CREATIVE CONSTRAINTS

A lot of the challenge of writing my desires became a light which lifted me to the clouds was the very basic obstacle of having a sense of harmony and melody at the same time. This was extra challenging because most of the time each instrument is playing solo (only at the end of the piece do they both play) (typically a harmony is three notes plus a melody note (which makes four) which is not very practical for the string instruments). Whats super interesting to me, is figuring out solution to that problem, essentially became the piece it self, and dictated so many of the decisions that I made.

Here are some ways I over came that challenge

-just have harmonic movement with out the melody. Like Bachs prelude in C and a lot of Philip Glasses music. This is how the piece opens.

-Have melody with no harmony. I thought I would use this more than I did. It feels like an opportunity for the melody to be free with out the constraints of harmony, but often a melody can feel aimless with out that foundation. I used this approach for the beginning of the viola's section.

-Have a melody with super strong harmonic implications. This is what Bach does on a lot of his solo violin work and I used this approach through out the whole work. Its like being able to feel the harmony with out it actually being there.

-Harmony melody taking turns. When I used this I normally did some type of rolling chord at the begging of the measure and then moved on to melody material after that.

MY DESIRES BECAME A LIGHT WHICH LIFTED ME TO THE CLOUDS

My desires became a light and lifted me to the clouds, is my new piece written for violin and viola. Unlike other projects where I began with a concept, and then worked on music to match it, this project started with musical ideas, which quickly suggested their own meaning. Like a new kind of air (for solo piano) this project is also for extremely limited instrumentation with out any lyrics. This is due partly to practical constraints (its cheaper to preform) but also I took it on as a stretching compositional challenge. In both works I had to abandon a lot of my default compositional procedures, and in a way, reinvent my musical voice.

The two ideas that permeated my thinking while writing the piece were, all desires at their core are something good and holy, but often how we try to fulfill those desires (i.e. in the wrong way) is what causes destruction, and secondly, almost all (maybe all) of our desires at there root are relational. Even things that don’t look like relational desires, like making a lot of money, or releasing art, or taking over another country, is at their core, a desire for respect, or love, or praise, or honor, from other humans, thus relational.

A little bit about the structure of the piece. It is in three sections, part one is solo violin, part two is solo viola, and part three is violin and viola together. I thought of the first two sections as the expression of desire, and the striving and searching for its fulfillment. In both of the first two parts there is a section with a slow unadorned melody. You could call these sections the theme of desire. Both the violin and violas themes are interrelated to each other, almost like saying the same idea with different words. The thematic ideas from these two melodies come back again and again, creating a sense of unity across the piece. In the third part, both violin and viola are playing, but not simultaneously, as if they were dancing around each other. This builds to a climax where, for the first time, both instruments are playing together. This leads to a highly rhythmic section (I felt very happy and compositionally at home making this section) which is imbued with a sense of celebration. The piece concludes with a long section that continues to build and build till the end. Emotionally the sense of longing returns in this end section as the “characters” realize the ultimate fulfillment of their longing and desires can only be fulfilled in the spiritual world.