Already, there is no way I can feasibly separate the sound work from the other layers, especially in my thinking. Simply, it is not going to be just a sound piece.
What I will do is this - at some point, perhaps two months before MA submission, so the beginning of July, I aim to have Sibelius wrapped up enough to leave for a while, and I will make a new, smaller piece of work. This new piece will be a transition or interim piece between The Future Past Tense and 24 Hour Sibelius.
This decision has a ring of happiness about it for me - it feels right to produce a piece of work this year rather than work towards the larger piece. It is also a chance for me to experiment and try out elements I am thinking of bringing to Sibelius.
Many years ago I had an important lesson in staged making. When I went to instrument making college I had never done woodwork before, and so had a big learning curve. After we all make apprentice-piece style instrument-shaped boxes, we decided what actual instrument we wanted to make. Being a player of the bass viol, that's what I wanted to make - the bass viol is about as large as a cello. I would not listen to the advice to make a smaller instrument first, and that if I did that, it would be easier and quicker to make the larger, and that in effect I would have ended up with two instruments in the time it took to make one.
After completing my bass viol, I grew to realise that the advice had been correct. However, there are still advantages to going for the big project, and I don't regret my decision, although I took on the principle. One thing making that viol did for me was prove to myself that I could not be an instrument maker and was by nature an artist. I could not stop myself from innovating and reinventing the pattern. Innovation and sculpture is good in instrument making, but not if you are supposed to be recreating an instrument on commission.
This is my bass viol completed in 1987. I have it still. It has some unique features. The sound holes / flames holes are a unique design, as is the bridge - the holes all have to sit under a string. Also, the edging, known as purfling, is an unusual design and trickily wide for a curved viol. The scroll was my greatest reinvention - it is an inverted, open scroll, and the pegs are also innovative - for the Renaissance. What else - yes it's green, or shades of green.
And so, in the spirit of the viol, I will be making a smaller piece towards the larger. I know what it will be, more or less, and think that 24 Hour Sibelius will benefit.
21st May 2013
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