A few days ago, I dreamed I was composing a new piece. I could hear the ending and also sense the kind of music that led up to it. The final notes themselves were in my mind and I saw the notation, so after I awoke, I could write the passage down. Although I quite often compose in my dreams, it rarely has this clarity.
What was also quite unusual was that in my dream I had imagined in some detail a double concerto with oboe and viola as soloists. The next day, as soon as I started to consider what I had thought of, I said to myself “That is a weird combination and probably won’t work as sound”. I also reflected that the double reeds are likely the least glamorous of the winds and the viola and double bass are possibly the least glamorous of the strings. So, my idea was unpromising and probably a “non-starter”. I also reflected that I have no commissions at the moment and that my stupendous reputation as a composer doesn’t exactly conjure up performances out of nowhere, so I would end up with a piece that would just disappear into a drawer.
But I am not so much in thrall to negative thinking as I was when I was young, so after a time I lost patience with it and grasped a pile of manuscript paper and got to work. I call this spontaneous method “improvisation with a pencil” though others might think of a more fancy name like “stream of consciousness”. The point is, you just write without stopping and there is no planning. After a few days I had a small quantity of music which, though crude, was well worth working on.
Talking to a couple of friends, I discovered that at least one concerto for oboe and viola already exists, so I would not be exploring entirely new musical ground with this unusual combination of instruments.