Flute Metamorphosis

Every now and again, I like to peruse some of the old music that I wrote in high school and still have saved on my computer. The other night I was doing just this and stumbled across a piece I wrote entitled ‘Flute Metamorphosis’. It was originally intended to be a multi-movement work, and I even started a piece called ‘Clarinet Metamorphosis’ that never went anywhere lol In any case, I’d just like to point out that my fascination with creating sets of pieces (i.e. Figments) is nothing that is new to me. Personally I think it stems from all the fantasy series I read, but whatever. Also I’d like to point out the similarity between ‘Flute Metamorphosis’ and “Morphosis” for solo violin and piano.

I promise you that relation is not a coincidence lol

Moving on though, FM was written for Solo Flute, piano, and string orchestra and composed during my freshman year of high school. This was a whole two and half years before I took my first theory course, and really shows that I’ve always had an obsession with virtuosity (and the flute lol) even though I clearly had no idea how to write for strings hahah. In any case, the piece is pretty straightforward (freshman in high school) and isn’t programmatic or anything, so you may be asking why I decided to make a whole blog entry about it.

Well first of all, I’m procrastinating on doing a homework assignment that, at this point, I’m pretty sure I’m just gonna end up doing tomorrow morning. Secondly, I’m considering reviving it. I feel that the piece has a lot of interesting ideas and I’m curious to know if there’s a way to salvage what’s there while also implementing what I’ve learned in the past…. six years.

In order to make the piece more…. reasonable, I’m thinking of changing the instrumentation to Solo Flute, Piano, and string quartet, and kinda starting from scratch in a sense. What I mean by that, is rather than opening the old score’s sibelius file, and opening a new and doing a lot of copying and pasting, just kinda taking what sounds of it I have in my head and trying to reconstruct it with a new frame of mind. So yeah, I realize that between this, possibly creating a whole multi-movement 12-tone piece for clarinet trio, and Figments: The Symphony, I’ve got a lot going on. (Not to mention that this summer I wanna write something for clarinet choir). But I feel that the three pieces are so different in terms of instrumentation and content that it shouldn’t be TOO overwhelming.

I uploaded a recording to Sound Cloud (after paying for that special membership thing you’d best be certain I’m gonnna start using that thing)  for your listening enjoyment. To give you an idea what 14-year-old Dorian’s music sounded like. You’ll notice that it starts at a weird place, and that’s cause I started the recording AFTER the cadenza and opening section which I wrote Junior Year after nationals but never really liked lol

Dodecatonchires!

Isn’t that quite a word? I love it. Especially as a title. For those of you who aren’t great with Greek Mythology (and/or Final Fantasy XIII), the word/title is drawn from the concept of the Hecatonchires which means “Hundred-Handed Ones”. They were pretty central characters in the battle between the Olympians and the Titans. In fact, were it not for the Hecatonchires, then the Olympians PROBABLY would’ve lost. Or I guess not seeing as how it’s all fiction and like…. anyways, can you then figure out what a Dodecatonchires would be?

If you guessed “The Ten-Handed Ones!” then you’re wrong. But if you guessed “The Twelve-Handed Ones” then you’re absolutely correct!

In any case, to end the anticipation I’ll just go ahead and say that this is, in fact, a twelve-tone piece. For those of you less familiar with what that means, just to give a brief explanation, it’s basically a serial, atonal piece that uses all twelve pitches as it’s foundation. Rather than diatonic (7 pitches), or octatonic (8), or whole-tone (6), 12-tone pieces, although they can make some pitches more important than others, utilize all 12 in some capacity.

So yeah the impetus for this piece was an assignment given to me in my 20th-Century Styles class to compose a 24-measure twelve-tone piece for any instrumentation. Because I had been wanting to compose either a clarinet quartet or clarinet choir piece for a while now, I went with a clarinet trio (since we have to also make a recording and a trio would just be easier to organize in a week’s time). I composed the entire thing in about an hour and a half two nights ago and really liked what I was able to come up with. It is 100% twelve-tone and I LOVE the fact that it still manages to sound like something I’d write!

It’s very important to me that no matter what I compose, what types of new modes I try, etc, that at the end of the day, it sounds like “Dorian Savohn” and not just “something I wrote cause I had to write something”. But whatever, I just wanted to make this post to introduce the piece which I think will eventually be more than just 24 measures. I think that one “movement” that I’ve already written might only be 24-measures long as a finished product; but I definitely am interested in exploring the idea of having multiple miniature movements all based on the twelve-tone row that I came up with.

Junior Recital

So I went against the grain and decided to have a sort of “Junior Composition Recital” this past Sunday.

What an experience!

The recital featured three pieces of mine, Figments I, Figments II, and the premiere of Dancing with Shadows.

To give a rather brief play-by-play, Figments I was up first. The first movement went off without a hitch and gave me a rather great recording to use for grad school applications The second movement, which, of all the movements in all the pieces in the concert was the one that I was most nervous about, also went amazingly! The third movement wasssss….. good enough lol. The ending of the movement right before the coda has always been a bit of a rough-edge part that I think has more to do with how it was written than individual aptitude. In any case, like I said, as a whole the piece went very well in my opinion.

Here’s a video recording and, just as a note, the only video recording from the concert unfortunately

The next piece on the program was Figments II. It too was a pretty solid performance, but no where near as solid as the one last semester, which makes sense seeing as how we only rehearsed together on two different occasions this semester. All in all though, all of the audience members loved it and so yeah; apparently, as far as performances go, it was MORE than good enough lol

Dancing with Shadows was the last piece on the program and was REMARKABLE. I honestly left the stage speechless for an inability to understand what had just happened lol. The performance, I feel had a level of raw intensity that seemed more concerned with communicating certain musical ideas and lines than with being “in-tune” or playing all the right notes; and the even MORE wonderful part about that is that we were (for the most part lol) in tune, and MOST of the notes were actually there! lol I feel this was one performance in which all our efforts throughout the course of this borderline nightmarish semester TRULY paid off. Not to say that it was better or worse than Figments II last semester or Figments I this semester, etc. It’s simply that I was incredibly impressed by the performance as a whole, but especially the second movement. The fourth movement was a somewhat less successful performance, but we’re talking more like the difference between a 9/10 and a 7/10. But like I said, the piece as a whole was wonderful.

So yeah! In general I was incredibly pleased by the recital and am immensely fortunate to have been able to work with the musicians that I worked with.

Recordings of all the pieces can be found at the following web address: http://soundcloud.com/dorianhawkins

Figments II – Program Notes

So it has been a GOOD minute since I last posted on this site. I unfortunately have not had much time to write, but probably should have made some as I really could have used the outlet while working on my last piece and also while figuring out my Chamber Symphony. In any case, I’m back (hopefully for a while?) and writing program notes. This semester I am having my piece “Figments II” performed in its entirety (3 movements for a total of 20 minutes) and as the deadline for submission approaches, I figure I should maybe submit my entry seeing as how the performers (myself included) have been rehearsing together for like, 5 weeks or so. Whatever, here I go.

 

Figments II

Mvt. I – Dance of the Trickster

Mvt. II – Between

Mvt. III – Ethereal Variations

 

Flute – Emily Olsen

Violin – Rachel Shepard

Viola – Korin Wahl

Cello – Joshua Dent

Piano – Dorian Hawkins

 

Figments II is the second of three installments in the Figments cycle.

The first movement entitled “Dance of the Trickster” is just that. At the beginning, through a gradual crescendo in, instrumentation, range, and dynamics, the listener is brought into the world of the trickster. Each of the sections that follows has a different rhythmic pulse while maintaining the playful, yet sinister quality that makes the Trickster so infamous.

The second movement entitled “Between” depicts two contrasting points of view about spirits. The first concept of spirits presented in the movement, is the generally more often recognized view that spirits are creepy and disturbing. The second concept which makes itself apparent about halfway through the movement-via a brief “chorale” in the strings-explores the more ‘romantic’ side of spirits: the idea that spirits are what remain of those who have some unfinished business. After the second theme is introduced, the two become juxtaposed all while implying two different keys (E minor and F Major) before climaxing with a four-chord progression. However, in accordance with the concept of “unfinished business”, this progression traps itself and eventually loses sight of the tonic triad suggesting the hopelessness of ever truly being at peace.

The third and final movement, entitled “Ethereal Variations” is a theme and variations movement. There are four variations, each with a life of its own and with each representing different types of imaginary creatures; the first variation is subtitled, “Spirits of the Air”; the second variation “Mischief and Mayhem”; the third subtitled “The Fallen”; and the last subtitled, “The Infernal”.

Chamber Symphony

I’m going to write a chamber symphony. I know, sounds exciting right?

Reasoning: I want to do an “honors in the major” project because I’m an overachiever and anything that one does outside of the normal curriculum is considered a bonus when applying to grad schools of all kinds.

Further Reasoning: When I discussed doing an honors in the major project briefly with my composition professor last semester he said that one would be expected to write a work that’s bigger than what he/she would normally write, something like a symphony or work for orchestra or wind ensemble or some such thing.

Why Chamber Symphony rather than normal symphony for wind ensemble or symphony orchestra? Well it’s quite simple really, I prefer writing for chamber ensembles SO MUCH MORE than writing for large ensembles. It’s much easier to make your music tonally ambiguous and complex without being excessive when writing for chamber ensembles. I figure that a chamber ensemble of 1-1-1-1/1-1-1 2 percussionists, piano and string parts with either one or two to a part is the ideal sort of setting I’m looking for.

I did always say that my first symphony would be Figments III, the third and last addition to the Figments saga, but after trying to write based on figments of some sort, I realized that I’m not going to try and box myself in until I get some ideas flowing. I was originally gonna do four movements like a standard symphony, the first being about a necromancer, the second about sirens, the third about an elf (i think?) and the last about some sort of monster. But like I said, after trying to start all of those movements and failing somewhat consistently, I decided it’s best to just try and write SOMETHING before trying to classify it. You know what I mean?

In any case, I did start a first movement yesterday. It seems kind of interesting and like it might work out pretty well, but it’s hard to say really. I think I wrote about 30 seconds of music and may or may not use any of it when everything is said and done, but it’s helped me to identify a sort of motif and start toying around with it’s sense of tonality. We’ll see how everything goes though. At this point, I’m just hoping for something that’s more “Figments II”ish than “The String Quartet that Never Was”ish.

If you know what I mean.

Il Tango

Yes, yet another entry with a title in a different language. As was mentioned in my last entry announcing my triumph over the piece for solo piano that I had been working on, I am now in the process of composing a tango for solo cello and piano. I actually was able to knock out the bulk of the composition in only ONE DAY making great strides and forming what I believe to be a pretty solid framework for what the piece will ultimately become. However, there is one problem, and that problem makes itself known at the end of the piece.

The climax is somewhat…. lackluster :\

Not the biggest problem I’ve ever encountered, but it’s incredibly frustrating to have such a great build-up all for a climax that does little more than fall short of the “mark”. I discussed it with the cellist briefly through facebook messaging, and we both agreed that the climax needs to change. Also, when confronted with the possibility of either adding something technically impressive or something interesting that makes use of extended techniques, we both agreed that using extended techniques would be the preferred course of action. I have an idea that I’ll probably be putting into effect shortly after I finish this, and that is to add some sort of cadenza. I have a terrible habit of making all my music that includes piano into piano concerti lol, so I think adding a cello cadenza would be a great way to both resolve my piano-happy tendencies, AND make the climax much more climactic.

I’m going to try and get back into doing these entries more regularly again, cause even just by typing this out I feel a lot closer to knowing what I need to do than I have for the past few weeks where I’ve been completely stumped. In any case, wish me luck! If all goes well, my next entry could be about ideas for something else to work on!

HO FINITO! :D

In case you don’t know any Italian, that means “I HAVE FINISHED!” Finished what? My piece for solo piano that I’ve been working on since the beginning of this semester. Am I happy that it took me 4 months to write ONE piece of music? Not at all, but I am ecstatic to be done at long last. I really don’t even want to talk about what it’s about and all that, since I don’t really know. I figure I’ll give it a generic title and allow the listener/performer to make whatever of it that he/she/it deems appropriate. That’s right, I’ve written a piece that isn’t based on some incredibly elaborate story or fictional creature/person. But yeah I really think that’s all I’m gonna say about it. Up next I am writing a piece for solo cello and piano, a tango to be exact. This won’t take nearly as long to write, so I’ll be able to start posting entries on here again.

String Quartet No. 1 – Revision

So I TOTALLY wrote both a Rondo and a Minuet-Trio movement for my String Quartet last night in about four hours. They’re definitely a little rough around the edges, but I’m excited about their potential. For those of you who may not have known, I started this String Quartet at the beginning of last Fall (August 2009) and had SUCH a hard time writing it that I decided to end it at just two movements. A rather sporadic scherzo movement and slow chorale movement. I actually disliked these two movements together so much that I renamed the piece “The String Quartet that Never Was”.

In any case, the other day I was thinking that maybe the main problem is not the two movements in and of themselves, but rather how they fit (or don’t fit) together. So after going to the Eppes Quartet (an all-female String Quartet at FSU) concert Saturday night I decided that I should write two more movements in the hopes that they would balance out the two extremes that are the two movements I had already written.

So I did just that, and wrote a new second movement in the form of a Minuet and Trio (with a substantial introduction) and a new final movement in a pretty solid Rondo form. The next step is to take these movements and make them flow more seamlessly and to be less strict in their use of their forms. This little endeavor has been a much needed break from the horror of writing a piece for solo piano: A piece, which I hopefully will be able to talk about on here soon…

Happy Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year!

Piece for Piano

So I basically assigned myself the hefty task of writing an original piece for solo piano… :\ crap. I have been…. more or less working on it for about two weeks and have 0 measures. I started one thing, and that night thought to myself “wow this is so cool!” then listened to it the following day and was all “WHAT IS THIS?!?!” so yeah it’s terrible.

Here I am though, and I have a composition lesson tomorrow but have composed no music. I’m still excited because I have some pretty cool ideas, it’s just that writing for solo piano is FAR different from writing for chamber ensemble. For starters, I have come to realize that I’m not really big on composing melodies: I am more keen to compose surrounding a motivic idea or tonal concept. However! The majority of the piano music with which I am familiar deals with melodies. So there’s a conflict between what I’m used to hearing and what I’m used to creating.

Bottom line: I can decide to stretch my compositional abilities and write some sort of melody, or I can stretch my preconceived notions of what piano music “should sound like” (and I could not be any more loose with the meaning of the word ‘should’) and create a piece based on a motive.

This entry may seem pretty pointless, but honestly I had not been able to truly grasp what my problem was until now. Reading it may make it sound like I kind of had it together, but no. Not at all lol. So now I just have to make that little decision and see what happens. Wish me luck! Hopefully my next entry will be talking about the actual piece

Figments Part 2 – Mvt I

So you may or may not have noticed that I am discussing the first movement AFTER the other two. Well the reason for this is rather simple: It’s hard. Hard to play, hard to write, hard to understand, hard. BUT! I definitely think it has turned out pretty well.

It’s known as “Mvt I – The Trickster” and is more of a scherzo movement than anything else. The overall form can be classified as a “loose sonata-form” and it is a true adrenaline rush of a movement. It opens with a viola solo stating the melody of the piece. It is a very clear “HERE IT IS” gesture that I like and don’t feel to be ‘unimaginative’ or anything like that simply because it’s such a strange melody. Personally, I see it as more of a motive or idea than a melody.

After the viola solo the piano comes in with a presentation of the harmonic gestures present throughout the piece with the strings giving accompanying chords. This suspenseful and more high-pitched intro then crescendos to nothing before the flute and cello take the listener off on the journey that is this movement. The biggest thing I wanted to experiment with in this movement was rhythm. One thing I admire most about the work of Sergei Prokofiev is his ability to make 3/4 or 4/4 or any time signature sound like MUCH MORE than just 3/4 or 4/4, etc. I think I did a pretty good job of not only working outside my usual realm of simple 4/4 half note rhythmic pulses, but of incorporating other time signatures in the middle of the simpler ones and of “blurring the bar lines” for multiple measures.

In what would be considered the development of this sonata form movement, I included an Irish-inspired violin solo. It takes the basic notes of the Irish reel The Pacific Slope and juxtaposes it against the primary melody of the movement (which isn’t the main melody of the PIECE btw). I have a certain love for Irish fiddling and wanted for the longest time to write something that incorporates it, and this movement just turned out to be my opportunity! It’s relevance to this movement is drawn from the idea that the violin is an instrument of tricksters like the devil (as suggested in The Devil and Daniel Webster). I basically took that concept and ran with it.

I consider this movement as a whole to be a major success. Originally it was my favorite, and then after having to make so many changes to please my professor without betraying myself, I started to like it less and less. However, after a few changes and taking a complete break from it to work on the other movements and give my brain time to formulate some new ideas, I fell in love with it all over again. If I can find some performers to tackle the incredibly challenging parts, I would absolutely love to have this movement performed in next semester’s SCI concert. Otherwise, it’ll have to wait until my senior recital. :\