Composition Premier!

I had a very exciting experience last night, because I was given the opportunity to premier my very own, personally-written violin concerto! (Only movement I since the other movements aren't finished yet.) I composed the piece for full orchestra and solo violin surrounding last summer, and this year I showed it to one of my conductors who is also a composer and he told me to arrange it for string orchestra so we could play it! Last year the same orchestra played a movement of my symphony, which was fun, but I learned from composing and playing that symphony and I feel like this piece had many improvements. For one, the structure was much more, well, structured! Plus, everything flowed together much better on this piece. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and it got a standing ovation from the audience. The only sad part was I only had 2 or 3 weeks to learn the solo part myself, and let's just say I am not a very nice composer...that thing is HARD! I think I pulled it off enough to make it work though, and the orchestra sounded great!

For any composers out there (who I doubt would be wasting their time reading this), do whatever you can to get your stuff played, even if it's just a bunch of amateurs or younger musicians or whoever! If they're willing to play it, you can learn a lot from the experience. It really helps you find out what works and what doesn't. Even if you are completely certain that a certain idea will turn out some way, you would be surprised how different it can sound in real life than on a midi player or in your head. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. In my case, I think it was much better, and now I have a decent recording of it (which will also be useful in the future).

Now that I've edited it for string orchestra (and timpani) and solo violin, I'm wondering if I want to keep that orchestration. I kind of liked it...maybe I'll write it as both! Then I have to do the piano edition, and, and, and...this composition stuff has so much busy-work involved! But it's fun when I have time for it...

...and for all you NON-composers out there (who I also doubt would be wasting their time reading this), give it a shot. Even if it's just a simple melody, or a chord progression, it can be enlightening to put yourself in the seat of a composer. It gives you much more insight into what kind of methods composers might be using, and therefore gives you a better idea on the thoughts of composers. Personally, I think this has improved my ideas on music greatly. So go out there and write a masterpiece, keeping in mind that twinkle twinkle little star could be argued to be one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces!

-Phil