Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ideas for compositions

One of the ideas for a set of pieces that has been haunting me recently has been to create a massive set to depict elements of urban life....or urban history.

I've been on the cusp of finishing a piano suite entitled "Music for a Suburban Scene" for almost 5 years. I hold it off and I hold it off longer in hopes that I will develop more as a musician. That I will gain an individual voice that will be original and interesting. I know that all i need is an hour a day for a few months to get me to where I want to be with these pieces.... unfortunately I moved to the east coast and no longer have Sibelius available.

But the piece I now really want to write, what I crave to do, is create something on-going. Something that never is finished. A set of compositions which literally will be worked over years and years for the rest of my life.

la Cité Radieuse is one concept for a title. This is a title of a radical work of architecture by Le Corbusier, but it is also a concept which he extended to urban planning for a modern city. a "radiant city" is one full of exuberance, energy and diversity. I think that is what I want to try and capture musically. Some pieces for piano, maybe some for ensembles, some for other solo instruments.... All to capture images of what could be scenes in a "radiant city". Thats what I'm obsessed with at the moment.

That and Abbie Hoffman, who seems like someone I would have liked to have known. A character who would be at home in the diverse, exuberant "radiant city" of my imagination.