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!

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...

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