AUGUST 2004

Work on the reorchestration has been slow over the last month. I've had other work with an earlier deadline, and so this naturally gets first priority. I've also been preparing for a concert premiere of my opera, Through A Window, which I'm conducting on the 21st August.

In what is a sizing down of the my original score for The Farewell, I've faced a couple of tricky problems. The most obvious being what do I do with material that is for instruments that are not present, such as piano and percussion. Trying to decide what is the most important isn't easy when you've originally written the piece for a larger orchestration. Which leads to the second problem: do I aim for the same goal that I aimed for with the original piece? The Farewell has such an emotional background, and I'm not sure how much I want to alter that.

I've decided to try and go with something different. The walls of sound which I envisaged for the Auckland Philharmonia, won't necessarily work with the TSO. With the suggestion that the original was over orchestrated from the tutors, I will attempt to produce something that is more sparse, without altering the motivic and harmonic content.

There are several areas where I am trying for greater timbral variety and clarity. I can't be sure I will feel the same about the piece or not, as I have a strong emotional attachment to it already. But I suppose this is the perfect opportunity (and challenge) to attempt this rewrite.