Getting back into enjoying composing + violin post-college

February 25, 2019, 12:53 PM · While I have of course enjoyed working on my last several pieces of music throughout 2018, a few weeks ago I started an Oboe Sonata, and just finished typing it up into the computer (through Finale, of course!) yesterday. However, I was really happy with how excited I was about the composing process even compared to Muse of Fire and other pieces I worked on last year. My Chaplin score was fun, but it still felt like I had to be restricted in some way by the film. (I know if I become a film composer I'll be even more restricted, but I hope by then I'll learn to embrace these restrictions more than I do now.) With this Oboe Sonata, I was free to write whatever I wanted, and it felt like I was in high school just sitting down and working on a new piece of music. I used to just write random tiny pieces just for fun, and I hope I'll start doing more of that during my Spring Term at Augustana. I miss my high school self's passion for composing and music, and I hope to bring that back through my new excitement of composing and going back through this blog.

On another composition note, I'm making some small edits to my Chaplin film score, but I'll probably not really continue that mini-series (if you've been reading that) just because I'm basically finished writing it. These edits are just to make the piece a little easier to play, for example holding a chord during a trickier right-hand passage. The performance will be sometime this spring. (I'm so excited to go for composition walks, hearing the birds, around campus - this is my last term at Augustana and I'm ready to make the most of it!)

Speaking of such, I am starting to think about what I'll be doing on my violin after I leave Augie. I practice it, yes, and I've had a couple enjoyable hours during the break playing old music I've found through a binder, but I've been more focused on engraving over the past week. I'm just starting to think about this summer when I'm leaving my violin lessons and orchestra behind since I'm not planning on playing in the orchestra in grad school (if I go). I intend to make the most enjoying my time performing in the orchestra for our concerts this term, and perhaps start looking up bigger solo pieces I can spend time learning on my own as I start to just have my violin to play for fun while I focus on writing more compositions. I'll always have concerts with music by Ravel or John Williams or whomever to enjoy listening to orchestral music all the same... We'll just have to see what happens - I've got some time left to perform at Augustana, including playing for student recitals!

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Getting back into enjoying composing + violin post-college

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