Got a bassoon?
/…plus a string quartet?
Several many years ago, I started a project called The 24-Hour Project, the purpose of which was to get me off my ass and compose something — anything — and not worry about it.
The way it worked was that you would email me three numbers. The first number (1–5) was one of the five books of poetry I had pulled off the shelf to be our source material, and the second two numbers were the page number and the line number of a poem. I’d take that line/fragment, announce it on my blog, give myself 24 hours (defined as “by midnight of the following day”) to set it to music for baritone soloist and usually a piano, and then post it on the blog.
And that was it: Just the one phrase, wham/bam and don’t worry about perfecting it or making it a complete work, just those few measures of music that started but definitely didn’t finish.
It went very well, and more than a couple of those fragments went on to become full-blown pieces, foremost of which is the “Pieces for Bassoon & String Quartet.”
Here’s how it started: https://www.dalelyles.com/2009/05/23/24-hour-challenge-3/
And here’s what it turned into:
Pieces for Bassoon & String Quartet (2010)
II. Threnody | score [pdf] | mp3
III. Dialog | score [pdf] | mp3
I’m most fond of the third movement, in which the string quartet just doesn’t quite get that the bassoon is in a mood — they take each of his outbursts and turn them into charming mini-pieces, which alienates him further and further until he finally just gives up. Finally his compatriots recognize that he needs some support/attention/whatever, so they entice him into the fold again. The movement ends with a vigorous coda in unison.
Fun note: When A Christmas Carol turned out to be such a hit 45 years ago, I decided I could keep going and compose a couple of other holiday classics so we could rotate them, and for some reason I settled on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” as my next project. The only number I even started on was a song for the girl’s dead grandmother to sing to her as she freezes to death. (I know, right?) “In my arms there is no cold — come warm your soul with me forever,” and that’s the fourth mini-piece in the third movement.
