Writing

analysis

• October 30, 2025
  Percussion Augmented by Tonality and as Structure: Orchestration in David Moliner’s Estructura IV

  
  Before we even begin with our analysis of the score, let us first take a look at the orchestral forces, as this will give us an idea of what will be coming, i.e. orchestral forces chosen and the number of each functions as a kind of restriction function. We have piccolo flute and two flutes in the highest register; this is standard, as two flutes must be playing simultaneously to be as auditory as one piccolo flute playing, due to its higher frequency range. Read more...


• July 10, 2025
  Thoughts on Ulrich Siegele’s “On J. S. Bach’s Compositional Technique” and “Bach’s Theological Concept of Form and the F Major Duet”

  
  I am grateful to Reiko Füting for sharing both articles with me…I had never heard the F Major Duet up until encountering Siegele, which made me seek it out. It has a sonic timbre and form that, despite its balance, struck my ear as truly bizarre—a symmetry that is so symmetric that it’s almost off-putting. Siegele is correct to feel that there is a distinct, deliberate message Bach is communicating. Also, unlike in say the great B minor fugue from Book I of the WTK, here the kernel appears not at the beginning (it only appears so), but rather in the middle, as a dissonant middle section, the first non-trivially prime Fibonacci number (I say “non-trivially” because 5 bars or less is too small a number for an actual section of music). Read more...