An early morning coffee and a drive home listening to Astor Piazzolla turned out to be just the inspiration I needed to begin writing a piece exploring odd time and rhythm.
I quickly spent an entire day developing what began as a chamber piece into something far more worthy of a big band and quickly formed the building blocks of the final product. The iterative process involved in having the piece performed and rehearsed by the HearNow Ensemble was possibly the biggest learning experiences of my time writing music. Hearing works being played is an incomparable experience to writing on paper or sibelius without the feedback of musicians.
This piece was not without its troubles. The debate between 14/8 and 7/4 continues to rage on and both sides seem to have their arguments. The piece was originally written in 14/8 divided into 3+3+3+3+2+2 then into 7/4 almost divided in 6+1. The 7/4 feel provides greater syncopation but never quite flows with the notation or the phrase of the music. While 14/8 provides some difficulty in acquiring the feel of the music when reading and fails to clearly divide beats as performers are used seeing them. The piece is designed to break between being in a groove and breaking the cycle as the listener becomes comfortable with the feeling of the piece and resetting its momentum.
This is possibly the largest piece (ensemble size) I’ve written and produced parts for and I think it gave me a real appreciation for how to use the ensemble and spread parts around. Different pairings both successful and unsuccessful. Still, I became very reliant on the saxophones to carry the piece and I now realise why all the pieces I played in high school jazz bands only ever gave forward roles to the saxes. The piece received great feedback and positive review from audience and players which is a great encouragement to me as I continue forward. I don’t think this piece is done, it has huge potential but time needs to be spent creating energy, more originality and less repetitive movement that takes away from the interest. The repitition is not inherently bad and in fact I very much appreciate the tension that it builds but there are times where I feel a similar but not exact replica would better serve the purpose.
I look forward to taking this experience forward in both this piece and other pieces which I hope to write in the future. Making pieces more exciting and sophisticated in their development.
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