Monday, October 22, 2018

Musings of One Who Composes For One Musician...

I have a certain amount of pride  in having  set out over a decade ago to write a series of  blogs without use of technical  terminology, to reflect reaction to subjects of interest to me - pride, because my blogs now number about 700 without running out of material; at least, up to now.
So; as prologue to my first blog which will contain some terms that may require some of my readers to refer to a dictionary, please accept my sincere apology:

In my early days, I wrote music mostly for my primary instrument (the piano), starting at around age thirteen, and continued doing so until I went off to my college period. I did not return to serious writing for about thirty years, although I  have written  hundreds,  if not a couple of thousand of pieces for my students as part of their development  during my career as a pedagogue.
My return to  serious composition  took hold as a result of the beginning  of an encounter with an exchange student from Spain; an encounter that has continued for over thirty five years, and exists to this day in the form of  a Friendship without parallel in this life. I have written about Ricardo Odriozola a number of times. He is now a highly regarded violinist and has been  a faculty member of the  Grieg Academy of the University in Bergen, Norway for many years.
Odriozola,  at around age 17,  accosted my senses with such a high level of musicianship and technique from the first day, that it created a mode of inevitability of my need to write for this gift, which has continued to within the last two years or so. He is the only musician I have written for - this particular road HAD to be built. I would venture to speculate that a composer writing for one performer  forms an incident that does not replicate too often.
And recently Odriozola has honored me with his decision to have these works, mostly for unaccompanied violin, published. His understanding of my desire to further investigate the inner workings of the diatonic system, which has existed for many centuries, and is the base of Common Practice Music, especially the core of which has been extant from about 1600 to the early 1900's, but undying, primarily due to such processes as enharmonic design, is an understanding that I believe  Odriozola's decision to publish came from.
At any rate, this has been an experience for me I felt that I should share with my reader.
I am not, in any primary way, a composer. This process has always been at the bottom of my list of priorities to pursue.
However, in some arcane way, this wonderful violinist, awoke (or re-awoke?) something in me - and
 for this unexpected event, I will forever be thankful...

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1 Comments:

Blogger Peter Vinton, Jr said...

This was wonderful to read. It's a truism that the teacher can have a lifelong effect on the student in so much more than the immediate subject matter (something to which I can certainly attest), but Mr. Ordiozola seems to have taken it to the next level. Magnificent!

--Peter Vinton, Jr.

December 10, 2018 at 11:33 AM  

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