Reflecting about the ideas

The initial idea when I was planing this piece was to have a fast and a slow sections, trying to use same materials, although using them in a different way, as for example using the semiquavers from the fast material to create a semiquaver-syncope as a slow material (image 1).

Image 1 - transformation from semiquavers fast material to semiquavers-syncope slow material
Image 3 - re-using same gesture “ritardando” and “accelerando” from the begging to get into the slow section.

To link both parts I started the piece with repetition of the same chord, using a “ritardando” to get slow and an “accelerando” to get faster before going in with the semiquavers material (image 2). With this, I could, after the fast section, go directly to the slow part, using the same gesture I used at the beginning (image 3).

Image 2 - time transformation - begging of the piece

After doing this, I thought I could start my semiquavers material section, developing it for the entire piece until I get to the end of that section and transform it into the slow material (image 4)

Image 4 - semiquavers material in unisson 

As an introduction of my semiquavers material section, I thought the unison was satisfying, however I knew I needed to do something different on the guitar to make a contrast. So, I started to repeat notes on the guitar line, although not in semiquavers but in triplets, using some glissandos to give a sort of freedom to the line (image 5)

Image 5 - contrasta on the guitar line - triplets against semiquavers

Only on bar 23 I started to link the guitar to the string quartet, having then the same material (image 6)

Image 6 - guitar material same as the string quartet

Suddenly, I realised I was in the composition process. And when I stoped I had 4 minutes of music already done. So I stopped for a couple of days.

When I returned, I started to consider that some of the sections were too small, and changed too fast. So I could not follow the connection between different sections. So, I started to make changes.

The first change I made was the beginning. I started to think that maybe I was not doing a sort of conceptual piece and that there was no connection between the first 4 systems and the semiquavers material section. However, I wanted to do the slow section and I needed that material there to connect the piece. I did not change the begging and started to make other changes.

The second I made was the contrast between the guitar and the string quartet. The triplets against the semiquavers using the glissandos was so short that I thought I could extend it a few more bars. In the process I started to use glissandos on the strings as well, harmonics and also the harmonic series where this section was situated (image 7)

Image 7 - developing the contrasting section guitar agains string quartet

Although I was using a contrast material, in a way I was linking even more the guitar with the string quartet. Using the different material not only on the guitar but also on the string quartet.

This new material made me make changes in all this semiquavers section. Again, suddenly I realised  I deeply inside the composition process. When I finished, reaching the section where the semiquavers start transforming into semiquavers-syncopes, I decided to stop again and give a bit of time to the piece to rest.

When I returned, I made some other changes. On the section I was using harmonics and the harmonic series, I thought “maybe this will be so much better if I use it more time” it was going too fast and that section was a sort of contrast of the semiquavers section. So, I created new bars and started to develop that section (image 8).

Image 8 - developing the middle section, using harmonics and harmonic series

The second change I did was at the end. I realised that this piece could not be a slow piece. So I deleted the transformation of the semiquaver to the semiquaver-syncope. Now I took the semiquavers and used them to reach a very hight chord, sustained for a bit and then pick the motif I have been repeating the entire piece, finishing the piece (image 9)

Image 9 - semiquavers reach a very high chord and then coda until the end

However, I thought that maybe when I freeze the chord in a very high register, that could be a sort of scape before finishing the piece with the material I have used before. So in a 4th draft I added some more bars and created a choral in a very high register using the transpositions of the chord 2, original and opposite pole (image 10)

Image 10 - choral in the high register

Then, the end was unexpected and the choral made a sort of illusion that something else could happen, but no. It’s just a coda to the end. The choral uses everything I have used in the piece, without the semiquavers: triplets, long notes, arpeggios on the guitar and glissandos. It’s a sport of resume of what the piece was also about.

Now, at this moment I just need to find a solution for the beginning, because now it does not any sense to have a “ritardando” and “accelerando” with the repetition of a chord.

Although there are few changes on the piece that makes it so much different from the first draft, I still consider Luis Tinoco’s “Ends Meet” and Hans Abrahamsen’s “Let me tell you” an inspiration for this piece. Were their works that made me start this piece, and made me think in my material and ways of developing through the entire work.

On the process of changes, the Julian Anderson’s "3rd String Quartet" was a very useful piece to write the harmonics section. Anderson wrote a very useful contrast between strings that are making a sort of melody and strings that are making a sort of counterpoint in harmonics (image 11)

Image 11 - Julian Anderson’s 3rd String Quartet 2nd mov. Harmonics series as counterpoint contrasting with a sort of melody on the violins.