Composition

Am working at the moment on an orchestral work for a competition (eek - the deadline is Jan 7th) which is actually coming along alright, although I need to keep up the work rate despite all the Christmas stuff I have to do. As the competition in question is a) for a student orchestra and b) for an anniversary celebration I've tried not to write anything too heavy or too difficult, the rules advising that it 'should be suitable for performance by a good student orchestra'. At the moment I have the first 4 minutes, the last 2 1/2 minutes and a fair amount of 'stuff' in between, most of which has been sufficiently refined to merit staying in the piece. Structurally, it's in a sort of arch form, ABCBA, with the second B somewhat varied from the first. I rarely have the entire structure thought out in much detail when I start to write, and it often develops as I get notes down and spin them out into phrases and sections. This is probably a good thing as it means the music is not contrained by being made to fit into particular proportions. By the stage of the process I am now at I have pretty much finalised what goes where and how the narrative of the music proceeds. My task now is to fill out the gaps and link together the bits I have using the motivic materials within it.