Cadenzapalooza

First-time adventures in writing my own cadenzas.

I've decided I'm going to add tag-lines at the beginning of these posts, in case that seemed weird.  You know, so when I post the link on facebook, the first sentence that shows up under the title isn't about blueberry muffins or something....

So tonight, I finished writing out very nice-looking copies of the first drafts of my first attempts at cadenzas for the Mozart concerto, movements 1 and 2.  (I'll write one for 3 in the next few days.)  It was actually a lot of fun!  I definitely kept in the spirit of the game that I wrote about last entry.  At the beginning, I went to Blair in order to finish these cadenzas, work on reeds, and maybe practice a little.  Old mindset would have been worrying about reeds while working on the cadenzas and mangling reeds while frustrated I didn't have enough time to practice today.  New mindset said I have to write these cadenzas at some point, and if it takes a little longer tonight and I don't get to the oboe, that's OK.  Originally I was going to do them over fall break because I "wanted to have a lot of time" to do it, but I've come to realize that isn't the best mentality, and I can do just as good of a job in the middle of a school week as during a four day break.  I have to manage time according to quality of product, not quantity.

Well, about the cadenzas!  I got the part about deconstructing the themes into motives and piecing them together in interesting ways.  And I had a lot of fun snaking around different key areas.  The most difficult part for me was writing a "virtuosic" part - basically, interestingly noodley sequences.  Noodle, noodle.  I asked Professor Ploger about it, and today in Musicianship, we talked a little about sequences. She gave us a Bach Fugue (WTC Eb Major) to analyze and basically suggested that we will learn how to write best from studying fugues and written cadenzas and playing around with it ourselves.  So, I actually did give myself the time to just play around with chords and discover things for myself (learning-oriented) instead of allotting time to write the cadenza (product-oriented).  This afternoon, before embarking on my cadenza expedition, I analyzed the fugue in great detail - blue for statements of the subject, yellow for countersubject, and then identified how the motivic fragments played themselves out in the episodes (with more colors!  Green, orange, purple, grey!).  I also did a general harmonic analysis and a very specific one when it came to the sequences.  I learned SO much from doing that!  The noodley parts in my Mozart cadenzas are very Bach Eb Major Fugue inspired...

The other major difficulty I had was writing the cadenza for the second movement.  I found it to be a lot more challenging that for the first movement, primarily because the technique I used to modulate in the first cadenza is inextricably embedded in the melody of the second movement.  That doesn't seem to be too clear, I might just end up babbling nonsensically about this...but for example...I want to take the descending motive "la sol fa mi re do#"....well, what exactly do I change?  The melody already did a rather suave move from fa major to re harmonic minor.  So I ended up with a lot more embellishment, jumping octaves, and less harmonic adventure, but I'm still pleased at how it turned out.  The sequence is kinda nifty that I used because I actually come back to sol harmonic minor in a different way than I left it...

So, they aren't masterpieces, of course, but I am so proud that my first attempts turned out so nicely!  Can't wait to write the third movement's.  I know they'll be good, because I'm looking forward to some ingenious feedback from Professor Ploger and Professor Hauser.  Maybe I will show them to Dr. Rose as well...

Old and New Music

Oboe highlight of the day: playing through the first movement of Mozart with accompanist in performance class. For the first time in a year, I felt like there were some good things going on, and I could admit to myself that I've made progress since I started it. For those that don't know, the Mozart oboe concerto is THE oboe concerto. It's on every orchestra audition, festival audition, grad school audition, and anything else EVER. And the expectations for it are astronomically high. So anyway, there are still lots of little bits to fix, like getting the trills into place and much more polishing, but generally, it's there more than it was. Must write cadenzas over fall break! Excited for that.

Warming up. I've been slipping lately. Must get back on that horse.

Oh, so of course as soon as I updated my blog the other day, I remembered about a thousand other things I am doing this semester that I forgot to mention. I'll talk about the most important one now - new music stuff. Most upcoming event is Trey's senior composition recital. I'm playing Mar de Lurin, a piece for oboe and guitar based on some really fantastic paintings. Professor McGuire is performing with me. We've already rehearsed quite a bit, since I used it as my audition piece for Peter, a violinist with the Royal Academy of Music in London, for the London Exchange Program in the spring. Anyway, it is a VERY beautiful piece, and y'all should come hear me and Prof McG premiere it October 23rd, 8pm!

Dr. Rose recently finished a solo unaccompanied work for oboe as well. Roger is premiering it soon - I can't wait to hear him play it! Dr. Rose gave me a copy of the score and I have been working on it as well. I hope to work on it and play it in the spring...it will probably be part of the London exchange program business.

I'm also considering putting on an Oboe Music by Blair Composers programme in the spring. Okay, so I need a catchier title. But I would love to perform works I've already put together as well as commission some new ones. Can I do this with grad school auditions and a recital? We shall see. But I am taking only 12 hours for REAL next semester. Or so I say now...I tried so hard this semester to cut back, I really did. I can stop any time I want to, I swear...