Welcome!

This blog documents the creative processes of composers Craig Biondi, Alphonse Izzo and Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn as they compose new works for a concert funded in part through Meet The Composer's Met Life Creative Connections Program in association with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Since the posts here chronicle a linear progression of a piece's creation, it is suggested that new readers scroll to the bottom of the blog and work their way forward. Enjoy!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Biondi: One Outta Two Ain't Bad


It's pretty gratifying to finish a piece of music. It's pretty daunting to release it to the public via a blog. And while I've really completed only one movement of a piece titled Two Psalms, I am still basking in the glow of the movement's final barline, and have decided to post the entire movement here.

The composition of the piece actually took substantially less time than the notation of it. If you're accustomed to looking at musical scores, you'll see that there are many unusual features to this score, all of which are designed to communicate something specific to the performers who will be reading from it.

This opening movement constitutes just under ten minutes of music, with the second Psalm (which does not yet exist) expected to be somewhere between four and five minutes long. It is now very, very late, and I must go to bed.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Sternfeld-Dunn: Composing Under Duress


In my humble opinion there is nothing more frightening for composers then the dreaded deadline. It sits on your calendar, taunting you and it always approaches much faster than you think. In my case this deadline has crept up significantly faster than I thought and while my work for English Horn and Cello is wrapped up, my solo cello work is still a work in progress.

Whenever I am faced with the blank page I tend to try to grab onto anything I can for some musical inspiration and in the past it has always been some musical thing that has been in my inspiration. Some rhythm, pitch, scale, etc. becomes the momentum for the work. However with the deadline quickly approaching I find that I don't have the same amount of time to really sweat over the beginning of the process like I usually do. Instead I tried to think of descriptive words that would serve as the inspiration for the work. So now I have a three movement solo cello piece in the works titled: Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!

Yes I realize this may be one of the dumbest titles ever, but this is why I'm a composer and not an author.

Posts will come soon sharing audio and

Monday, February 22, 2010

Biondi: Proportionality Issues

I've been deceiving myself this entire process. I was sure that the new challenge I was facing while composing this piece was incorporating the various improvisatory elements. But as I get more and more into the piece, I realize that the biggest challenge I'm having is determining the correct proportions and overall shape of the piece.

Many of my single-movement pieces have a pretty similar shape to them, with a gradual development climaxing near the end of the work. For this piece, I made the early decision to begin the piece amidst the climax, allowing the piece to "devolve" from there. In a way, I have chosen to compose in mirror image to my normal tendencies. This puts me at a serious disadvantage, as I can't refer to my usual bag of tricks to progress the piece forward...to push the music over the finish line. Measure 1 WAS the finish line!

Despite my hand-wringing over the improvisatory nature of the piece, this dilemma of shape may be the factor which has most retarded the composition process, whether consciously or not.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Izzo: The Murky Lens of Time...

I've decided to divide the piece into two sections:

Theme 
Var. I
Var. II
Theme Redux
Var. III
Var. IV
Theme

The theme acts as a line of demarcation between these sections while also providing a structural touchstone.  I could repeat the theme as a literal repetition at each of these points but I feel that it would be better to alter it in some way at its return.  From a musical standpoint I think it'll make the piece more interesting, but since I'm dealing with the subject of memory, I'm also mulling over how our memories become murky through the lens of time. 

So the real question is who cares?  Why do I need an extra musical justification to make changes to the music?  On a personal level I feel the need to make connections to my own beliefs/ponderings whether they're hidden within the music or not.  Each time I compose it requires a bit of self exploration, otherwise I feel as if I'm just spinning notes without purpose.

  Electronic realization:

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Biondi: Chaos to Canvas

Click to view score in new window.

It didn't take long for me to decide to implement a pretty substantial element of improvisation in this work, at least here in the beginning. But as you'll see in the score, there are definitely parameters set in place. In essence, I'm trying to control a sense of chaos, and I've used a few different methods here.

1) Improvisation which must include some given elements
2) Completely free improvisation, but as a dialogue with another musician
3) Improvisation embedded within notated music

This last method is the one I'm particularly excited about, and have been thinking about trying this for several years.

This music (as with all improvisatory music) is highly dependent on the performance (and the caliber) of the players involved. And as one might imagine, this can cause a great deal of consternation for a composer. The performers for this concert, however, give me the utmost confidence. This leaves me with one area of trepidation concerning the piece, which is the overall pacing. My job as communicator then becomes possibly more difficult than if the piece was notated in a more traditional fashion. Keeping fingers crossed...