Not a lot of blogging lately, as I am concentrating on two composition projects – the piece for the consortium of pianists I wrote about here; and a set of songs on texts by Susan Stewart. The piano piece is due first, so it has been occupying more of my attention. It is looking like a set of preludes rather than a short sonata or a single movement. I have accumulated a lot of material since starting the set, just bits of things: different kinds of pianistic texture, chord progressions, melodic fragments. The problem has been to select and build them into pieces. Which fragments belong together? Which ones do I need to let go of, perhaps save for another piece? Here’s the possible beginning of one of the movements (editing obviously incomplete, even the spelling of the chords!!):

But there are, as the poet says, miles to go before I sleep…