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A POSTCARD TO BASBWE

I write as we enter week 31 (according to the diary I am keeping) of our Covid-19 experience. This
has affected all of us in varying degrees with sadly many paying the ultimate price for innocently
encountering this assault upon our lives and working practices. One can only comment on this
from a personal perspective with any real accuracy, but the eventual outcome will effect all of us
and change quite radically our own and others situations.

Composers tend to live much of their existence in a self-imposed
kind of isolation with time passing at seemingly variable rates
depending on the task in hand, be it a commission or a mission
to write music. It’s more tolerable for us to face
being ‘locked-in’ than a travelling salesman for
example! Being in the category of ‘semi-isolated’
(due to a previous operation) I made the decision
early in the crisis to remain positive in attitude
and spirit and to write a few more pieces that I would
rather of liked, should the opportunity have arisen
and a continuous schedule of commissions wouldn’t
divert me from.

It has proven to be quite an education and I have taken on board
a number of observations about my own working practices and
general musical philosophy. Principally this involves why I am
writing a certain music and not others and how this might be
addressed better in the future.

Obviously one has to earn a living but one slight advantage in
growing older is the benefit of a substantial catalogue of
works a good number of which seem to receive regular
performances. I am realistic enough to understand that
a composition for a wind or brass band is more likely
to enter their repertoires than anything written for
a symphony orchestra. However, it is not that
medium that I myself was seeking entry into.

Many years ago I wrote a Sonata for Clarinet
and Piano (1984) and was of the mind to
compose a series of such instrumental
works over a career. That sonata was
not commissioned but I was starting
out then and a promise of a performance
was a fine enough thing to achieve.
And so, it was 2009, a gap of a quarter
of a century, before a second sonata
was written, again without a
commission, driven by an inner
impulse. Since then I have done
a better job of maintaining
regular entries into this side of
my creative activity, an area
I refer to as my ‘Hindemith
Project’, which has delivered
a total of 12 to date, with
three written during the
virus pandemic and
further ones on the
blocks, ready to www.martinellerby.com
press ‘go’.