The labour is over, the baby is out! I completed the engraving of the saxophone quartet yesterday!

Of course, it took about FIVE times longer than I thought it would!! But now it is done

The piece is titled “The Tears of Pirene.” What does the title mean? Read on.

My uncle died last month and what really got me about it is that my grandmother is still alive and well. She lived long enough to see her first born die.

A few years ago I read to my son the story of Bellerophon and Pegasus. In it was the story of Pirene, a Greek goddess whose son was accidentally killed and her grief was such that she became nothing but tears. She became the Fountain of Pirene.

The story of Pirene was such as powerful metaphor for grief that it has stayed with me ever since.

This piece for saxophone quartet is a representation of grief. It is not a pretty piece, not a melancholic adagio. It is a guttural cry of grief that ends in the half-peace of acceptance.

I look forward to the performance very much. (Scheduled for September.)

Yesterday was a day of assessing the new piece; what to keep, what to change, what to ditch.

I kept the first half pretty much as is and dropped the second half completely. I spent then most of the day working out the details of that first section, the lines, the textures, the counterpoint and the notation.

It was good to do that and not rewrite the end right away, because very often, composition is like problem solving; your unconscious often provides the solution to the problem after some distance and rest.

And that’s what happened, I awoke with the idea for the dénouement (the resolution) and then worked in out in the hot shower. (That’s a mental picture I perhaps don’t want to provide here…)

Anyway, so I then came downstairs to the cave and wrote that ending easily and quickly.

And I think I like it!

Believe it or not, it ends with a C sharp major chord in root position! That I am including a triad in such an exposed and bold manner is a sign of my growing confidence, I think!

But now I need something between the climax and the ending, a little transition that would represent depression, loneliness.

(I will explain what this “depression” business is all about in the next journal entry.)

And that’s a great way to work, knowing exactly what music you are starting from and going to.

Like building a bridge.

Alright. Back to work.