Well, as any musician knows, December often descends into chaos, with numerous gigs, concerts, trips, and of course finals. So it was virtually impossible to get much done before school let out. I told myself I would buckle down and get to work as soon as break was over, but that didn't happen, partly because of laziness, and partly because of Christmas and family vacation...
Anyway, by January 1 I still hadn't done much at all on either the second or the third movement, so I blocked of this last week as my frantically-try-to-finish-a-movement week. And I surpassed even my expectations by finishing BOTH the second and the third movements! Movement Two is a lush, melodic movement, with Romantic harmonies and a calm mood. I had a melodic fragment I liked, and basically used it for all of the development sections, and expanded it into a full melody for the thematic sections. I will dig into this movement more once the rehearsal process starts, sometime in February, and explain how it is put together. But this one only took two days to write, from beginning to end. Movement Three was a bit trickier, partly because it is fast and frenzied (much like I have been lately), and partly because there is not really a melody, so there had to be several interesting motives that could interact with eachother to give interest to the movement. Again, I will get into detail later, but the third movement is harsh, abrasive, and terrifying, with loud dissonances and driving rhythms. It took me the rest of the week to finish this one, partly because I had to sit at the piano and work out every measure, every run, every rhythm to keep it from getting stagnant. But everything is done, the score is finished, and I can finally take a break and admire my work...a 32-minute symphony, for full orchestra, finished in a total of about 5 months. Time for dessert!
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