Notating a score is like creating a special space for composer and performer to meet
Aiming for the perfect in any artform can be counterproductive. Find out what I’m doing to counteract the drawbacks of perfectionism this month!
Composer-performer collaboration: Letting go when we’re dead
Writing for live performers is a process of learning to let go, of handing over ownership of ‘our’ music to performers to keep it alive.
Listening diary: Learning to love Beethoven
I know it’s a shocking thing to admit, after 20-odd years of composing music, but I’ve only recently come to discover the joys of standard repertoire. I admit it, I am now a Beethoven fan.
Work in progress: Carrion Comfort 5 – at last an ending!
The latest installment on the development of Carrion Comfort – now it has an ending! Listen to the latest version of this work in progress.
Composition as an instrument: ‘Relaxation’ as practice
Jay C. Batzner suggests that composers should practice composition in the same way that performers practice their instruments, but how do we tackle the problem that much vital composition work looks very much like relaxation?
A career in composition: The composer as chimera
If you love writing music, you need to be prepared to work at a lot more than just music – but don’t forget to stand up and be counted primarily as a composer!
Testing assumptions and breaking through resistance
What assumptions are holding you back right now? How many things have you not done because you assumed you couldn’t succeed at them? Assumptions can create powerful blocks that stop us from doing the things we really want to do – identify your assumptions and you’ve won half the battle!
Work in progress: Carrion Comfort 4
Going back to the source & ending up in unexpected places When we left Carrion Comfort last time, it had been through the wringer a bit. All the chopping and changing I did improved it, but it was left a little directionless and I felt the new end section (which sounds a bit like an [...]
Work in progress: Carrion Comfort 3
What do you do when a piece in progress spins out of control? How do you fix it? The latest update on Caitlin’s work-in-progress orchestral piece, Carrion Comfort, addresses just this problem and shows how even solutions that sound good can be wrong for the current piece.