I have rarely, if ever, gone back and studied the development of one of my compositions like this before. I have put down lots of time and work preparing this post and I look forward to sharing the fruits of my labour with you here: A somewhat condensed but still detailed review of how Rhapsody for oboe, bassoon and piano was created.
Finally, as 2025 draws to a close, the last post about the construction of my rhapsody. If you haven’t yet, I recommend you go back and read the first and second posts before you tackle this one. It is not mandatory, of course, but I think you’ll get the most enjoyment out of this post equipped with the knowledge and perspective of the two previous ones.
I took nine project files from throughout the composition process, going over each in retrospect and noting what had changed since the last time. I have tried to present that data here as concise as possible.
The most easily digested version is to simply read this blog post as a description of my work process, but if you want to dig deeper you can download PDF files corresponding to every point in the process to study the differences more closely. Also, if you really want to get your hands dirty, I have made a separate page with tables of every single edit as a kind of compositional changelog.
June 25, 2025
I first started sketching out the piece a few days after Midsummer, in late June. At that point, I had basically settled on the idea to reuse material and ideas from my short story opera, The Loving Mother, but needed to try it out before making a definite decision. Thus, the first saved file only has 19 sketched-out bars based on the beginning of scene 2 in the opera, essentially transcribing the dialogue between the Mother and the Midwife for the bassoon and oboe, respectively.
July 6, 2025
A week and a half later, I have made enough progress to settle on opera-recycling idea. I have filled out the holes the piano accompaniment and developed some rough, early ideas. The early sketched-out bars 15–18 have turned into the almost-finished bars 15–20, with bars 21 onwards being all new material, continuing the dialogue from scene 2 in the opera.
August 14, 2025
My plan was to work on this piece in the summer so that I could have it finished before the Kristina från Duvemåla production kicked off in the middle of August, but massive house renovations took up most of my time and energy.
Four days before Kristina kicked off, I have only made some iterative changes to the piano part but added nothing new. Toward the end of August, however, work on the rhapsody really kicked into gear!
August 31, 2025
By August 30th, I had almost doubled the number of bars in the project, also moving from the first section of the rhapsody – based on material from scene 2 – to the second section, where I decided to use material from scene 1.
At this point I was behind schedule, I had a fairly strict deadline, and with every passing week Kristina rehearsals ramped up further, so I didn’t have time to really stop and reflect on my choices. I wanted a strong contrast the rhapsody’s sombre, dramatic first section so going for the perky, upbeat music in early scene 1 was an easy choice.
Bars 54–103 were written by August 30th, as well as some editorial changes and further development of particularly the piano part. Sunday August 31st was a particularly fruitful day – bars 104–141 were all written on that day, including further edits to the other material from the past two weeks.
One thing to keep in mind is starting Monday August 18th, three days a week were rehearsal days for Kristina. I had family issues to deal with at this time that took a lot of time and energy as well. So, in the 17 days between the 14th and 31st of August I actually only had two full days to dedicate to composing, incidentally Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st.
September 4, 2025
Monday through Wednesday September 1st–3rd were all rehearsal days as well, but by September 4th I had made further, substantial progress. Most of it got done on Thursday the 4th – primarily adding another 77 bars of music, but also making edits to the existing music all the way from the start, mostly revising the dynamics and the tempo markings but also developing the material more substantially in a few places.
This is also when I wrote most of the rhapsody’s section 3, which is based material from scene 3 in the opera, up to and including the return to the upbeat scene 1 music for the rhapsody’s 4th and final section.
On September 3rd, I showed what I had written up to that point to a friend and colleague who was also playing in Kristina during one of our breaks. She told me that she loved the music, that it had so much variation and development, but she felt that the opening was a bit abrupt, like something was missing. To tell the truth, she wasn’t wrong; I had not intended the rhapsody to have a hard opening like that, more like I had forgotten to add an introduction.
September 7, 2025
On my three days off (from Kristina) Friday 5th through Sunday 7th I got lots more done on the rhapsody, including a 30-bar introduction before the first section and 14 bars of new music at the end. I also went over the entire piece again, making plenty of editorial changes, adding or changing technique, dynamic and tempo markings throughout.
I developed some parts as well, particularly in the latter half of the piece such as bars 220–237 in all instruments, but also early on like the piano part in bars 61–62.
September 10, 2025
I managed to keep up the momentum for the next three days, even though I had rehearsals as well in the daytime. By Tuesday 9th I had added another 16 bars at the end, making up the end of the 4th section. I had also decided on a soft and gentle ending to the rhapsody rather than a bombastic one, which I was sort of building up toward, but that felt like the more expected and perhaps a little boring choice, so I went for something else instead.
I also made plenty of further refinements to dynamics and other elements in the existing music, developing parts of the newer material but also going all the way back to add a new bar 26 to give that phrase a little more space.
On September 10th I mostly worked on the ending to the rhapsody, the postlude, and further developed some of what I had written the days before; specifically, bars 265–268 and 276–281. (In the PDF, I have included both versions, with the September 9 one titled “Draft version” at both points in the score.) I didn’t have much time that day, as most of the day was spent rehearsing and I had to drive to Uppsala (a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Sundsvall) immediately after rehearsals for other work at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm at the end of the week.
September 16, 2025
Working at Berwaldhallen kept me occupied for a few days, and after confirming with Trio Nastela that I could have the following week as well to work on the piece I even allowed myself a couple of days off work completely.
I got plenty done on Monday 15th and some on the 16th as well, at this point having almost the entire piece done. I had added another 12 bars to the ending, developed the piano part in several places – most notably bars 240–243 and 265–269 – as well as plenty of editorial refinements throughout the piece, and even adding yet another bar to the introduction, the new bar 21, because I now felt that phrase was a bit rushed.
September 18, 2025
Both the 17th and 18th were rehearsal days for Kristina, but I took time in the mornings and evenings, before and after rehearsals, to basically finish the piece. I made lots of small changes from the very first bar all the way to adding the final bar 308. By “basically finish” I mean that while the content was present and accounted for, I still had to proofread the piano score as well as the oboe and bassoon parts!
Fortunately, Friday 19th was a rehearsal-free day, so I could dedicate most of the day to that last and incredibly important step.
From my own experience as well as others’, it seems not all composers put much care and effort into making pleasant-to-use, error-free and well-planned materials. I am obviously not going to name and shame anyone, and there are plenty of composers who on the contrary make excellent materials, but I will at least say that for my own part I always put a lot of care and effort into making scores and parts that are as correct and well-structured as I possibly can.
I feel it is my duty toward the interpreters to do my part of the job as well as I can (not least as I expect them to do the same!), and from another perspective, my duty toward my music to present it in the best way that I can.
After spending hours poring over printouts of the piano score and two wind parts with pencil and coloured markers in hand (I can’t stress enough the importance of proofreading on physical paper!), and then further hours at the computer making all the minute edits and corrections I had spotted, at 9:42pm Friday night on September 19th I emailed the finished materials to Trio Nastela!
From Idea to Reality
Almost two months later, Sunday November 9th, they premiered the rhapsody in Luleå, and Tuesday November 18th they played it again in Gothenburg. I couldn’t attend either performance (I was busy on stage, myself, after all), but they said it was a resounding success both times.
If you too would like to perform Rhapsody for oboe, bassoon and piano, you can order a set of the materials from Svensk Musik for a total of 192 SEK (less than €18!) at the time of writing, plus shipping. And if you do, please let me know so I can mention you here on my website!