Well, it's time I got on with sketching material for the first workshop in Amsterdam and, in keeping with the perennial rules of procrastination, write my first blog for the HCMF website at the same time. That's why I'm here in my office at 10pm, jug of coffee steaming away, pistachio nuts and dried apricots on standby to stave off even the suspicion of hunger (I have a tendency to binge eat while composing). Now also staving off the temptation to pop down to the bar for a drink.

A bit about myself - I'm a composer based in York - doing a PhD in composition. I am shortlisted with Sound And Music (formerly SPNM) and get performances of my work with various ensembles and festivals/concerts. Most commonly my work is performed at the Late Music Concert Series (http://www.latemusic.org/concerts), where I help organise the concerts and publicity.

I also have a number of different jobs to fund my PhD - I am "Music Tutor" for Vanbrugh College, a role which has expanded dramatically and I am now running 3 ensembles, organising workshops, teaching orchestration and privately mentoring ensemble leaders. I am also welfare tutor there, which involves looking after the undergrads. I also work for University of York Music Press (www.uymp.co.uk), accompany at a school, perform in a jazz restaurant and do graphic design and website programming. I do some typesetting on the side and also will be teaching adult daytime classes on contemporary music soon.

All of which has made it very difficult to get down to writing anything in advance of this weekend! Not to worry - I used to be known as "Two-minutes-to-midnight" at school because that's when I'd start my work. I have got better though!

I'm really excited about the weekend and looking forward to getting stuck into some composition and collaboration. The HCMF are being fantastic organising travel etc. and I anticipate a fun and instructive time!

Right - better get back to it!

Edward Caine

OK, so Amsterdam is looming up (we go out on Friday) and I'm frantically trying to create what I deem as enough appropriate material for the first set of workshops. I thought it might be helpful to explain the type of material that I'm taking out there for any future participants - although I can't say for certain that I'm making the right kind of sketches -

The piece is to be based on a medieval chanson 'Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil' by Claude Le Jeune - you can listen it here:

I first came across it when listening to Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Lucie mi traditrici'. My first instinct is to fragment the chanson into instrinsic section and then to use the shape and harmonic 'field' to generate material.

The main thing I am interested in at this point is the nature of the instrumentation in the ensemble, so I am creating lots of fragmentary sketches for different combinations and different types of material. Something I noticed quite quickly is that, to my knowledge at least, the whispery legato string music I've been writing is not transferable over to the guitar, harp and mandolin. Those are three instruments that I really want to focus on when I'm over there - they're difficult to write for! Also their very presence dramatically changes the type of material you write

I'm thinking at this stage that I'll probably write a three movement/section piece - the material I'm using lends itself very well to slow moving, beatific chords, however the ensemble also dictates a leaning towards staccato material. At this point I'm finding the piano a little difficult to reconcile too - but then I'm a pianist, and find it very hard to write for my own instrument...

Also I have a nagging feeling that what I really want in the middle of it all is a trombone! I'll quash that one - I am excited to be writing for Double Bass though!

Back to it - sketches are needed yesterday!

Edward Caine

Well, I'm back from Amsterdam and completely wiped out! I've had a really fantastic weekend with the Nieuw Ensemble - they're all really helpful, and I had a great time working with them.

Friday

We met at Leeds Bradford Airport, me and Stef having travelled there together, then meeting Johnny and Pat in the airport. We then got on our plane and were met in Amsterdam by Neils, who was a student of Joël's. It was very nice to meet someone off the plane as Amsterdam was at first a little daunting!

Once we'd got to our guesthouse (an extremely friendly little house run by a seafairers mission charity with very comfortable rooms and a nice atmosphere) we went out to find a pub to get to know one another. Ironically the first one we went to was an English themed pub!

One of the nicest things about this weekend was just spending two straight days jawing with composers about all things musical! Debate was intense with Pat and Johnny coming from a more experimental angle and me and Stef coming from more of a traditional angle, but all was good fun and there's nothing like a good musical debate!

Saturday

Getting slightly lost on the way to meet Jasper (our contact with the NE) at the station we nevertheless got there for 10am, having crossed the river in the free ferries you get in Amsterdam. There was some startling architecture on the way! The Nieuw ensemble themselves have a nice little den in a commercial lot in the back end of an industrial estate. Not much to look at from the outside, but a nice large square room inside with a mezzanine office. The large rehearsal space was littered with stands, instruments and exciting boxes full of percussion. It was a veritable musicians playground and 'lair' if you can imagine that.

We had introductions. I took scores with me because I was told I needed to give a talk about my work but actually all it amounted to was a "say your name and a sentence about yourself" type of thing.

Then it was straight into the workshops. We started with my material because the parts were ready. The string material worked really well and with some constructive comments, particularly from the double bassist (about reach). I did my material in sections - Strings, Winds and Plucked (apparently very common for composers to do that). The two sections I was less confident about - winds and pluckeds - went as badly as I thought, but I found it very constructive and later had a session with just those instruments in an effort to get my ear in and understand them a little better.

Session format was completely open - it was amazing having a whole ensemble there to do your bidding - if you felt you needed something, just ask. Planning was a must though - the whole ensemble was there Saturday morning, but nobody had any tutti material!

That night me, Stef and Joël went to the Chinese opera in the amazing Musiekgebouw - it was bonkers and virtuosic and altogether awesome. Johnny and Pat, after eating with us in a nice Thai Restaurant, went home to sketch stuff for Sunday.

When we got back that night I stayed up until 3am sketching a tutti arrangement of my source material for the next day, and finishing some sketches for Oboe, Percussion and Double Bass.

Sunday

Having requested a special percussion session (Johnny and Stef were particularly interested in the Chinese percussion) we needed to get there for 9am as the percussionist had to leave early. unfortunately we misjudged timing and were 25 mins late - got a rounded reprimand from Joël, quite rightly, and felt heartily ashamed. Lesson learnt.

Then we launched into a tutti session - we all by then had tutti material. On Saturday, we tried to plan ahead and thought we wouldn't need a conductor so he was sent home on Sunday, however, we then realised we did but it was too late. The upshot was - I got to conduct! Amazing! This was a real boon to me as I do conduct a fair bit, but I never get to conduct such amazing musicians! That gave me a real buzz.

My tutti arrangement of "Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil" went down really well and sounded fantastic. It was rather hurried and had some mistakes in the score but it was a real blast hearing something come out well. We didn't have time or resources to try out my Ob. Perc. Dbl Bs material but that's not a problem - more for next time! Stef, Pat and Johnny's material all sounded interesting and it was in general a very good day.

We then had an evaluation, where we discussed how we felt our sessions and material went with Joël, who seemed in general very positive, and then details about organisation with Heidi. The organisation feedback was a little awkward because there were a couple of points for improvement in the run up to the weekend and a couple of fine details, but the consensus was that the weekend itself could not have been organised more thoroughly and positively, and that the helpfulness of the astute Joël Bons and the organisational skills of the indomitable Heidi Johnson were very much appreciated!

Then we headed back to the station and airport, stopping off briefly for a wonder round Amsterdam. Heidi had arrived early morning and was with us all day and so accompanied us back, which again we might have had trouble with on our own!

Edward Caine

Things learnt:

1) Never be late when people are being paid to be there
2) Always come prepared with sketches and ideas - stay up late doing them if needs be!
3) Plan ahead
4) If unsure of something, ask
5) When dealing with players, good communication is key!
6) Make sure your recording equipment is working, and on! (we lost the first session)

Notable people in the ensemble:

Joël Bons, Artistic Director

Joël's comments are incisive, penetrating and above all extremely helpful! He's very concerned with the minutia of performance and will point out the tiniest thing that you didn't even notice was a problem. Joël is also your translater for the musicians, both in language terms (although they all speak excellent English) and in terms of getting the best out of them. The other thing I was impressed with is that Joël is sceptical of the performers as he is of the composers - He will always be your advocate if you're struggling to communicate your ideas and the performers are getting uncomfortable with what you're asking. This is essential if you are being experimental, and so helpful!

Ernest Rombout, Oboe

Ernest, apart from being one of the best oboe players I've yet met, has the air of a charming and helpful academic, always patient and willing to discuss technique in great detail. As I was dealing with multiphonics, a touchy subject in the best of cases, Ernest very patiently explained that I was unlikely to get the clarity of multiphonic I was after and that I should specify types. i had basically specified just a couple of pitches. When I thought the session was over I thought I had finished - I turned away then heard a cry - it was Ernest having found a good multiphonic for what I was after - in the next minutes he'd found a range of fantastic sounds and offered to write down the fingerings. Wonderful!

Helenus de Rijke, Guitar

A Paul McCartney lookalike in his youth, Helenus was again charming and helpful, and very patient with my (deliberately basic) questions.

Rob Dirksen, Bass

Morton Feldman lookalike Rob was inestimably cool and came up with some great sounds over the course of the workshops. Most notable was playing the bottom of the tailpiece with the lowest string - it made the room vibrate!

General Thoughts

It was so nice to just compose for a weekend, away from my crowded life. When I wasn't workshopping my stuff, I was sat at the side sketching, typesetting, reading technique books and more importantly listening to other people's workshops, from which I learnt a lot. Doing this, and working hard before and during the weekend, I really felt I got everything I could have got from it!

It is tiring though - I got barely any sleep the week before, and very little sleep while I was there. I'm now having a lazy day to make up for it though. It was totally worth it!

Amsterdam is beautiful.

Ernest came up with a fantastic technique, which I choose to call the "Rombout Tongue Trill". Or maybe the "Rombout Roll"?

Quotes

"It was interesting 50 years ago" (Me, about Cage)

A good name for a band, and album: "Personal Hugbear: A Fluffy Grudge" (Stef and Me)

Edward Caine

 Well, it’s about 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

Ok, so it’s the day before the sketches are due for the next weekend. I have sketches for 3/4 different types of material which I’m slowly evolving. I forgot about this, but I also have material which I didn’t get ready in time for the last weekend, which I may take as well just as a matter of interest (although my thoughts have moved on somewhat since then).

I’m finding it difficult not to just write for strings - the ensemble has a very rich combination (Vln, Vla, Vcl. Dbl Bs) and string writing is a bit of a comfort zone for me at the moment. I have some exciting material for strings and winds though which is based on my recent piece for Trio Atem (Sop. Fl. Vcl. Atem). Not to mention the difficulty of incorporating the plucked instruments. It’s also very difficult not to think of the groups as blocks - it’s undoubtedly easier to write for them that way! I was encouraged not to last time though so I should adhere to that notion!

So I’m at a point of indecision with one bit of material - I have some very nice, lush string writing which I’d like to leave intact, but if I do so I feel I really wouldn’t be taking advantage of the ensemble for what it is. Happily, this week I had a seminar at York given by Joe Cutler, and the nature of juxtaposition in his pieces was an interesting compositional idea - I might take that as a cue as to how to structure the slower string material...

It’s very difficult to make a decision at this point though! I’d much rather write my blog, or go and buy more coffee, or spend time on twitter (@eddjc).

I guess another thing to think about at this point, and it’s something I’m finding hard to get my head round, is the fact that what we’re producing is sketch material. In some ways it should make writing it easier - If for example I don’t like the juxtaposed material over the strings then I can always take it out later. This should be quite liberating, but I really am beginning to feel the pressure of needing to produce a final piece, and also to make the best use of my time when I’m out there i.e. utilising the whole group.

All in all I’m beginning to wish I had a couple more weeks to do this! Better get back on with it...

Edd Caine

Approaching now the deadline for our scores. It's been a gruelling process I think - to be not experienced in writing for larger ensembles is to miss out just how long it takes to write a single page, which may comprise 10 seconds of music. Also never before have I thrown out and re-written so much material! It is a mark of pride for a composer when he finishes a manuscript book and I've so far finished two in this process.

However it is a strangely appealing process as well - so long as you have enough material, and a concept which could be played out on every instrument, you could go on for hours combining and recombining instruments and dreaming up new and interesting combinations and sonorities and potentially not even dent the surface of what can be done with the ensemble and it's something that had I more time and infinite Nieuw Ensembles to perform it I might doggedly pursue in that however much I am frustrated with some of the material I'm writing (and I am!), I still want to get to the bottom of what it is to write for such an ensemble.

Another thought is how like painting it is - whereas in chamber music you're playing against the limits of the context and the instruments you are writing for, with large ensemble it feels like you are constantly thinking about colour and texture - instead of exploring limits you are constantly adding to what is there.

Another thought on this process is one of timescale - in the time between the workshops and now I have moved house, fallen ill, got better, lost relative, job and girlfriend, gained a teaching position and various friends and many musical influences. My whole approach to the ensemble has changed somewhat and I find it very interesting that all being considered the audience is very unlikely to know! Even the section I'm working on right now - a Trio section that's extremely fast - I've had to pause, stop, re-write and re-think many times - something that should all being well be undetectable in the final version...

Anyway - here's a round off with a glimpse at my thought processes. I'd initially come to the process with an idea of using Claude Le Jeune's 'Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil' as a kind of source material for tonal structure. I've stuck to this in general apart from one thing - I'm no longer going to include the original source material in the piece. For a long while I've been fascinated by this poem by Frank O'Hara.

What interests me is this monadistic relationship between the subject and the final artwork, and how something can be referenced and yet not there, in the way that the SARDINES in the painting are gradually painted over. Such is the case here with the Le Jeune in my piece.