Puzzle pieces….

Sometimes composing music feels like painting a jigsaw puzzle that is already disassembled. I’m not even sure how the pieces are supposed to fit together, yet I’m supposed to paint the completed picture onto the disassembled pieces. It can be a frustratingly slow adventure. Perhaps I need to learn another way to visualize this process. Schoenberg probably would not be impressed with my approach. As he put it,”A composer does not, of course, add bit by bit, as a child does with blocks. He conceives an entire composition as a spontaneous vision. Then he proceeds, like Michelangelo who chiselled his Moses out of marble without sketches, complete in every detail…” Well la dee da. I guess I’m not quite up to that level yet. Better keep practicing until I can chisel a perfect symphony out of marble without sketching first.

In the spirit of Schoenberg’s method, I am trying to visualize as much of the Polish piece as possible BEFORE actually writing it. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• The piece will no longer be called “Polish Piece”, but will from now on be known as “Not Yet Lost”.
• For form, I’d like it to be Theme and Variations. However I don’t necessarily want the variations to be obvious restatements of the main theme. I’d like to play around with motifs and create something entirely new, even if it at times wanders deep into the woods, far away from the original theme.
• I think I will start with a calm statement of the theme in 4/4 time. That theme might look something like this:

Main Theme

• The next part uses pentatonic melodies over an almost R&B style rhythm. To me, it kind of sounds like if a Nordstrom’s pianist started noodling around with this material, but that’s just me:

Variation 1

Here’s what that whole introduction sounds like:

• I still have more music to write to complete that Nordstrom’s section. Perhaps I will weave in the ascending motif from measure 15 and mix it with the syncopated vibe. Not sure yet.
• After this section is completed, I think I want something minor. I haven’t written anything yet, but maybe this could be the foundation:

Following that, I’d like to introduce a version of the theme in 3/4 time, maybe something kinda funky. To be honest, this is where things get fuzzy. I’ve got a bunch of ideas, but I’m not really sure how they fit together.

You see, though I’m trying to picture the piece in its entirety, I still can’t help but visualize these sections as puzzle pieces waiting to be assembled into a complete picture. I seem to generate little islands of music, then try to string them together into an archipelago.

Well, that’s where I’m at for now. I’ll let you know if I miraculously generate a fully-formed piece in the next hour or so.