Genuinely sorry for the lack of updates on this blog. I will definitely try and exploit the potential of the blog a bit more in future - it's not always easy finding time to fit everything in. I'm sure a lot of readers can empathise with that!
I am working on a piece for strings at the moment, particuarly concentrating on viola and violin. (ie. the more melodic end of a string orchestra.) I do think a lot of music I hear on radio and in the charts nowadays is very bass heavy, so this is a deliberate move away from having an overly rambunctious double bass or cello part.
For those who wish to know the detail, there are two main albums that have inspired the thinking behind this piece. The first is actually a set of piano pieces - Philip Glass's Metamorphosis. The main thing that struck me about this, and in fact all minimalism, is how themes and motifs are slowly revealed through the repetition of texture and shading. The second is Madeleine Peyroux's The Blue Room, another excellent 'crossover' (what an awful word) from the American. In this album there is a palpable sense of shedding her staple diet of Billie Holiday's back catalogue and learning how to find her own voice in the overall canon of performers. The two tracks that really stuck in my head on this album were Bird on a Wire and Desperados Under the Eaves, both of which feature quite dramatic use of strings at various points. In the latter, a nod to the late American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, the humming motif is reprised several times across various instruments before fading out to just the strings. It's obviously carefully orchestrated, a great moment. We all know strings are now overused and cliche, appearing in everything from Pop Idol to Disney films. It's my main aim to capture this kind of delicacy and elegance in my piece and remove some of the 'cheesiness' label.
