The inspiration for this month’s Composer’s Choice music download was unavoidable – it’s spring here and the blossoms are out. Gazillions of them. And I’m looking at my orchard and thinking: Goodness me what a lot of fruit is on its way! Pears, apples, cherries and peaches. So much to do, I’m going to have to learn how to preserve and bottle them, maybe I’ll just take my share and leave the rest to the birds and the worms to replenish the soil…Maybe I’ll just sit here instead and compose some music for One Mind Live…
There are a few elements worth mentioning about this month’s music, aptly called “Cherry Blossoms”. It’s unabashedly Asian-sounding – which forms a large part of my musical and visual aesthetic anyway (a psychic once told me that this life was my ‘first western incarnation’ and I thought at the time, “No wonder I love sushi so much!”). However that could explain the reccurring lucid dreams I’ve had since childhood, of living in a Tibetan monastery….hmmmm, but that’s another story…
I always start a composition for OML by sourcing my mood or state. I can never compose when distracted or grumpy, though I can often make music when a little sad or melancholic. Happiness is also a good place to start but quite often when I’m happy I prefer to be running about and not sitting for a slab of hours weaving a composition. However, the magic part is that when I sit down and put the work in, I have something ‘happy’ I can play over and over again. The other good thing is that I have to have a minimum of six uninterrupted hours to make this music – it might not be finished in that time but at least the primary form is made. That means I get to do another thing I love so much: turn the phone off!
‘Weaving’ is a good word to describe the composition process. I start with a thread of a few notes and then it’s a very slow build. It’s times like these I’m glad I studied the polyphony* of J.S.Bach when I was a teenager, because “Cherry Blossoms” is a dance of a number of melodies – all interweaving together. They repeat, at times in configurations that are clearly patterned but also at times un-patterned, the different melodies returning at different times so they become organic and create a ‘forward rolling’ feeling – an unfolding, like walking through a landscape with the view changing and moving as you go.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Sonically yours,
Steve
*In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice which is called monophony- Wikipedia
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys guided by Naomi Carling and facilitated by Naomi Janzen for One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE