It's getting there. This week I have made several important 'links' between sub-sections and revised them accordingly as well as working toward the very end. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that one of the most important skills for a composer is being able to leave things out or cast them aside. Berlioz sums this up exactly: 'it is wonderfully easy to compose, but it is so hard to let the crumbs fall under the table'. One writes bars that sound fantastic on their own but cannot be integrated into the work without compromising it. Mostly this is due to misdirection or tautology. One example stands out in the last few days' work. I'd written a very tense climax in part of the cantata where the Field poem talks of Calvary, with the 'French Overture' dotted rhythms to the fore, but however I tried to tweak it, it somehow didn't seem right - the potential seemed to be being hampered by something. I must have played around with different notes for half an hour and abandoned it to work on another passage before later on the solution became apparent - chop something out. Lo and behold, when I played it back I could see immediately what was wrong: two bars were both providing exactly the same function and by 'stepping back down the mountain' in this way were destroying the tension leading to the full outburst. With two bars removed the orchestra now bursts out of the choir's peak to rush downwards in near-unison and into a winding-down passage introducing the next verse. Solved.
More of the orchestral accompaniment is getting written too. I had a slight reality-check when I made an experimental passage of piano reduction and realised that I've put a somewhat greater degree of both counterpoint and dissonance into the parts than I'd anticipated. It's not a problem as such; I just surprised myself given that I'd always intended this to piece be on the conservative side stylistically.
It's about now that I also start getting into strange mind games about the finished article. Will it work? - will it be too difficult? - will there be bars I hate but can't see any other way of doing? - does it all sound coherent? One starts analysing the work trying to find positive points as if one is preparing a defence of a thesis: look, here's a chord combining two motifs, here's an interesting bit of counterpoint, that verse is just the right length, isn't it? Often a thought that turns away excessive self-criticism is that I am still in the early stages of my output, there will be other, greater pieces to come, so don't worry too much if this one isn't a consulate masterpiece. But still, try to make it good. But don't try and do everything in it at once, there will be other opportunities.
Anyway, I think I'm still on course to finish the cantata by the end of the next month. Just the last few lines of text to go, the introduction, the solo and some linking passages to go now. Oh, and work out how to end it...
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