A Child of the Snows: Progress

You'll be wanting an update, no doubt, on how my cantata A Child of The Snows is progressing.   I'm currently just over half way through getting the notes down on paper/Sibelius, and have only a few small corners to decide what to do with. As I've been trying to convey in this series, the composition process is one of working from both the 'inside outwards' and the 'outside inwards', by which I mean that the surface of the music, that which the listener actually hears, is meant to be the logical meeting point of the overall grand structure and the small detail.

I've reached a point where work starts to pick up as things fall into place (despite taking a little time out to write another piece in the last two weeks). My (quite achievable) aim is now to write two fairly finalised minutes every week, meaning that potentially the work could be done by the end of June. This allows two months for polishing, finishing orchestral parts, proofreading, making a piano reduction and printing before rehearsals starts. I'm boosted by the fact that most of the sections left to write are the most lively and optimistic ones, which are rather easier to spin out that the chromatic angst that makes up the rest of the music.

In brief:

• The opening 6-7 minutes of the piece, apart from the introduction, are pretty much complete and now 'run' together, at least in draft form.  
• The above included, almost all of the choral passages in the outer sections are complete or nearly complete.
• I have either written or have a clear idea for the important transitions in the piece: linking the entries of the chorus and the baritone, and moving into the faster section and out again.

What remains to be written is thus:

• The instrumental introduction, which I intend to be an under-the-breath re-imagining of a baroque 'French overture' with trills, grace notes and the short-long rhythm that will permeate the piece. This will last perhaps 3-4 minutes at fairly moderate tempo.
• About half of the central fast section. I've got the end of the first stanza, an instrumental passage and most of the darker second stanza (in which the baritone makes a brief appearance) down.  What will be really crucial is a convincing central peak, for this will form the climax of the entire work.
• I propose to include an extended violin solo between the faster section and the last two stanzas. It makes sense both musically (a texture not yet fully exploited, a mirror to the instrumental introduction at the opening, and a convincing transition between sections) and practically (the choir get some recovery time after a lot of loud and vigorous singing)
• The ending. Probably fading away into the ether to bring us back to where the piece started from.

Two interesting phenomena occur around this stage in the composition process. The first is that enough of the piece now exists that when even casually thinking about the music, it becomes much easier to imagine new evolutions from the existing material. Many theoreticians have proposed that all through-composed music is essentially a version of 'variations on a theme', even if the 'theme' is as small as a motif or even a gradual harmonic progression. I don't usually have to try very hard to come up with new material that fits its intended function or within the overall landscape of the piece, nor do I have to consciously try and use the motifs already present. The second is a related activity: already-composed passages start to get moved around as better uses for them start to become apparent.  One example is a quiet but tense little figure for semi-chorus, leading into an instrumental passage, which was originally to finish the big climax at the end of the second stanza. I have now considered it to be much more effective after the first stanza, leading into the already-written second entry of the baritone, as the choral lines match up to what precedes it and the string texture leads nicely into what follows. Similarly, certain ideas begin to be discarded for various reasons - a better solution becomes apparent, using the passage would be too unwealdly or tautological, or too difficult to integrate.

As an afterthought, I'm still surprised even after writing a number of choral pieces how much music it actually takes to set a text, even one that seems apparently short. My original target of 20-25 minutes of music is probably going to be accurate, and indeed, consciously or not, the cantata has suggested itself in such a way to fit this length. This may partly be the result of using at least a moderate amount of counterpoint, as a canonic series of entries will obviously last for a longer duration than a homophonic texture. But I think it is also evidence that I am going about the business of writing for singers in an effective way; supplying sufficient places to breathe, allowing the voices to contrast with the orchestra, repeating words and lines where appropriate, writing a mixture of fast and slow music.In the end this all contributes towards the pacing and detail of the music at the listener's level that determines how engaging the experience is.