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

"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!

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16

Night

Dear Guests,

Night is a composition I wrote several years ago. Believe it or not, it was originally written for solo flute! At that time, I simply never even considered composing for double bass.

I was mourning a lost opportunity and grieving a road not taken due to what seemed to be a lack of courage and patience - on the one hand - at that time. On the other hand, it was a good thing I didn't take that road, when stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. I wrote this piece while letting go of my attachment of that road/dream and accepting it as best over all with relief that it didn't come to pass. I was also grieving how long I had been attached to that possibility and the cloud I lived under while being attached rather than fully on the road I was traveling due to internal confussion, tumult, lack of resolution and resolve.

In a sense this was a farewell piece to that quicksand of emotional, mental, psychological fabric in which I HAD been interwoven for years.

I wasn't happy with how the piece worked on the flute especially since I thought I really nailed the gist via the composition, so back then, I burned all the music!!! - so I thought.

Years later, the same week I met Eliot in rehearsal for a concert I was putting together in 2004, I found the first working sketch of Night which I had failed to find and burn. "AHA!!!!!!!! This is PERFECT for the double bass. I then immediately transposed the composition and adapted it for the bass. Ta da, the piece worked as intended and here we have it now.

After Eliot recorded the 5 movements of the Bass Suite #1, and while all the recording equipment was still set up in the church where we were recording, I asked him to play through Night so we'd have a recording of it. He nailed it on the first run through.

I'm so glad I missed the sketch and didn't burn it!!!

I wrote this piece of the heals of a string 4tet that I started and had to stop because the emotional spaces I was finding within were too painful to continue. My ability at that time was greater to find darkness than to transform or balance by shedding light upon it. It was as I would term, more journalism than artistic alchemy. Personally, I need a balance of depth and brilliance in order to compose. It is as if I need a rope as long as the depth I find in order to climb back up, and then I need a ladder which is called imagination which takes flight.

Yes, I think the imagination is linked to emotional health, which is linked to physical health, attitude and mental health. I think music is crucial to personal and cultural evolution while being significantly influential.

Hope you enjoy the work. I think Eliot captures the great depth of feeling, sensitivity and provides nuance of this work in this performance.

Musically yours,
Kathryn