Every once in a while I write something that needs no revisions. Or nearly very little editing upon its conception. This Sarabande de lo dulce or Miniature XI, is one of those works. I love it when an idea just flows out nearly in completion after conception. There were a few minor edits, but what you here in the recording is nearly what I began with.
Perhaps part of that is being an improviser/composer. There is a huge difference between the two: improvisation is truly in the moment, whereas composition has the time and patience to realize a fruition in its ideas. That’s a bit simplistic, but I don’t think it’s entirely inaccurate. I have experienced that ebb and flow of ideas when everything clicks or the opposite, when nothing works and it is kind of frustrating. This can happen both in the unfolding of an improvisation or as a composition is being developed.
As I said in the beginning, this piece just flowed easily. I would contrast that with Miniature X which went through a number of edits. In fact, I finished this work before Miniature X. I gave myself a limitation of being in the lowest parts of the organ, which requires an instrument that can speak in those octaves. If I were on the Moller at the Monastery, it would never work. But being at Holy Spirit in Missoula, on the wonderful Bond organ, I knew it would work really well. Download the piece here on IMSLP!