reflections 1-3

These are the five tentative comments that describe the development of the selected snippets. Review them carefully and assign them preference points by filling the form. Leave your own reflection the grade 0.

comment: I tried, as much as I could to embrace the pluralism of our different voices. The piece starts with a modification of my first proposal (according to some overall noise based patterns that I notices in sketches of other composers). This noisy ‘leitmotiv’ is juxtaposed with unrelated material by other composers, but it keeps reoccuring. The anamorphosis/departing from a common point is present in both the twisted proportions of subsections, as well es in gradual modifications of the initial ‘leitmotivish’ sound. My goal was (but really in this short time we had impossible) to start with presenting at least one material from each composer, then shortening these bits up and slowly starting to fuse elements together. I am sorry to say that I have only managed to finish the ‘exposition’ part of my idea. What I have noticed in our sketches is the overall tendency of either writing very dark or very light sonorities, so I profited from that fact in constructing the overall dramaturgy of this excerpt.

comment: The way I see it is that the previously selected snippet’s first 4 bars are the common point that we are deviating from. As proposed by the selected comment, I tried to go away form the collage-like opening and develop more each individual material as well as tried to merge diverse compositional voices. As a next step, I could see converting the first violin into descending col legno battuto cloud and other strings following (as was proposed in ‘on the continuation of the breathy airy lines’) which would lead to a frenzy of jumping between various elements exposed so far up to a point where they are no more recognizable, and this jumping between extremes becomes a new anamorphic texture on its own (which could also be interpreted as an entry to our new section).

comment: Trying to respect the reflexion 4, I work extensively with the glissando as col legno battuto or arco, that was only hinted at in the previous sections. I tried to avoid having all the instruments play all the time, thus the violin got (a rather short, but nevertheless) a prologed spot light. Furthermore, I was working to get more unity from the previously exposed materials, that goes beyond simply exposing them. Also, I tried to work with the sentiment of frozen time, when all the descending wood-like sounding knocks keep falling like bits of ashes.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

reflection 1

comment: I suggest continuing the glissandi and violin line that appear at the end of the selected sketch. It is a new material but I think that glissandi and violin line would be developed with different pressures and rhythms and be connected with the legno bautto glissandi.

reflection 2

comment: It is not that easy for me to exactly say, how we shall proceed. Because  of 2 reasons. 1) in every snippet that we already selected (the beginning, screams, and now falling ashes) there are materials that I could see them expand and re-attached again. And 2) there are materials from other snippets, that i think could be added in between of the sofar selected snippets. Aside from the above mentioned reflections, I would suggest to continue the combination of glissando and pizzicato, maybe playing timbrally with various pizz. (Behind the bridge, bartok, playing with the end of bow, left hand pizz, and tapping on the corpus. (some in tutti rhythm, others in “random”unexpected rhythm” And after that arrive to an even more frozen time, a very slow and soft part, almost lyrical, with not that many activities and give each instrument a chance to have a solo character. Kind of stretching the time and zooming in and zooming out!

reflection 3

comment: I believe that the presence of “pitches-or frequencies – we can perceive it as we want” somehow needs to have a sonic meaning with the rest of the material that has already been well established. Here are some thoughts: I believe that the fragmented presence of pitches can either be problematic or interestingly surprising, especially in such a noise oriented sonic context! In the former case, that means that we should make a new macro direction towards a somehow pitch oriented sonic scape and in the latter we if we want surprises, we should treat pitches respectively. I don’t like the fragmented presence of pitches in such a manner. Maybe we should recall and work on the “imitation_game_dynamic_vs_static” from the last incubation phase and expose pitches in a totally unpredictable and unexpected way. Like a stream coming from nowhere. Another issue is that the music, so far, is somehow blocked by the character of the sonic material. We need to organically develop, destroy, deform, reform the sonic entities in a way that will project development in time. I am afraid that the piece becomes somehow fragmented, something like juxtaposing boxes of nicely put sonic blocks. I know it is hard but I am suggesting that we all consider this. For example, even the “falling like bits of ashes” can be “composed” instead of just being presented. This is not a negative judgment, on the contrary, it is just a thought!

reflection 4

comment: I believe that the novel quasi melodic material that first appeared in the first violin in M.49 & 51 (copied from linear motion and transformation it seems) could  serve as material for an entirely new section. In order to get to that section, there should still be some form of ‘bridg’ between where we left off now and that new part. Since in a way, this micro-melodic-motion is very close to arco and battuto glissando figures in the second half of falling ashes, one could start shaping (morphing) these rather generic figures to a more nuances melodic lines that resemble the melodic inserts in the first violin. In that way, not only would this serve as a transition, but it would also underline the whole anamophosis principle of our piece. Once the new stage has been reached, I would like to hear a calmer, less noise-prone, more uniform and less collage-like section that sounds as a complete departure from the common point. Maybe there is a way to insinuate some of the material from the beginning; e.g. like collecting the nervous little glisses with these melodies, having sfz accents within this quiet texture, or similar.

reflection 5 (selected)

comment: Meso-structure: Considering the select snippet from outside, as it were — as a general appraisal of any music —  I am glad that the selected snippet brought some variety (not contrast) to the texture, as well as some space, allowing for thiner textures and soloistic behavior. In regard to our original concept of devations/morphing, however, I fear we are getting each time more distant. The treatment of the material  in this last segment is basically motivic — which could itself be considered a form of divergence and morphing, but then we are only playing with words. I feel we need more gradual, long processes. Perhaps a way forward would be to treat the “thinning” to one line as a morphological aspect. We could now progress to a gradual administration of density of voices — work with two lines, then three, back to two, then suddenly make a metamorphosis back into tutti. All of this without any new material. The next score should somehow look like the ones we have already seen. Only then, I feel, would we be ready for some new contrast, which could very well be the “hardcore repetitive structures emerging out of nowhere”.