The work continues…
Now that ‘nuit d’Etioles’ is completed, I’ve been working on Katie Crook’s commission. This work will be another movement from the large-scale Book of Hours for piano solo; as such, it will take as its starting point a work of literature. When the complete set is finished, I’ll (hopefully, pending copyright permissions) reprint each poem on the page opposite the piece. Katie’s piece is entitled ‘Wild, wild the storm’ after the Whitman’s haunting 1880 poem ‘Patroling Barnegat’ from Leaves of Grass. The poem describes the fury of the wind and the waves in a midnight storm on the coast of New Jersey, presumably from the standpoint of a night watchman (”That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?”) who is apparently unable to make out “a group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting.” Katie and I both wanted a ’storm’ piece, and I especially wanted to write something that would provide a stark contrast to ‘nuit d’Etoiles.’ The piece is coming well, though fast music is fiendishly difficult to write! Aside from the sheer number of notes to write, I have to carefully monitor and guide the piece’s development of themes–the hardest part of composing. So for now, the plodding work continues, note by note!