What Is The Longest You Have Worked To Finish A Single Piece?

The great composers have often spent up to several years to finish a single symphony or opera. I wonder whether any of you have also spent such lengthy time to finish pieces of yours. Since my pieces are generally all very short, I usually finish them in several days.

Three years I believe... for a piece that I don't even like anymore. 

I haven't finished the first one yet, so that'd be about maybe 13 years give or take.

I suppose unfinished pieces wouldn't count. Unless you are still working on it. Are you?

Six months for a piece of one and a half minutes.

lawl there is no smallest possible finite length n00b

I think my symphony no. 3 will be the longest in time of composing it. I had my fist ideas in 2009 and at the end of 2012 I still haven't finished it.

Otherwise my longest composition to work on it was the Cello Concerto - took me about a year to do it.

my Great Fugue No. 1 has taken several months to be finished... I don't remember exactly how many of them =/

The first movement of my 1st symphony took me a month to write, but now I have TONS of work to do with it. Lots of orchestration to change and fix, because I rushed a lot of it. The good thing is that I have a composition teacher who gave me a lot of advice, so it's gone from one month to about 5, and still many more for sure. And that's just the first movement!

>lawl there is no smallest possible finite length n00b

0

7 months I spent just putting notes to paper on my thesis. Technically Im still working on it.

Around six months to write a 30-minute cantata, although longer to think about it beforehand.

-1 is smaller than 0 nerdface

Keep in mind that the great composers didn't have Sibelius...

-1 is smaller than 0 nerdface

-1 has a greater absolute value than zero

Keep in mind that the great composers didn't have Sibelius...

Even Sibelius didn't have "Sibelius"!