fwd

...and fast forward to having finished the piece.

Already two weeks ago, in fact. Three days late on June 3rd, I sent the final score and parts for the organ version of the quintet southwest to the commissioners and the ensemble Continuum XXI.

As you may have expected, during those last five days to write the piece, I prioritised spending time writing the piece rather than writing about the piece. The suction of the workflow completely took me in, and I had barely time for anything else but food, sleep and having a few short breather breaks meeting with friends. Keeps me sane to have a minimum level of life underneath it all, even at the cost of being a bit late with the delivery time.

Helps also with recovery and the birthing blues, which was mitigiated this year by having a rather fruitful overlap with the next piece I'm writing for the good people of the Zöllner-Roche duo – a piece I've been looking forward to starting all the while while working on southwest.

It will be called east.

Meanwhile, the musicians of the ensemble have gotten in touch to clarify some techniques in the piece, and I've sent them suggestions and videos about playing techniques that I had experimented with. They will of course build their own relationship and interpretation of the piece, which I'm very much looking forward to hearing.

I love the feeling of the piece being 'out there' and 'out of my hands', now what's left is for me to both stay out of the way of the piece finally becoming itself in the able hands of the good people premiering it, and help it as much as I can.

See you in Viitasaari on July 4th.