In preparation for the Summer in Sombor course, I decided that it would be good to write a new work–my second string quartet. And in the spirit of the blogosphere, I thought Eddy’s second entry about Sombor should be small glimpse into the compositional process.
As I’m primarily a theatrical composer, I find that concrete images or stories are great staring points even for concert works like a string quartet. I started with an image, a line of text that came to me from some hidden corner of my mind(s): “belief emerges from the cynic”. I must have been in a particularly Zen state of mind—which was good since I had a daunting task before me. So the story of the piece is this: first step “cynical”; second step “immersed” (in what, not exactly sure, so you’ll have to decide for yourself); third step transformation to “belief” which is to me the opposite of cynicism. These states of mind are presented in three short movements.
For harmonic material I decided to stay in a mostly pentatonic world. I chose several 5-note scales and harmonies based on them to serve as the “background” to the “foreground” of three different, but related, motivic ideas. For the first movement I highlighted the “angular” feel which emphasizes the cynical nature of our protagonist’s first state of mind. Not too angular, of course, because these also serve, in softer guise, for the second and third movements and allow for the final transformation of the cynicism into belief in the third movement. Pentatonic scales have an openness and malleability that makes all these transformations possible while maintaining an economy of musical material.
As a side note, I’d like to mention a useful source of harmonic ideas: Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky. The genesis of my pentatonic scales came from one in this book. I’ve found it useful for other pieces as well, and, when really stuck, I find it helpful to open it up and pick a scale or pattern at random at start improvising–a great idea generator.
Care for a listen? You’ll find the recording of the premiere here:
http://edwardficklin.com/?q=audio
as played by the ably gifted and dedicated Season Quartet of Novi Sad.
