Today was intense and challenging.
That bass sequence that entered just at the end of yesterday's session took this track in a direction that I hadn't predicted. I started the day by reading up on "repetition", and found an interesting article that compared "musematic" and "discursive" repetition in music. A "museme" is a short motif, and when these are repeated, the result is circular. In contrast, when a longer phrase is repeated, the result is more linear. With this bass pattern, my main concern was getting trapped in a narrow corridor. So, I worked with the phrase for quite a while, extending it and shaping it.
After 2 hours, I felt a bit lost, and lacking any clear direction. I started to wonder: what "is" this music? What am I expressing? What do I hear and feel?
Before taking a long break to go outside, I listened through and wrote down some ideas.
"Wasteland. Vast. A resolute journey, solitary, moving ahead with hope."
When I got back from my afternoon walk, I worked slowly and gradually, first working with the synthesizer lines and the sequences. After a few takes, things started to congeal. I sat at my piano keyboard and began improvising. The result was surprisingly intense and dramatic. I guess that's just how I hear music.