27.04.10
Anxiety beginning to set in!
Well, it’s abou
t time I started properly getting down to some work for the next Nieuw Ensemble weekend in Amsterdam. The deadline for sketches to be sent out to Amsterdam is the 15th May - scarily close! In the meantime I have also been chosen for Sound and Music/Cheltenham Festival opportunity to write a piece for Danish Accordion Duo TOEAC, which will be running at the same time - I go out to copenhagen to work with TOEAC *the week before* I go out to Amsterdam!
After the last time I stayed up all night typesetting a late submission (about 2 weeks ago) I told myself I wouldn’t do this again! Doh! In my defence, I have been very busy with my Late Music duties, and various bits of typesetting and website work.
So, here we go again. I thought I’d write this blog entry as a prelude to doing some actual work to get my head back into what I am composing. So, apologies - the next bit may seem like I’m planning my work (mainly because I am):-
What worked well from last time:-
The pitch material all seemed quite appropriate and did what I wanted it to do. It’s a good starting point. The string material also worked very well, and will make for a good start to some slow moving material.
The wind and plucked material didn’t work so well. I did realise however how I should be thinking of them in the context of the wider ensemble as a colour, so that’s a good starting point for both the ensemble writing and the plucked instrument writing. One texture in the wind involving “beating” did work pretty well though and I should explore that further.
The best bit of the whole experience was in my arrangement of the source material - this worked very well and clued me in a lot into the layout of the ensemble and what I can do with it. I should revisit it a bit and pull out the best bits.
To focus on for this time:-
At this stage, everything should be full ensemble. I should also work to incorporate Piano and Percussion. I have been working with a fantastic percussionist (Enrico Bertelli of Brake Drum Percussion on a film score project recently so I might call on his help beforehand. I have some ideas for the piano as well. I find piano particularly difficult to write for because I am a pianist. Also it doesn’t quite fit with the texture again. I think I should be thinking of it more in the same terms as the plucked instruments.
Hmm. Lots to think about! At the moment, I have two main textures in mind that might make it into different movements.
I won’t lie - I’m very nervous about this second weekend! Time to get down to it.
Edd Caine
Filed in 
