Page 139 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

128 Musicological perspectives on composing
Joanna Wozny, “some remains”

A piece for piccolo, bass clarinet, piano, viola and double bass. World pre-
miere on 24 May 2014 in the Erich Hauser Art Foundation in Rottweil,
Germany, by the Ensemble Aventure from Freiburg. (The title of the piece,
taken from a Beckett quotation, only emerged during the final phase of the
composition process.)
Because of Wozny’s domestic obligations (two children, kitchen renovation,
Easter), teaching obligations at the University of Music and Performing Arts
Graz and a parallel Beckett project in Warsaw, work on the piece was partly
carried out under significant time pressure.
February 2014: Begins composing on 25 February by trying out flageolet
combinations on the double bass.
March 2014: Collects musical material for the five instruments; appears to
find multiphonics for the flute and clarinet particularly interesting. Begins
composing the opening, based on the idea of a sound moving slowly but
steadily (linked to the visual idea of a flock of birds or shoal of fish), without
fixed direction. Modifies this idea: does not want the movement (e.g. through
glissandi) to start straightaway, instead decides to leave the opening uncertain.
The subsequent progression is initially determined by a fluctuation of full and
undetermined, almost punctiform sounds taken from the harmonics of the
double bass flageolets. Adds rustling sounds as an additional texture. Subse-
quently fine-tunes the existing material, composes transitions; a structure with
the central notes d, e, c emerges out of the flute multiphonics. Somewhat
dissatisfied, not sure in which direction to continue. Has just over two minutes
of the piece.
April 2014: By the middle of the month, Wozny has produced a clean
copy of the first section (about 4 minutes, 47 beats; crotchet = 44–46). The
next section has a higher tempo (crotchet = 66–69) and, to begin with,
consists primarily of repetitions of note groups and tremoli, without piano.
Extendsthispart, whichhad originally been planned as an insertion (its
length is already about 7 minutes, which is the desired total length), but
still needs an end. Has an idea for the end while remembering another
piece. Reworks the piece again and again; feels pressurised because of the
little time left before the premiere. (Wozny retrospectively linked the piece
with a short text by the Polish writer Bruno Schulz, murdered by a
Gestapo officer in 1942. This connection has no relevance for the composing
process.)

4.2.1 How composers position themselves and how that impacts on the
composing process

The composition of any musical work is shaped by the composer’s aesthetic
attitude, which mainly develops out of a conglomerate of artistic experience
and an artistic practice embedded within a network, as well as his or her