Never Seek is the only piece in my works that doesn't include lyrics written by myself (picture above1). Its text stems from a poem called "Love's Secret" by american poet William Blake. I utilized the voice very sparsely in this piece. It is also the one piece where we really struggled in the editing and mixing process of the album.
The original plan of this piece was to have a very classical-sounding string intro, followed by an eight-bar motif that would develop more and more and be alternated with freely improvised sections inbetween that would also build up section by section. After that a clarinet solo would take place, followed by two vocal sections highlighting the poem with another free improv between the two vocal parts.
I had six motifs and six improvised sections where I stacked the following sections one by one: Rhythm Section + Strings + Trombones + Saxophones + Woodwinds and Trumpets + Voices.
Only after listening to the piece repeatedly in the mixing process, I realized that it was way too long, and that even I was getting bored listening to it. My audio engineer agreed and we decided to drastically cut the piece down. In the end we ended up with Intro + Motif 1 + Improv 1 + Motif 4 + Improv 5 + Clarinet Solo + Poem 1 + Tutti Improv + Poem 2.
Initially it was my goal with this piece to use the voice instrumentally before arriving at the poem, especially tying it in instrumentally into the free improvisation blocks, but the part I kept from the improvisation was actually improvised words, whispers and sounds resembling words.
For me it connected nicely with the poems that surrounded that part.
The poem itself I arranged very sparsely. The first part is the voices in unison except for 2 bars that open up into a four-part harmony. It was important for me that the poem was clearly intelligible. After the last improv section, I kept the voices very openly arranged, never more than two voices singing at the same time, so the emptyness of the poem, where the writer's love has departed, would shine through in my arrangement of the voices as well.
The following audio files show the two parts of the sung poem on the left, and two small excerpts of the whispered/spoken improvised parts on the right.
1 Blake, William. “Selections from Blake’s Writings,” Wikisource, 11 Aug. 2018, en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Life_of_William_Blake_2,_Gilchrist.djvu/152. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.