This is seemingly the season for starting new blogs, so this one will document our progress for the next couple weeks, collaborating on a piece written for my final recital with MSU, a program revolving about dreams (this is Nate). So far, we have had some discussions, written some notes, and improvised around some ideas, but the ending piece is far from written, and this is a topic wide enough in scope that there have been a number of focus shifts in the planning stages.
Shared dreams:
Same thing from two perspectives: a scene from both sides of the room at once
Speaks of an amazing connection between two things, so deep that they can't help but gravitate back toward each other, heading off in different directions, but with such a completely shared past and present, the future can't help but remain common
Other things (more editing later)
Two of the same thing, one dream, one real:
Two people speaking, same or similar text, but one person starts earlier than the other
Earlier person is speaking slower, such that the one who started late "catches up" and they end together.
Maybe not the same words, but one person speaking of a dream, and the other speaking of an uncannily similar real happening.
So far, we have players we may not have even confirmed, but at least Maggie playing flaut, me on contra-alto-fiddle, and maybe both of us speaking false dreams, and hopefully our other friends playing flute and piano. Heh, we talked about a bass-drum in the mix, and there will certainly be a drumset there, so who knows.
Viola:
drones, context, sloooowly changing in ways that you notice only long after they've happened
(gotta practice my bow-speed)
Cross-tuned regular high A and D, G up to A, C down to A
bow pressure pushes octave A's away from eachother, looser low A goes sharp, tight high A stays steady
Timbreal shifts are potentially wide, with so many A's, such different sounding A's,
Use harmonics percussively, bow constsant, no fingering, but changing mode of vibration between two low A's
This is rough, but some notes for now.