I’ve been working in a different direction lately in my music. It’s been very interesting and exciting for me to explore this sound world as it’s really something I feel like I could only truly explore now as my tools –blue and my orchestral composition library–have recently developed to allow such work to even happen. (I don’t think I could use these musical techniques with any other musical tools, or at least, in a way that is as intuitive as it is with blue.)
I had been looking into music by Penderecki and thinking of Xenakis as well in trying to get some ideas, but yesterday I thought to start listening to Scelsi once again and immediately found myself incredibly drawn to his music. The sound of his music is absolutely fresh and alive, so rich in its motion, its undulations, its breathing… I remember reading something Xenakis said in regards to working with sounds that were alive, and yesterday reading Scelsi’s comments on sound in a similar spirit, makes me think a lot about the ideas and sounds in the music I’m working on now.
For a long time I’ve been very influenced by Feldman’s music, the sheer beauty of its delicate fabric of sound, as well as in the construction and technique of his pieces. A great deal of my thought has been invested in contemplating his music. Yet, I had always found a great deal in many other composers’ music, music of a very different nature, such as Crumb, or Scelsi, or Messiaen. I have drawn on many of these composers ideas, but I have felt that it was very difficult to get experience with a number of their techniques, and therefore, difficult to truly understand the taste and flavor of these techniques. I think now that it is possible, I will continue to explore this path and see what comes from it all, if these techniques will end up really becoming my own.