The Evolution of Material, part 1

I've been thinking quite a bit over the past couple of years about the evolution or further development of my own compositional material and fabric.  If a piece is recorded in setting A, why not take that same piece, or elements from it, a year or years later and re-record it in setting B, but in an evolutionary way?   Perhaps even on different instruments?

Over time, I often think of compositions as evolving or expanding or both.  I consistently have so much new material to record that I don't know if I'd ever have the time or real inclination to return to older pieces and rework them, but it is tempting.  I know there are pieces that I've played on tour that evolve over each night of the tour.  Over the period of a few years, I suspect that reworking an older piece would result in a new piece that was likely to be unrecognizable from the original. 

Historically, it is documented that several major composers re-used or recycled their own material into new compositions.  Or took pieces of their older compositions and dropped them into new compositions.  J.S. Bach was known to do this.  As did Mahler, Shostakovich, Bruckner, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Mozart, Schumann, and others. 

Beethoven: Heavily revised page from his 6th symphony

Furthermore, there are two very differing versions of Prokofiev's Fourth Symphony.  Originally completed in 1929 as opus 47, and heavily revised and lengthened in 1947 as opus 112.  In fact, the entire fourth symphony was based on and used material borrowed from his ballet The Prodigal Son.

It's not unusual for a solo piano composition to be orchestrated; one example of this is Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Symphonies have in some cases been reduced to a piece for solo piano or solo piano for four hands; for example, Brahms' Third Symphony.  Or a finished piece may be revised by the composer; for example, there are nine different versions of Handel's Messiah.

"Messiah" autograph composition draft. George Frederic Handel, 1741.

This option of revised material has been in my mind for a couple of years.  Mostly in the form of solo works.  I'm not interesting in trying to recreate or revise an entire composition.  I don't want to quote verbatim from any of my past works and drop that into a current work.  

But I am interested in and being drawn to using compositional elements or components from previous solo pieces as building blocks or structural frameworks for new compositions.  There are various reasons for this.  Over time and across artistic evolution, I hear things differently and write things differently.  I can hear past compositional elements in a current context and I can hear them going to different places, in different directions, now than they did then.

Liszt: Piano Transcription of J.S. Bach's Organ Fantasie in g minor; BWV 542. 1854.

Other pieces have components that have stuck in my mind and over time, I've wanted to revisit those compositional components and expand upon them.  I know this will be a catalyst for different outcomes, new directions differing from the original, and entirely new compositions; even though they were based on a compositional starting point from the past.

I suspect that pieces constructed, or began in this manner would be so unrecognizable from the original that no one but me would know or be able to identify them.

And perhaps compositions are never finalized, but continue to evolve over time.  If we let them.

I think this may all be part of the evolution of material.

-kk