Notes [Razzi]

These are just notes!

I was just playing along with the midi-file recording of Nigtingale and had a few ideas:

-I don’t know that the opening should start with that major theme on violin. I tried it and it just doesn’t “feel” right. It’s very major/nostalgic/dreamy sounding (not achy/drowsy/numb) which feels somewhat contrary to the opening of the poem and sounds strange when Brian opens with the chromatic/minor piano part. I need to develop something somewhere in between.

-Much of the piano part is based in melody which makes it very difficult for me to develop a violin part that stands out. Now that we have the core structure of the piece, I think we need to work out musical themes and play off of one another rather than have the violin act as an accompaniment to the piano. I envision the two music lines melding together and connecting at times; influencing one another rather than one part dictating where the other part should go.

-I love the way the piece juxtaposes fullness and fading. It’s like an ocean tide moving you back and forth. We can definitely play that up a lot.

-While I was toying around with my part, I was experimenting not only with chromaticsm/mixing major with minor but also syncopated rhythms. A big part of the poem is the meter and Keats breaks it in every stanza. He moves from iambic pentameter to trimeter in the 8th lines. Syncopation added a new complexity/tension to the piece…I’ll have to play around with that more.

-I’d also like to experiment with the “doubt” in the ending of the poem. I feel as though the ending should not be clear to the listener. There should be a real loss of time, perhaps even key, and the piece should fade into nothing, but so subtly that the listener is left wondering if they might still be hearing something.