Page 81 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

70 The processuality of composing

and compose a piece that’s in some way a very free, elaborate cover version
of that piece.

Because of his plan to create a link to his cycle “Suicidal Self Portraits”,
Ciciliani already addresses important pre-compositional decisions in what
is only the second entry in his diary. Acts of valuing predominate here.
His statement about possibly working with the piece “Gloomy Sunday”
points out that the material (the piece of music and its historical context)
motivates and energises him. It encourages him to continue down the path he
has taken and at the same time stimulates ideas for his composition. However,
this also changes his acts of valuing, as can be seen in his written notes of 10
October 2013. Here, he wonders whether “Gloomy Sunday” might be “a bit
too banal” and whether the song might be a reference that “nobody gets
anyway”. The criterion on which he bases his valuing is directly named – the
contrast of banal vs. original, challenging, interesting. What exactly Ciciliani
understands these to mean, however, he does not specify.
Pragmatic considerations also emerge from his acts of valuing the material,
for example when he notes: “The final part [the fifth part of the cycle] should
have some substance, i.e. it should last ten minutes, give or take a bit. The
song probably doesn’t yield enough material for that kind of length.” He also
continues to look for reference points for the content of the work and writes:

[27 Oct 2013] Earlier in the week, I happened to come across a news item
about an American singer who has undergone quite a lot of cosmetic
surgery to resemble Justin Bieber as much as possible. I found that a
pretty interesting story in its absurdity. And I thought, the whole topic of
plastic surgery obviously has to do with redefining the self as well, which
is in keeping with my topic.

Quite by chance (“I happened to come across…”), Ciciliani finds a possible
topic for his composition – though this chance needs to be put into context.
After all, Ciciliani already has a certain thematic interest because of the
cycle’s earlier parts. His intentionality is thus already formed. In the following
days, he further refines certain aspects of the work.

[1 Nov 2013] I started by looping two dozen cover versions of the song
“Gloomy Sunday”, which I’d downloaded yesterday. I mean, I organised
them by key and then looped them in such a way that they replace each
other fluidly, i.e. by overlapping slightly. And I did a … well, a transpo-
sition or an abrupt modulation from C minor via G minor via D minor
to A minor. And, yes, on the whole I like it. But it hasn’t yielded anything
substantial yet. I kept having this idea that the layerings of the various
cover versions could create a sort of background texture, and then I could
sort of put the actual instrumental parts on top. As if it was a painting
with a primer coat. […] Then I had the idea that maybe this “Gloomy