Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 3: Mini-Self-Revelations

Mini-Self-Revelations
(...or, what I've learned so far)

1.) I need music with a pulse. Fast, slow, irregular - any type is fine, but my ear and my body really crave some sort of coherent rhythmic structure.

2.) I don't mind harsh dissonances, when used with intention. More important than consonant sonorities is a continuity and logic in the level of dissonance from points A to B to C, etc...

3.) Early minimalism tends to rely on the repetition and modification of very small music units (1-2 beats). As the repeated cell becomes longer and more complex, minimalism gives way to simpler large structures: the repeated phrase, passacaglia, ground bass, strophic song forms, etc. Some moments in Glass' fifth quartet seem to take a few steps away from this local-level repetition to create something grander.

At what point does a minimalist cell become a repeated strophic period? I will attempt to answer this question in my first movement.

BEDA Day 11: Darwin and Minimalism

Well, this brief string orchestra piece is coming along nicely. It's the first time I've attempted a minimalist work, which combines the freedom of producing not-bad sounding music at four times my normal pace with the nagging feeling that maybe I didn't put enough thought into this one.

Well, you be the judge... when I post the bad MIDI version in a couple of days.

The work is called Generations, and it is in honor of Charles Darwin, who celebrated his 200th birthday this past February (the same exact day as Abraham Lincoln, if you can believe it!). The work's goal is to take a very basic motive (an arpeggiated C major chord) and gradually shape it into a complex, messy, beautiful multi-layered texture. Kind of like evolution, but less cool. There are actually three sections to the work now, each unique and interesting for very different reasons.

While you're waiting for this masterpiece, you can also visit Candy's blog, Thoughts of Candy, or her website (which also has a blog!). She is the person responsible for my recent outpouring of BEDA posts, which I joined on a whim to be in solidarity with Candy, and to use as another reason to avoid the little bit of homework I have this Easter break.