Power Of The Deadline
- Dominic McGonigal
- Nov 24, 2025
- 1 min read
Monday, the 24th of November 2025
Sometimes it’s difficult to commit. The big theme in the middle section of the fourth movement has been going round my head for three weeks now, gradually filling out with counter melodies and ever more beautiful similarities from adding instruments into the top line as well as underneath. But somehow I hold back from committing the full orchestration of the section because I think something better will come along in a few days.
There's nothing like a deadline to force me to commit. I discovered this morning that there’s a deadline tomorrow – an Austrian Orchestra is offering workshops and a performance of as yet unfinished orchestral work and I have to submit two minutes of material so they can see how it’s shaping up. There then followed two hours of intense activity filling out the orchestration for full symphony Orchestra – double wind, 4331 brass, timps and strings. I listened back while I was doing my exercises and now I’m taking a short break to let it all sink in before I get to editing and refinement.
Here’s what the middle section sound like with the full orchestration, before editing.
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