Aug 31 2008
The Long Valley
My new orchestral piece suffered some negligence in recent weeks, as I have been in the midst of focused planning for the new school year. Though I now work part time at the school, initial preparation requires a significant amount of time, especially when directing two choirs and teaching one academic course.
One, two, three weeks passed without pressing a single new note to paper, and I began to wonder if I might be unable to compose when working elsewhere every day, even though I switched to part time to free up some time and space for composition. The fourth week came, and I was determined to prove my suspicions wrong, and so I did.
I penned 30 measures this afternoon, roughly 1′30″ of music. I’m happy with the material, and I see a lot of potential in where it is going and how I am to orchestrate it. I am also relieved to know that I can and will write a lot, despite the fact that I am preoccupied with my responsibilities as a teacher.
The name of the orchestral work is The Long Valley, which earns its title, though not direct inspiration, from John Steinbeck’s book with the same name. “The long valley” is also an epithet for my homeland, the Salinas Valley, whose origins may or may not come from this book.
The music itself draws inspiration from the opening chapter of Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which vividly depicts the wild beauty of the Salinas Valley, detailing a geographic and social landscape filled with paradoxes. I chose not to call the piece by this title because of its literary weight, which would subtract from the personal elements that I garner from the opening chapter.
East of Eden provided the kernel of inspiration, but I’m finding myself rummaging through memories of Salinas spanning the course of my life. I remember looking at the stars on clear, cool, crisp nights of autumn, walking my dog at dusk, viewing the snow-capped Mt. Toro out my bedroom window, riding my bicycle on the edge of lettuce fields.
In turn, the music is taking on an unintentional mystical shape. I think in my heart of hearts, Salinas is a mystical place for me, because it holds the key to a vast treasure of personal emotions, subconscious as many of them may be, now materialized in musical form.
When I picked up East of Eden for the first time a couple of years ago, I felt these things on every page, and my heart welled up with a mysterious, complex emotion of joy, sorrow, peace, tumult, similar to the paradoxes written and felt in the opening chapter of the novel. Upon finishing the book, I discovered how deeply connected I am to Salinas, and how it has permanently shaped me.
It moved me to write, and to write something intensely personal. After finishing Sempiterna, I came to understand the necessity for me to write personal works, which allows me to create more authentic, sincere, and fluent music. Sempiterna proved this to me, and I am doing it again with this piece, honoring the place from which I came in an attempt to give back to a place that gave me everything.
I am aware that time will become a more precious commodity as the semester forges on, and I know I will be busy with school, Schola, and other things. But my commitment to The Long Valley is most steadfast, as my identity as a developing composer and person is invested deeply into each and every note.
I’m not sure much else in life could be so fulfilling, so enriching, so meaningful. How could I not make time for that?
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