There's not much to say this week for the directed study, since sessions with my mentor only begin next week- and I still have yet to sort out how I want to approach compositional musicology. So for this week, the opera section is all there is.
So there is some good news to share: I have majority of Scene 4 planned out at long last, after approximately a month and a half of toiling! While some of the specifics are yet to be determined and the score as a whole needs to be put to notation software, I am pleased to say that I have finally gotten over the part that has so far been giving me the most trouble. The part in question was the middle of Scene 4 (the overall gist of which I have explained here), where I needed to make the transition between an 'overt' sense of unease (caused by the precarious financial situation of the church) and a more 'insidious' kind of unease (where the dealer promises money in return for the wall mural). One of the things to consider was how tension should be accumulated and/or released as the section progresses, and eventually I came up with a plan- consistent buildup of musical tension after the 'overt' section, facilitated by the texture of string section tremolos, and gradually wind down in order to prepare for the deceptively still 'insidious' section. Again, this is all subject to change- I may even scrap this idea if I feel like it doesn't suit its purpose well enough, since some parts still feel generic in its representations of unease. But for now, I'm just relieved to have most of Scene 4 over with.
As for the other scenes, I have started making headway on Scene 3, which is an interlude for solo piano. Granted, the idea I have currently was kickstarted by listening to the second movement of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, and it still sounds plenty similar to that. But I'm certain that with time and multiple revisions comes a free-standing idea that can fit in better within the opera, so we'll have to wait (and write!) and see.
Caroline Shaw's Partita for 8 Voices. A long while back, I had been introduced to Shaw through her choral piece and the swallow- so I figured I ought to listen to more of her repertoire. It took a while, but I've finally gotten around to it! I particularly love the variety of textures she creates through different uses of the voice- speaking, enunciating and singing words in different pronunciations, mouth noises, etc- and she's definitely a master of vocal texturing from what I've seen so far. Needless to say, I'm instantly a fan.