Night before last, I finished (at last) a flute duo for Orlando Cela. (How I came to write the duo is a mildly amusing story.) I then allowed that last draft to "cure" ... the novelty for me in the process of this piece, is related to typographic concerns. There is an idea I had for the final section, which I have probably thrown out. (Really, I reserve it for yet fuller execution in the new Schulte setting.) So, Friday evening I made my way to a provisionally final double-bar. I then began the trying phase: stress-testing the draught, deciding on places where (1) I might wish to make an adjustment, and (2) where my gut felt strongly I must make an adjustment.
The novelty, though, is that I regulated both (1) and (2) by the consideration of parts layout. All this while working on the piece, I wondered if I should "cheat" by just ("just"!) having the two players read from score together. At heart, I knew I must not settle for that cheat. So I checked the parts each time I made an adjustment. Perhaps inevitably, I began to devise adjustments specifically to yield a page turn here (for Flute 1) and there (for Flute 2).
So, yesterday morning, I reached the point where, now that changes are in place so that both players have convenient page-turns (itself, a perfectly reasonable and practical consideration), I wanted to make sure the piece works and flows as well as I felt it did before I began a-tampering.
And I find that these mundanely-driven alterations to the piece in no way impair the composition. And thus, Neither do I condemn thee, Op.132 for two flutes, is now finished.
Downside: No idea when it may be performed.
Upside: I know three flutists (including the commissioner) who will take an active interest in the piece, and I am sure they will all like it.
Downstream upside: Will be eminently marketable at the annual flutey-toot conventions.
Why-didn't-I-think-of-this-before? Upside: In November I made the acquaintance of a flutist in the ASO, whom we may interest in the piece, too.
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