Sketching a symphony

I’m writing some music for my friends. More on that in a bit.

These little nuggets will one day become my first symphony. I guess wouldn’t exactly call them sketches since the music is written beginning to end, but they feel rough because they are not yet fully orchestrated. Either way, once that final orchestration phase is complete, this work will be a substantial piece of music, with a lot of rich content for the listener to explore.

For now I’ve chosen a basic instrumentation of flute, oboe, trumpet, low strings. This can give a feel of being fleshed out, but is small enough to make sketching manageable, and colorful enough to make it fun. This instrumentation also helped me get away from the violin-centric symphony model, since I haven’t included violins in my original sketches. When I sit down and orchestrate this thing for real I will add violins in at my leisure, like a painter who, with one smooth movement, adds a bit of reflected light to a child’s eye.

The next step is to dive deep into the orchestration and make some hard choices. But for now, I’m savoring the completion of an crucial leg of this artistic journey. This particular piece has taken years to get to this spot, and where it will eventually lead I am not entirely sure. Sometimes it’s just important to pause and recognize a milestone.

The working title is “Homies”:

1. Joe Soeller
2. Evan
3. Adventure Cat
4. Erica
5. Hunt-Shaw

I’m not totally settled on all aspects of this music, but the overall arc I love. This is music for my friends. It’s a celebration of what we’ve all accomplished together, what we’ve built, the life we’ve lived, the love we’ve felt. The music goes a lot of different places, as do long friendships. For us the highs have been high, and there really haven’t been too many lows, and even if a low came along, we all know the high was coming back soon enough.

Some of this music is an intense philosophical probing, difficult questions asked, journeys of personal growth, a connectivity that grows deep like tree roots, music for my brother.

Another part is a long and exotic road trip adventure. Fences climbed, open mics pioneered, tequila bottles also pioneered. This is music to play spinbat to.

And yet another section is a song of love, a private song, a hidden cave.

When I dive back into this music and turn these nuggets into completed symphony movements, I may end up expanding certain chunks, or slowing down the tempo for a section, or taking the music in a slightly different direction if the mood strikes me. I’m still shaping the clay a bit. But the meaning behind the music will not change. It’s that meaning that underscores every note of this music, every rise and fall. It’s that meaning that drives me to complete it.

I welcome any feedback.