Lately, I have been motivated to look back at some older compositions and add some edits.
Firstly, I revisited my Requiem in E Minor, Op. 1 - my first serious composition. I had written this choral work during my college years (2004-2008), but I had likely completed the entire piece by 2007. Since last Fall (Oct. or Nov. 2022), I embarked on the gargantuan task of revising this work. Why? Because I was just not very pleased with some transitions and orchestration choices I had made. The first step was to almos recompose some movements. Many sections were altered, others added, some pairs of movements were condensed into one. The second step was to make sure a solid vocal score was completed, and the third and final step was to re-orchestrate the work. In the end, I am much more pleased with the current state of the composition. I always wondered why other composers revise music, but I understood little until I went through the process myself.
Secondly, last night I finished a movement of my String Quartet no.2 , Op. 57. I wrote about two thirds of this movement 10 years ago in 2013. It lay dormant for so long... however, after a revival performance of my first string quartet by a very talented and enthusiastic all-female string quartet in Somerville, I was so motivated to jump back into this second quartet. But what did I decide to do with this lengthy "sketch" I had produced. I moved several sections around, added connections, wrote new parts, discarded some measures here and there, and finally decided that this movement would be the end of the composition. After finishing this movement, I penned down the first minute of music for what should become the opening movement. The middle movement is yet to come to me, but I'm looking forward to creating it. During this process of revision, I began to see this string quartet in a new light. It is a sibling to the first quartet, in the sense that it uses similar harmony and the same note material: the octatonic scale. But my current mindset is to write it without the burden of academic pressure since the first quartet was the capstone for my graduate degree.
The first piece I ever wrote, and the newest number in my catalogue of compositions, mingling hand in hand several years apart. The lesson to myself and anyone looking to write music is: stay true to your ideas. Revisit them and develop them. They will begin to talk to you more and more.
Comentarios