A few reflections...
A few reflections on my Scots fiddle concerto. The series of 3 solos, 1 duo and concerto were performed on 16th November at the Scots Fiddle Festival in the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh.
Through the rehearsals of the Fiddle concerto I was very happy and amazed at soloist Gordon Gunn's lyricism and dexterity throughout the time. I was trying to write music that was hard and testing to the soloist while exciting to the listener. I felt I succeeded.
On the performance night it was very interesting to listen to the flow of the works from the very first "A fonn gunbhitrom (I am disposed to mirth)" performed by Mairi Campbell to the duo "A' cheud luan do'n raidh (The First Monday of the Season)" performed by Aidan O'Rourke and Patsy Reid. To my ears it showed a development of ideas as learned from one next piece to the next.
When it was time for the concerto it went very well and all the players played great. I did at the time have a feeling that it was different to the rest but in a positive way. (I'll be uploading a video in the next few weeks). It was a long night of a gig with Lau going on first (they were brilliant) to be followed by an hourish of new music but the audience seemed to like it (and the place was packed).
Anyway when the reviews came out they were mixed. Rob Adams' in the Herald generally thought it went ok but felt the concerto lacked something when compared to the preceeding duo. The Scotsman (Hi-Arts) reviewer disliked it completely. Anyone who has read my previous blogs will know that I don't mind this - everyone is entitled to their opinion and I recognise if I'm going to write on a public stage then I have to be able to accept flak as well as positive thoughts. I suppose the one thing that really bugged me about the latter review is that the journalist kept going on about a concerto is only for orchestra and any other ensemble is completely wrong. Unfortunately in this case the journalist is wrong as there are many examples - Judith Weir, Michael Finnesy, Sally Beamish, Hindemith who have all written concertos for 'non' orchestras.
What I've taken from the experience is that I now need to work on my ensemble writing skills. I don't feel that I'm getting the 'traditional' ensemble writing right. My parts are all very 'classical' and I need to work out how I am going to feature the trad musicians in the ensemble and make them sound like themselves. I think I am generally on the right track for the soloists (although I could maybe write more in the home keys). I'm going to take lessons next year with a composer to advance my skills and to move forward and will use the fiddle concerto as a piece to look at in the lessons.
I'm about to try writing a trad piece for glockenspiel and I am currently just thinking whether or not I need any ensemble between it. It will only be 5 minute piece. It will be good to keep going and learning more.
