Our last challenge was called Composer’s Choice. We had the fewest amount of restrictions, and were only instructed to write a piece on an Olympic event of our choice.
Originally, I had this plan devised to represent the pentathlon. It involved writing 5 one minute pieces of varying styles within a 24 hour span. However, on the one day I had available to focus on executing this project, I got sick, so that put the Kabash on that.
As a backup, 48 hours from the deadline, I chose cycling as my event of choice.
For this event, I first drew up a sketch of the imaginary course in my notebook and came up with a melodic ostinato. The ostinato represents the speed of the pedals as the biker runs the course. I also tried to pick a circular series of notes that would cycle back logically. As the course changes, so does the rhythm of the bike pedals as they turn. The clarinet represents varying scenery and elevations.
Though this course would probably take a little bit more time to complete if constructed to scale, I compressed it into a piece under 2 minutes to respect everyone’s time for voting.
The biggest hurdle for me was the lack of restrictions. Personally I like restrictions because too many choices when starting can be overwhelming and the restrictions somehow help me be more creative, but I digress. Regardless, this challenge was a lot of fun (and the rush to finish the piece left me on a runner’s…er Cycler’s high).
My fellow Composer Quest Olympians came up with some fantastic pieces as well. This was the most difficult for me to choose which one to vote on,mainly because there was such a variety and everyone who participated went all out. Please enjoy listening to them by clicking here.
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