13: Three Sketches

The ‘useful passages’ I referred to in the last post took the form of three basic sketches. Unfortunately they are not dated but I do know that were composed in January 2009 in the order presented below.

Sketch 1 (1a,1b,1c)
Composed on a day where I was back on the original octatonic scale. I was aware that this would be the new opening of the concerto and indeed the horn part did survive, although most of the orchestral ideas were either ditched or presented differently in the final form of the concerto.

Here is the pencil sketch, Sketch 1abc Pencil

and here is a neater version of the horn part, Sketch 1ab Horn

The elements that are important about Sketch 1a, apart form the fact that the horn part survives virtually intact, are:
• the rhythmic feature of 7+5+3 at the start, with references throughout the rest of the sketch,
• the major/minor ambiguity and conflict of the opening three orchestral arpeggios,
• likewise the semitone movement in the first notes of the horn and elsewhere,
• the melodic cell found at the end of the second system on page one in the solo horn.

Here is a clip of Robert Johnson and myself running through the sketch at the Meet the Music seminar on 14 February. We were still discussing what the tempo should be only minutes before.
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The solo horn line of Sketch 1b survives in a modified form in the final concerto (bars 116-137 of part one), but not the orchestral ideas. It can be seen that I was still thinking in terms of free time for all instruments, with an absence of barlines. Sometimes I thought it might be better to notate everything precisely. I never resolved this issue as Lightfall was eventually to head off in another direction altogether.

Sketch 1c was one of those wild attempts I mentioned in the last post (when in doubt, grab a scale!). 7+5+3 can be seen in the series of triads, otherwise the sketch is irrelevant now.

Sketch 2 reworks both the melodic cell and the semitone cell from Sketch 1a and introduces two further ideas:
• The five-note figure at the start,
• The minor third grace notes on page two.
Both these figures play a major role in part two, with the minor third cell also appearing in part one of Lightfall.
Octatonic scales are nowhere to be seen!
The overall sketch survives almost without change as the beginning of part two.

Here is the pencil sketch, Sketch 2 Pencil

And here is the orchestrated score that I made especially for the recording opportunity on 1 March, Sketch 2 Score

And here is the recording that we squeezed in at the end of the Night Is What Remains session:

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Sketch 3 is only here for interest’s sake; it is an abandoned idea. It was to be played quite fast, a scherzo and by the last bar/first system/page two has become almost rock an roll…perhaps something for the future. It must have remained in my subconscious because I see that the middle phrase of both systems one and two of page two pops up in bars 149-168 of Lightfall part two, although this passage arrived as a development of the minor third cell from Sketch 2.

Here it is, Sketch 3 Pencil

***

Each of these sketches was written in a single sitting. I was trying to bring intuition back into the equation.