ended. I just stopped. The funny thing is that I have a sense that the piece is still going on and I can hear in  my head that the piece is still playing. That is more in keeping with the sense of the piece than if I had used a more traditional ending. All in all, I am satisfied with the last section of Memories of Barcelona. All I need now is a highly skilled guitarist to play it!

Here is the link to the video https://youtu.be/bLGbsBv5LGQ

Pour Denise

I have interrupted my posts on my composition, Memories of Barcelona. I was working on the third section or movement of the piece which is based on the work or the architect Gaudi, when my oldest sister passed away.

My oldest sister, Denise, had ovarian cancer for five years. She did her best to deal with the disease but in the end, the disease won and she passed away earlier this month. I flew to Quebec City to attend the funeral. While I was at the funeral in Quebec City the idea for a solo violin piece came to me. I heard the piece in my head, not complete but in pieces that seemed to float in and out of my head. What I felt and thought and experienced at the funeral could not be expressed in words, not even poetry. I, who is always so easy with words, was speechless. The only way I could express myself was with music, with this solo violin piece.

Almost at the same time that this piece came to me, another piece was playing in my head, Bach's Partita II, BWV 1004. It is a darkly, sad and beautiful masterpiece that I have always admired but at this time, the time of my sister's funeral , it was deeply comforting. the Chaconne seemed to speak to me in a way that expressed what I was thinking and feeling.

After the funeral, I returned to my cousins apartment where I spent some time writing down ideas for my solo violin piece. I wanted to spend time with my cousin before My flight home so I reluctantly set the piece aside, even though the ideas kept going through my head.

My cousin dropped me off at the airport around 6:00 pm on Friday, August 11th. My flight was at 8:00 pm so I had plenty of time to check-in, have a bite to eat and work on music. I planned to be home around 10:30 pm that night. Not was not how things turned out. There was a flight cancellation then a rescheduled flight followed by endless delays then finally my flight was cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday morning. During all of this time I had nothing to do but work on my violin piece. It also kept me preoccupied so I didn't have to think about all of the incertitude. Finally, I left the airport, found a place to sleep and returned to the airport bright and early on Saturday. While I ate breakfast at the airport I worked on my piece. While I was waiting to get on my flight I worked on the piece. All the way to Toronto on the plane I worked on the piece. The ideas were strong and tried to capture everything that I could.

Over the following weeks, I continued to work on the piece everyday. I listened to all of Shostakovitch's string quartets and violin concertos. there was much there that spoke to me. I listened to all of Beethoven's string quartets and as always I came away with a deeper understanding of composition. Bartok's string quartets had a particular hold on me. There was a resonance that I tried to capture in my violin piece.

Finally, I completed the violin piece then edited it heavily. I wanted it to flow in the same way that Bach's Chaconne flows and the way the Shostakovitch's and Bartok's string quartet's resonated in my head. In the end, although I was not totally satisfied with the result I considered this violin piece that I wrote in memory for my oldest sister to be finished. I think at some point in the future I may come back and look at it again but for now it is done.

I hope that you like it.

J'ai interrompu mes articles sur ma composition, Memories of Barcelona. Je travaillais sur la troisième section ou le mouvement de la pièce qui est basé sur le travail ou l'architecte Gaudi, lorsque ma sœur aînée est décédée.

Ma soeur aînée, Denise, a eu un cancer de l'ovaire pendant cinq ans. Elle a fait de son mieux pour faire face à la maladie, mais à la fin, la maladie a gagné et elle est décédée plus tôt ce mois-ci. Je suis allé à Québec pour assister aux funérailles. Pendant que j'étais au funéraire à Québec, l'idée d'une pièce de violon solo est venue à moi. J'ai entendu la pièce dans ma tête, pas complète mais en morceaux qui semblait flotter dans et hors de ma tête. Ce que j'ai ressenti, pensé et expérimenté au funéraire ne pouvait pas être exprimé par des mots, pas même par la poésie. Moi, qui est toujours si facile avec les mots, était sans voix. La seule façon de m'exprimer était la musique, avec cette pièce de violon solo.

Presque en même temps que cette pièce venait à moi, une autre pièce jouait dans ma tête, Partita II de Bach, BWV 1004. C'est un chef-d'œuvre sombre, triste et magnifique que j'ai toujours admiré, mais à cette époque, l'époque de mon les funérailles de la sœur, c'était très réconfortant. le Chaconne semblait me parler d'une manière qui exprimait ce que je pensais et ressaisais.

Après les funérailles, je suis retourné dans mon appartement aux cousins ​​où j'ai passé quelque temps à écrire des idées pour mon morceau de violon solo. Je voulais passer du temps avec mon cousin devant My flight home, donc j'ai réticent la pièce, bien que les idées aient continué à traverser ma tête.

Mon cousin m'a déposé à l'aéroport vers 18 heures le vendredi 11 août. Mon vol était à 20h00, donc j'avais beaucoup de temps pour faire un check-in, mordre et travailler sur la musique. Je prévoyais être à la maison vers 22h30 ce soir-là. Ce n'était pas la façon dont les choses se passaient. Il y a eu une annulation de vol alors un vol rééchelonné suivi par des retards sans fin puis enfin mon vol a été annulé et reprogrammé pour samedi matin. Pendant tout ce temps, je n'ai rien à faire que de travailler sur mon morceau de violon. Cela m'a également préoccupé, donc je n'ai pas eu à penser à toutes les incertitudes. Enfin, j'ai quitté l'aéroport, j'ai trouvé un endroit où dormir et je suis retourné à l'aéroport brillant et tôt le samedi. Pendant que je prenais le petit déjeuner à l'aéroport, j'ai travaillé sur mon morceau. Pendant que j'étais en attente d'aller sur mon vol, j'ai travaillé sur la pièce. Tout le chemin à Toronto dans l'avion, j'ai travaillé sur la pièce. Les idées étaient fortes et essayaient de saisir tout ce que je pouvais.

Au cours des semaines suivantes, j'ai continué à travailler sur la pièce tous les jours. J'ai écouté tous les quatuors à cordes de Chostakovitch et les concertos pour violon. Il y avait beaucoup de choses qui m'avaient parlé. J'ai écouté tous les quatuors à cordes de Beethoven et, comme toujours, je suis venu avec une compréhension plus profonde de la composition. Les quatuors à cordes de Bartok m'avaient particulièrement retenu. Il y a eu une résonance que j'ai essayé de capturer dans mon morceau de violon.

Enfin, j'ai complété la pièce de violon puis l'ai fortement édité. Je voulais que cela coule de la même manière que Chaconne de Bach coule et la façon dont le quatuor à cordes de Shostakovitch et Bartok résonne dans ma tête. À la fin, bien que je n'eusse pas totalement satisfait du résultat, j'ai considéré cette pièce de violon que j'ai écrite en mémoire pour que ma soeur aînée soit finie. Je pense que, à un moment ou l'autre, je pourrais revenir et le regarder à nouveau, mais pour l'instant, c'est fait.

J'espère que tu aimes ça.

Here is the link for Youtube/Voici le lien pour Youtube https://youtu.be/0WTdexd-snU