Coherency

So last week I was quite discontent with my piece. I really liked all of the musical ideas that I've had, but they felt too marginalized, too blocky and didn't have the flow that I wanted it to have. I also felt that the ideas that I did have didn't match the character of the poem. I was tempted to just give up on what I had and start totally new.

However I felt too stubborn to throw away what I've already done. I talked to some of my classmates about it, and at their suggestion, I just made each of the sections longer. And this makes sense. Each of the ideas didn't really have enough time to settle in and have time to morph into the next idea. So when I began to extend each of the ideas into longer phrases, I began to see opportunities to quote earlier material in a different context.

The idea that I had at the beginning with the chords in the melodica seemed very unrelated to the rest of the piece to me, but I couldn't let go of them. Than I suddenly realized that the chords fit over several sections that I've already written, which was really exciting to realize. I was able to restate this exact progression 2 times in the melodica and once in the piano after the beginning.

Apart from those quotations I was able to bring back much of the melodic material in the different instruments. I am now much more satisfied with the cohesion and coherence of my piece. It's funny how you can get stuck, and be close to giving up. But thank goodness I have some people around who are able to point me in the right direction.