Symphony No. 1

An excerpt (screenshot) from the first movement of my Symphony No. 1.  (There are some 26 additional staves below what you can see here, so don't be disappointed.)

It has been a hectic few days, but there is a ray of blog-writing opportunity shining through the clouds of commitment, so here we go...

As promised at the end of my previous post, I'll be writing about the biggest item on my plate right now, my graduate thesis.  I have chosen to write my first symphony, and I'm calling it Symphony No. 1.  Not a particularly clever or original title, but it's accurate and good marketing.  If some of my friends want to add a subtitle after the piece is finished (like Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony or Beethoven's "Eroica"), all the better.

Contrary to what some people might think, the "symphony" label cannot be applied casually.  It's not just that the piece is going to be fairly long or the fact that it will be scored for a full orchestra.  There are plenty of long pieces and works for full orchestra that are not symphonies, just as there are symphonies that are shorter in duration and have different instrumentations.  (It should also be noted that there are works that could have been classified as symphonies but were denied such a title by the composer.)

In any case, labeling a work as a symphony suggests a certain overarching unity to the piece, which can be expressed in a number of ways.  It could be a particular motive--melodic, rhythmic, or otherwise--that shows up frequently, or the recurring theme could be more programmatic, like if each movement was a different reaction to some string of events.  Because there is no international committee that approves or licenses out the term "symphony," the constant throughout the music could essentially be anything.  And because there are no "rules" (or conventions) that can't be broken in composition, the possibilities for a symphony are literally infinite.

In this sense, there is both a sense of flexibility and restraint.  In other words, a symphony can be anything, but not anything can be a symphony.  Paradoxical?  Most likely, but upon further reflection, that will make more sense than you might think.

So, where will my Symphony No. 1 fall on the spectrum of symphonies?  I can't say for sure, because it is still a work in progress, but based on my current plan, my piece will be pretty recognizable as a symphony.  For starters, it will be an orchestral work with four movements, and there will be at least one recurring melodic theme.  But at the same time, I won't be following all the conventions.  For instance, whereas most classical symphonies have a fast first movement (even if the introduction is slow), my first movement will be taken at a more leisurely pace.  The first movement also will not be in sonata form, though this fad fell out of favor at least a century ago.  In short, this symphony is not one to test the limits of what a symphony can be.  There may very well come a point in my compositional career where I elect to follow that path; now, however, I have a different goal in mind.

The inspiration for my first symphony is closely related to the following quote by Aldous Huxley, which I first encountered in 3.091, one of the freshman chemistry classes at MIT:

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

In fact, one of the key aspects of music that sparked my interest in composition was its immense capacity for expression.  Music elicits wide range of emotional responses through an equally wide range of musical styles and techniques.  While I am still in the early stages of my compositional career, I hope to be able to capture at least some of the expressive capability inherent in music.

The inspiration--and underlying subject--for this piece is my relationship with my fiancé, Kira Sargent.  Perhaps some people think the idea of writing a piece about love is corny or mushy or whatever.  But Kira and I have known each other since the fall of 2002 (when we met in ninth grade), which means that there are over nine years of experience to draw upon for this piece.  In fact, when I was in college I actually began a similar project (inspired in part by Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique).  However, in retrospect I had not matured enough as a composer to realize my vision, and with other projects (both musical and otherwise) on the forefront of my mind, the work was abandoned.

And while I would stop short of saying that I have reached a definite level of compositional maturity, I do feel ready to take on this challenge.  (Interestingly enough--for all you music history buffs following my development as a composer--around the same time I had started the "prototype" of what would become this symphony, I also started and shelved the Lady or the Tiger? piece that I recently completed.)  I have found that I produce my best work and am most prolific when I am genuinely excited about what I am working on.  Because this is a topic of sincere interest to me, I am confident that I have the ambition and the motivation to make this work the best it can be.

The four movements of the symphony will follow what I see to be four phases in the relationship between Kira and me:

1. First Encounters
2. Blossoming Friendship
3. Diverging Paths
4. Rekindled Love

I intend to keep the program for this symphony below the surface.  For me this means two things: (1) Knowledge of the "back story" will not be necessary for appreciating the piece, and (2) the program will be an inspiration to draw from, not a strict script to follow.  In other words, there is not going to be a one-to-one relationship between events in real life and musical events in the symphony.  Instead, each movement will serve as a musical expression of that movement's overarching theme.  Or, to use the aforementioned Huxley quote, the music will express the inexpressible.

Well, the hour grows late and I have my advanced orchestration class to get to in the relatively early morning.  So I will end my thoughts about my first symphony here, with more posts to follow as I continue working on it.  Until next time...

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