Like many, if not most, professional composers, it is impossible for me to make a living off of only composing. For various reasons, including a substantial part of my other work also being creative work, I unfortunately can’t consistently devote time and energy to compose.
This means I have periods when I do little to no more involved music composition, if any at all. I was going through one such period earlier this year. That led to my devising a little game, a system for randomly generating frameworks for writing musical etudes for various combinations of instruments: “Saulesco’s Etude Game”.
Every day in March, I played my little game and composed one etude per day. Beginning Monday March 2nd, I chronicled my progress here on this blog, concluding with a more thorough presentation of the game in April.
Knowing that this kind of method has been useful not only for me personally but also as a teacher, I wanted to give my little game the best chances I can for it to flourish. I would like to inspire others to try it out, hopefully find it useful too, and perhaps even make changes to it to better suit their aesthetic sensibilities or practical needs. This particular design, this implementation is mine, but the principle, the idea is not.
Therefore, bookending both the 2026 spring season and the development of my little game, I have made a short instruction video demonstrating how to play a round of Saulesco’s Etude Game, along with a resulting example etude.
Moving into June, there are exciting news ahead that I can’t really share yet. Otherwise, like last year much of this summer will be spent making house renovations. There is a non-zero chance I will return to playing my little game and composing daily etudes like I did in March. Equally, there is a non-zero chance I will be able to take some of these etudes and develop them further into full-fledged musical works.