The end of old things and maybe the celebration of new things to come

I completed my Thesis today. It still might need some revisions and corrections, but the main work is done. I wanted to celebrate, but now I just don't feel like it. I'm too tired to care much about anything. It might be because this process has been such a wearisome one. There are other things, the fact that I live alone now, a week at a time, and my daughter with me the next week. I haven't shared anything about my private life until now, but might as well do so, since there doesn't seem to be a single soul reading this blog anyway...

But if you do happen to stumble across this blog, and happen to be interested in creating things, it might be of some interest to you, what I have been creating these past months.

My main subject is classical singing. I'm also very interested in composing, but haven't studied it except for a few courses. For my final project I was asked to compose "a little piece" of music. What I did was a full six-part cantata for three singers, two violins, two cellos and organ positive.
This combination of instruments was usual in the 17th century music, except the two cellos of course. This was due to the fact that there were no viola players in our school at the time, but plenty of cellists, so I decided to play it safely, and write the piece to players that were available.

My cantata, named "The Voice of Martyrs" centered around the theme of persecution of the Christians. You might think of it as a thing of the past, but it is in fact something that is happening today. Although I'm not currently identifying myself as a Christian, the faith has had a huge influence on me through out my life, and has partly made me the person I am today, so it felt natural to compose a piece of spiritual music.

The piece was first presented in November 2014 in my final concert, and it was a success. But this was only the first part of the thesis. The next part was to write. I kind of hate non-fictional writing.  I decided to link the written part to the composition process, and chose to write about the voice in the context of orchestration. Now, this is a HUGE subject, and I came to realize it in due course. I stripped and stripped the text, until the main part focused on the physiological aspects of the singing voice, and how they affect the way one should compose for it. Then I reflected on how I succeeded in following these self-imposed rules in my own composition process.

And now it is finished. I have some hope of graduating this spring.