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Dear Guests, Welcome to my blog which I treat like a creative garden where I regularly plant and change this and that be it poetry, philosophy, an Oboe Brilliance lesson, an essay of some kind, or a journal about composing. Visit every Monday for oboe coaching which is also helpful for many melodic instrumentalists. Musically yours, Kathryn
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"How do you compose?" That is the most commonly asked question I hear.
This blog is a window into my creative process and philosophies as a composer and instrumentalist. At times it may contain music, photos, and poetry as well. May you enjoy, return, and benefit!   My Archives  September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010
composing today
Inside look "Now Point" in progress Influence What I am doing now. Sonic Portrait of Mary Daly What is musical relish? December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 |
Dear Guests,
My ballet "Now Point" continues to have my full concentration and focus now. I'm in love with the various patterns and textures I'm weaving into this composition. I'm allowing myself to expand my vision today where I layer my ideas more synchronistacally/simultaneously rather than continue to take turns of foreground background in the weaving featuring thematic material in turns. Now, I am building and developing more than I had planned making the ballet much fuller. My previous versions and revisions are gathering into collective party of complimentary layers. I am today influenced and inspired by the fabric and visual artistry of Matisse. Like life. To the dance! Musically yours, Kathryn
Dear Guests,
I am taking a short break from composing "Now Point" a ballet for full orchestra to write something about the creative process in this blog. How am I composing this? What am I thinking? How do I approach this? My love and experience of ballet have a strong influence. From 2 to 12 years of age I studied ballet and had a great teacher who taught me how to hear music with my entire body and express music physically. So, this ballet work is deep inside. It is intrinsic to my physical, emotional, and imaginative being. The music must be of a result of and connect with my physical body and with my archetypal spirits intrinsic to my artistic instincts. It contains fairy tale magic and deep dark mystery in its sounds and rhythms - like a good ballet should in my world! My fairy god mother, and dark wizard take turns writing out this score. The eternal lovers dance in fog and golden light while the fairy god mother and dark wizard weave this and that. Then of course there is the pulse of the realm turning the wheel of time creating a connecting anchor. I approach this poetically in that it goes past the front door of concrete to bring you into the gist of a new sonic world - like a good ballet should in my world! Compostitionally, I make it a point to keep a perpetual line and flow within the change. Dovetailing phrases and weaving threads that come up and go under are a priority in my process. The result is a rhapsodic weaving of variation and development in a contrapuntal texture. Okay, back to work. Musically yours, Kathryn P.S. (Artistically I feel that one must be in touch with deep primordial and childish instincts to write an effective ballet complete with shadow and magical fairy dust.)
Dear Guests,
As I work on the final draft of my ballet "Now Point" I realize how much my working on electronic sound sculptures as well as viewing astronomical photographs of the heavens influence my composing for full orchestra. Serious fun. Musically yours, Kathryn
Dear Guests,
Hope you're well and enjoying this new year. Last year feels like a long time ago already. Right now I'm composing a ballet for full orchestra "Now Point". I've been working on it for a while and it's coming together. Next month I'll submit it to a competition which I was invited to participate. If I win, great. If not, I have a strong piece finished to send to orchestras to perform and for dancers to dance. I'm very grateful to have the time and skill now to compose such a work. It's taken me a long to time to get to this point now. Next month I'm very excited to hear Meredith Blecha perform - premiere a cello suite I composed specifically for her. Stay tuned. Now, guests can visit the music page to subscribe to Oboe Brilliance to receive mp3s to help instrumental technique or Composer Courtesy MP3 to receive the latest mp3 sound sculptures in your email inbox, as I create them, throughout the year. Once I've completed the ballet, I'll return to work on Oboe Brilliance: a collection soli and duets I'm composing for oboists beginners to viruosi. Back to work - the ballet is not finished .... yet! Thanks for visiting. Musically yours, Kathryn
Sonic Portrait of Mary Daly
So today is January 5th 2010 and while I was cooking dinner this evening, I heard on the news that Mary Daly died. Out of deepest admiration and respect for such a valliant, informed, passionate, liberator I improvised a sonic portrait in honor and in remembrance of her. I remember attending a live lecture she gave in Winston-Salem in 1990. I had just moved to Winston-Salem from San Francisco so I was familiar with women’s spirituality, lesbians, dykes and passionately radical people dancing to their own drummer. Even so, I was amazed (almost floored) at the intensity and stable core of Mary’s countenance as a lecturer. Her opening statement was, “Good evening, my name is Mary Daly and I’m a revolting hag”. She continued to deliver such a powerful message which articulated just how and why she is (was) a revolting hag. Her integrity of what she meant by being a revolting hag has influenced me ever since. It opened my eyes in ways in which they weren’t opened before, and I am eternally grateful to her teaching. Because of her, I began developing deeper respect and admiration towards elder women, (hags) and keenly seeing more and more the virtue of women’s maturity, wisdom, power and passion in ways that were eclipsed to me through my programming of how I was reared in my culture in various ways. The sound excerpt is 13 seconds in honor of the lunar year which is a bow towards women’s spirituality. The portrait is an unedited and matter of fact improvisation (no nip and tuck, or pat and puff via editing for this portrait!) that signifies her catholic upbringing, her steadfastness, her assessable uniqueness, and liberator of women’s voices. I represent the church with the organ, with liturgical history with the A minor mode, and represent goddess cultures and spirituality with the Phrygian mode. I keep A as the tonic, providing continuity throughout the sections, and maintain an organic pulse for her portrait as she was steadfast and sturdy. She was clear, articulate, informed, and influential. She made sense. She was easy to understand because she was an excellent teacher. She delivered her message faithfully and consistently. She was a beacon, not just a bright light. She was a rare teacher, heralding liberation for women and spiritual studies thanks to her superb education, purpose, and passion. This brief improvisation, and blog entry is the least I can do. The most I can do is continue to learn, grow, and be as liberated as possible in homage to the purpose of her work, which I concur. Musically yours, Kathryn Potter
Dear Guests,
Happy New Year! I've just started creating "musical relish". As the name implies - it is a little something extra to add to enliven a meal. In this case the meal is either meditating sonically for chakras work for instance, or for how I use it specifically which is for practicing intonation work. Relish in E Phrygian is a generous 4 minutes of tonic, dominant, and notes in E Phrygian to hear while playing an instrument for the purpose of intonation practice and improvising within this mode. E Phrygian is e to e all natural and was favored - so I read - by the goddess and gia religions of the past. I just love the Phrygian mode as it is so beautiful. For me, all playing is a meditation of sorts, and practicing intonation is deeply multi dimensional, so this is really an intonation meditation for technical,emotional, physical, and if one chooses, spiritual practices. Integrity - meaning - integrating the mental, emotional, physical, etc realms - is what this relish is made to help us achieve. This is a meditation to stir, nurture and get more in tune, the instrument that we are individually. You can hear it in full on the website - on the music page - for practice purposes and/or you can buy it for $8 in order to receive other "Relish" pieces throughout the year in your personal email to own. So in other words, for $8 you can buy a subscription to receive custom "Sonic Relish" to use for your purposes. Musically yours, Kathryn P.S. ( Wishing you a musical year full of joy and fulfillment.) |
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