Commission Complete

On January 10, 2010, I posted a blog entry detailing a commission I received from a man from northern California who had me set a sonnet he wrote for his anniversary. Today I am thrilled to report that I have completed it. I confess this was quite a challenge for me. This sonnet was particularly tough because I found its rhythm to not be innately musical, rather I really had to make up and force out what I felt to be an appropriate rhythm and phrasing. For me, choral music is about harmony even more so than melody so I needed to find the appropriate harmonic language for the piece to live in. I wrote the opening three times before I landed in a harmonic palette that I liked. In terms of form, some composers are planners in that they like to map out their structure before they write anything. I like to allow the piece to develop as it goes. Sometimes I'll have ideas for certain spots that I will write down and then work to arrive there, but in general the piece is being birthed measure by measure, phrase by phrase. With this text I felt strongly that we're being taken somewhere, so I didn't feel compelled to keep any kind of song structure, that is a strict return to opening material. The music, like the text, finishes somewhere different from where it starts, though I did make it a point to use the opening phrase ("to true love") in its original key at the end of the piece. I felt that a harkening onto the title/premise would be important in rounding the piece out and giving us closure, but I vary the harmony, melody, and texture up until the very end. 

The most exciting part about this is that the piece will be recorded with a choir in Arizona on March 22. My dear friend Rob Gardner is helping me out by assembling a group of 12 professionals who I know will do great justice to the work. Be sure to check back here then as I will most certainly be posting the recording.