& I believe it is finished—I have made a 2 pfte arrangement & will get that tried through to see if I can bear it...
The bits I have shown to people they do not like—Gustav [Holst] heard it all in an early version on 2 pftes— & was puzzled by most of it & disliked the rest.
— Ralph Vaughan Williams, writing to Sir Adrian Boult
(and with characteristic self-deprecation) about his Fourth Symphony
On 10 August, I started writing a fresh piece for flute unaccompanied, August Haze, for Dolores August. The haze is not Dolores’, but the effect of light on Boston Harbor in some photos I had taken 7 August 2018. Long time ago, when I was a green composer, I would generally do some “pre-compositional work” at the outset. Overall, I did quite a bit to (we might put it) manage materials. I don’t say that I’ve entirely given over ‘material management.’ but there came a time where I was pretty comfortable letting the material do pretty much as I perceived that it wished. I did quite a bit of work on the piece Saturday, and yesterday morning’s work brought the piece to the five-minute mark. As I downed tools, I wondered if it really was a piece of music, or if I was just slinging notes onto the staff. I left the house for a brief but pleasantly sociable outing in Somerville, and I lost all sense of that nagging question. I wasn’t planning to do any more work, yet, once I was settled back home, I resumed work. I finished the piece, and I do think it is music.
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