Happy Friday!
How do we know when a piece of music contains everything it should?
Often I think the only way to consider a piece of music “done” is through acknowledging that any recording is just an example — that the piece could be played in many other ways, with many variations, extensions, etc.
Maybe sometimes there’s a sense that something is enough, or more than enough, or even great. Everything fits together well, it’s a nice listening experience, and there isn’t a sense of anything being “wrong.” That’s a good feeling. But even then there is usually — for me at least — the awareness that things could be changed or reworked, even just as a fun, future experiment. This isn’t a nagging feeling, kind of just a reality to come to terms with. And I think it’s an important thing to accept, lest there be a sense of doubt as to what a composition is “meant to be.”
While sometimes there’s almost a magical sense of a song feeling like it kind of “writes itself” and that “everything is exactly as it should be,” I think this is rare. It’s fun to think about, but I don’t think it should be disappoining if it feels a little less romantic to complete a piece of music and not have a mystical sense that it is “finished.” In fact I would even say that there is something even more mystical about a composition having an infinite number of possible variations, most of which will never been written or heard.
This recording of “The People’s Queen” contains all of the sections I had in mind, which I felt I had sufficiently played around with so that they made sense in the context of the piece. There were many other possibilities that came up as I was noodling around, a few of which are recorded elsewhere, but they remain messy ideas, something to maybe take a look at down the road.
But I’m happy with this “example.” I think it’s one of the pieces I’ve had the most fun with. I was super inspired when I hit on each new part to include. The bluesy section that arrives in a rather dramatic shift could probably be expanded into a long solo, but I really kind of like the idea that it presents itself so dramatically and then leaves without saying goodbye.
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