Looking Back on the Song Cycle
I finished the Song Cycle a few weeks ago, and aside from occasionally noting how much free time I seem to have now, I haven’t really taken a good look back yet. I’m taking this morning to do so.
I spent a bit of time traveling over the holidays, which afforded me the opportunity to listen back to the whole thing in one sitting: Not recommended. It was never a goal to craft a single work of art, or any sort of integrated series, and no dumb luck lent itself to creating such a thing. It’s a somewhat disjointed and overlong listen (for more reasons than the 3:10:17 run time).
I do have some favorites scattered throughout the 52, many of which were never the favorites of listeners. In fact, the ones that seem to entertain people the most were some of the ones I found easiest to write, the ones most fully in my comfort zone. On the other hand, I’m aware that I might be fond of certain tracks because of the surprises and challenges they held for me personally. It’s a subjective art form, and I’m often more interested in the moments I surprise myself than those that show evidence of (the, probably, more important) practiced craft.
Craft, though, was the name of the game. I set out to improve what I do, and to find what I was really looking to write. For the 4-and-a-half years preceding the Song Cycle, I was writing in a relatively restrictive format for a very specific band with few opportunities to write outside the box. I was rarely pushing myself to work beyond the parameters set for me or the deadlines laid out for me. I felt stagnant, uninteresting and lost. Last January, I started out in hopes of changing some of that.
If anything, I have more qualms with my work than when I started - more details to nitpick, more habits that I want to kick. While I feel there was a steady and definite improvement in the work throughout the year, I still gag at a few terrible, misguided efforts in November and December.
I do not, however, feel lost any longer, or stagnant. And I don’t think I put as much stock in feeling “uninteresting.” In pushing myself when no one else was, I rediscovered the basic fun and challenge in writing, and the joy in self-improvement. I’m less concerned in what others will think when I’m writing, and more focused on the task at hand. I have a few tricks to get myself around blocks and some rules to honestly judge my work. I feel excited to write, eager to take on new projects. I feel like I could do a whole new Song Cycle for 2011.
And I thought about that. But I think it would just be more exercise, more practice. I’m excited, instead, for the new projects I’m readying for 2011. I appreciate those of you who’ve been following along, and I hope you’ll continue to check out this space in the future. Cheers.
