Entry 2. Roll them chords!

See, when violinists need to play more than one note at once, they play block chords. Or rolled chords- I bet you every violinist who writes for piano puts in lots of rolled chords. Why? 'Cause it's what we're used to. Sure, we can play doublestops where one note is moving and the other one's staying still- or, if we're forced to do so, make both notes move at once- but do we want to? Pfft, nah. "All that chord-y, counterpoint-y stuff?...Make the piano accompanist do it."

And that, my friends, is the general violinist's state of mind as far as chords are concerned.

I've antagonized before about writing for an instrument with multiple voices, aka TWO HANDS before, and I'd love to continue doing so for abother thirty minutes. But I'm not going to, instead I'm going to ramble-on about the piece I'm working on right now.

I started one piece. Then left it, (I saved it so it's there for later use if I'm desperate) and started another one. Twice. Then that beginning became the middle section aaand inspiration for the third movement of my piece.

What? Compositional ADD? Me? Nah.

The first movement...I wanted it to sound somewhat like a fanfare in the beginning, and I've decided to use some polytonality. I wasn't sure if it was doable on the piano, but the pianist's got two hands so why not? But then the polytonality became atonality so I'm saving the actual polytonality- one key in one hand, one key in the other- for later on in the piece. The beginning'll lead up to that. I think. Not too sure yet- I'm only on bar 12, and yes, I write my blog while I write my piece, taking a break from one to work on the other and so on and so forth. That's why my blog entries are so long and ramble so much...

I've remembered how influential varying dynamics, using the full range of the piano, and the use of rests can be. I tend to compose without paying much detail to any of those things, but when I actually do use them I find I like the piece even more. I need to make little sticky notes with hints like this and stick them just above my screen so I can't write without taking into account how important this stuff is...And accents, too. I'm making sure that I do accents and dynamic markings as I go, rather than writing stuff and going back to fix that later because editing is a pain. I think in one of my blog entries from a year ago I described composition editing to be like a funeral. The piece is done, but you have to go back and do all the nit-picky stuff no one likes. Just like preparing your dearly beloved to be buried in the ground. They get dressed up, you put on their favourite hat, that ridiculous tie, spray them with a hint of that god-aweful musk they called perfume and then place them in a nicely cushioned box before you say your goodbyes and bury them six feet under. Yes, this is me, griping about funeral preparations. But I can't very well compare composition editing to cremation, now, can I? If I did, I'd never pass this course. No one wants to be handed a pile of ashes and told "Here, it's my final project."

Well, so far it's turning out aiight. Hopefully I'll have enough done that I'm OK presenting...Whatever it is I DO have done tomorrow. I'm aiming for at least one minute of music, though I'm not sure if I'll get that. Time to put the coffee back on! Or get some more peppermints. For some reason, peppermints have become my composing energy...source...Thing. Fuel. There we go.

On with the block rolled chords!