Hectic. That’s the only way to describe this winter.
As a musician, the holidays are not the most relaxing season; while I love sitting by the woodstove drinking hot cocoa with family as Nat King Cole croons in the background, these moments are bracketed by hours of careful planning for Christmas Eve services, last minute gigs for country club Christmas parties, and, as a graduate student, finals. (Not to mention accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists for juries!) However, amid the rushing and music making, I took time to work on a special project. My church has done the same Good Friday service every other year; the same music, lighting, etc. I saw this as an opportunity to compose something original, something new and fresh for the choir and the attendees, something to help convey the message of Christ’s death and resurrection. So I wound up writing a seven-movement, thirty-minute cantata. In two months. This experience has been incredibly enlightening. I’ve only written one other piece that includes a vocalist, and they only sang for about half of the piece. But writing this piece has given me a whole new perspective on how to write vocal music. My editing process has become much more streamlined and efficient, and I’ve learned how to use the piano to support the choir. But in addition to that, there are 5 things in particular I learned (or re-learned!) while writing this cantata. 1) Be patient with your ideas! Do not rush your compositional ideas into fruition. When I first started working on the cantata, I was exhausted just looking at the length of the project. It seemed like I’d never finish it! Early on, I was tempted to take the first idea I got and give up on other, better ideas as they came down the road. But as I wrote, and more ideas came, I learned to slow down and enjoy the process of discovery. Patience is one of the most important parts of composition. 2) Don’t forget the goal! When working on the minute details of where the sopranos should breathe, it’s easy to forget about the scope of the project and overall message. But mentally returning to the big picture from time to time greatly helped me sketch out each movement and refocus on the purpose of each section. 3) Clarity, clarity, clarity! I hate editing pieces, but even though it can be tedious, it’s absolutely necessary! I spent a lot of time trying to make sure my markings were as clear as possible, and if I were to write something like this again, I’d spend even more time editing! While it can be exhausting, it saves an incredible amount of rehearsal time. 4) There will be more pieces! It’s easy to get caught up in a project and make it your entire life. Once the project was done, I found it hard to begin writing new material. A part of me wanted to just dwell on that project and forget about writing for a while. But you cannot allow yourself to think of a newly completed project as your crowning achievement. Composition is all about growth! Don’t get too attached to one piece; there are a multitude of others yet to be written! 5) Remember that your work does not define you. As musicians, we tend to build our lives around our career. And I’m not saying that’s wrong! However, when we ascribe all our worth as human beings to music and our musical ability, we’ve forgotten what it means to have value as humans. Your worth is not in your music, and it’s not in your career. You are more than your career, your demons, and even your strengths. So those are 5 things I got to think a lot about during this project! I hope those points give you something to ponder too; now, back to writing. I’ve got a date with a new big band chart.
0 Comments
|