Hi folks,
I haven't been very active on here in the past year; and of course, the whole site was gone there for a little while. But I thought I'd jump back in and post the link to my latest work, my Violin Concerto in C Minor. I wrote it this week and although it's not programmatic, the recent attacks in Israel were weighing heavily on my mind as I composed. I was experiencing a lot of different emotions as I wrote it, thinking about the beauty, tragedy, and fragility of life. It's about 19 minutes long, with all 3 movements on one track. I know time is a valuable commodity, but I'd love to hear what you think if you have the time to listen.
Greg
https://soundcloud.com/greg-hodges-93214247/violin-concerto-in-c-minor
Replies
In retrospect I was perhaps a little too harsh. I wouldn't have been able to write something like this myself if I'd tried, I'm still working on writing a convincing orchestral piece. 😅
But yeah, each time after I finish a piece there's always the retrospective lessons for the future, things that could have been done differently. Composers should always be learning and improving.
having listened to this (yet) again, I must say I cannot agree with HS about the ending. Perhaps for the first time, it really hit home just how original this is -- a disturbingly dark conclusion to what at times seemed like a lighter finale. In fact the whole last movement is brilliantly constructed with the sort of clever dovetailing between contrasting sections which is far from easy to achieve (I certainly don't always manage it).
I certainly do appreciate your additional comments here, David. This is why, even though I'm often tempted to go back and revise a piece after it's completed, given that there's a certain post-composition clarity to things, I usually do not give in to that temptation because I believe it's in the spontaneity of the initial creation that I'm most likely to achieve maximum authenticity. Looking back now, there are so many things I might change if I were to start tinkering, including that ending, but I know I'll never be able to recreate that magical moment of incipient creative expression, and that's when I think artists speak with their truest, most inner voice.
That's an interesting take on this. While some of my best compositions were indeed written in a spurt of inspiration in a short time, most such attempts were also failures, and some of my best recent work comes from long, hard labor of editing, revising, and editing and revising some more, then rewriting, throwing out the rewriting and rewriting that, etc.. So I'm on the fence about which side is the "truest". Perhaps there's a little bit of both in every masterpiece.
Of course, with every piece there also comes a point where I realize any further revisions would be counterproductive; some things are better left as lessons for the future rather than trying to polish something that really can't be polished any more without losing its original "spark".
I don't disagree with you. think it largely has to do with what kind of composition you're writing, and what your goals for the work are. If you're writing a fugue, for instance, by its very nature it is a more cerebral work so I think it can only benefit from critical analysis, deeper reflection, and further revisions. I have written a Theme, Variation, and Fugue for orchestra, for instance, which I may post here (I composed it way back in 2003-2004), and in that work, I did indeed analyze and revise quite extensively until I felt like I had gotten things right. But for most of my compositions, which are decidedly in the Romantic tradition, I let intuition guide me as the emotional component tends to be more of a priority to me.
I envy you that you can just write the music from start to finish and it's already in (or almost in) its final state. I couldn't do that; most of my compositions, including non-fugal ones, start with a fragment of an idea that I repeatedly "replay" in my head, each time refining and expanding it more, until it begins to form into something coherent. If I were to write these fragments in the order and shape they occurred to me, the result would likely be just a directionless jumble of disparate ideas. 😅
Maybe I'm just weak in musical imagination; my ideas come to me raw and rough, and it takes a lot of work to polish them into a presentable form. Sometimes inspiration does strike, when an idea just pops up more-or-less fully formed, but this tends to be the rare exception rather than the norm for me.
I'm not sure how old you are (and you don't have to tell me), but I'm almost 50 so I've had many years of practice. Intuition and spontaneity probably wouldn't work so well for me were it not for decades of trial and error. It took a long time for me to figure out what I'm doing, what works and what doesn't. And I'll continue to learn more in the years ahead.
We also have to allow for individual differences in approaches to composition. My way may be best for me, but it might not be best for you. And vice versa. As a champion of the Romantic spirit, this appeal to a certain individualism and subjectivity is obviously very important to me. I say whatever works for you, do that.
I tend to agree here. I do actually make small revisions to my works, particularly the earliest, but that's mainly because they are in places blatantly clumsily written and just need a helping hand to be more organic. But my earliest works also have a quality of inspiration and innocence which I can no longer capture and I really wouldn't want to spoil that. Almost without exception, works which mean something to me at least sound as if they've been created on the spur of the moment -- in music I look for primarily an emotional narrative and this really cannot be created after the event. It only goes to show how completely different we all are in our attitudes to music. To me, music is not mathematics but there are many who clearly beg to differ. Which doesn't for a minute mean things like structure or thematic manipulation are not important -- they certainly are. But the minority who "get" my music for instance, do so because they can follow what it's about. In some works (like the 13th symphony), there is a strong emphasis on thematic development and transformation but unfortunately, I usually can't remember what on earth I was about years or even months later whereas works with a strong emotional impulse are more likely to resonate down the years. And this applies to the works of others just as much if not more.
Hi Greg, this is the first piece i listen from you and i'm very impressed, that's very beautiful and i love particularly your expression who never fall into boring or common phrases, always kept my attention. Bravo !
Stephane
Thank you, Stephane, I really appreciate your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece. I will follow you too on SoundCloud.
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