An adventure with no goal or agenda is difficult describe.  It can’t be more or less than expected, and the realm of possibility is too large to be surprised or disappointed.  The truth is, a week in the woods to focus on composing music is really just a lot of work.

Luckily for me, I love to work.

This past week I gave myself permission to create without the bonds of judgement or the pressure of a deadline in the woods of New Hampshire.  And as much as I love and understand composing, I found it incredibly challenging.

When I arrived to the cabin on Tuesday, I unloaded my gear and immediately went to the grocery store.  I knew that I wanted to spend as much time as possible at the cabin, so I quickly bought one of everything that I thought I might ever want to eat during that week in the hopes that I would not have to leave my composer’s den again.  When I got back, I put away my food and set up a workstation where everything was in just the right place.  And then I took a nap.  And then I made coffee.  And then dinner.  And as the evening progressed, it became apparent that I was afraid to write, and so I forced myself to sit down and play guitar.  I played for about 45mins and banged around a couple of ideas.  I wasn’t judging anything I was working on, but I did notice the process was difficult and the results were small.  I started to realize I was out of practice.  I spent the rest of the evening on the porch with the acoustic guitar and listened to the woods.  I played along with the wind, and the night bird, and all of the bugs, and prayed that I would not be attacked by a bear or an axe-murderer.

The next day, I slept in a lot later than I usually do.  I made breakfast, sat out on the porch, played guitar, sketched out ideas and then moved inside to repeat those same activities.  The ideas were slow and small, but they were a bit easier than the day before.  I could see the potential for momentum and was curious where it would be at the end of the week.

As the days progressed my sketches got bigger and the recordings increased in length.  My ability to articulate more complex concepts grew stronger each day.  Somewhere in the week I started writing for specific ensembles and specific musicians – some that I know, and others that I haven’t met yet.

Late in the week I began to fixate on a few tunes and their development.  There was a string trio + guitar & drums piece that captivated me for at least 20 hours over a couple days.  There was another piece for a Fender Rhodes and electric guitar that kept twisting and turning until it finally revealed itself on the last day.

And then there were some pieces that stretched my idea of what it meant to compose music.  I wrote some sketches/exercises for an ensemble that utilizes spontaneous composition and free improvisation.  I wrote a couple pieces in a style that doesn’t have a name – it uses a musical form that’s more like a narrative or treasure map.

Over the week, I recorded 50 audio sketches (2 hours and 20 minutes of music), composed 8 ideas for a medium sized ensemble, and created a dozen or so architectural drafts for improvisation.  That feels like a lot, but the numbers don’t hold the meaning.  The truth is, a lot of these ideas are not going to be developed.  Some have potential, but others were just part of the process.

Throughout July & August I’m going to spend some time with these sketches and see what it worth keeping and developing.  I expect to have something ready for performance in August and I’ll try to have some recordings available by September.

At the end of it all, I’m right back at the beginning.  There is still no goal or agenda, but there is a drive and the process is more clear.

Thanks for being curious about the project.