Back from Birmingham, feeling rather more like a composer than when I left. I'll give my impressions concerning what I read while away in another post. I'm a bit wiped out so I just wanted to write down a few thoughts about the piece that I started imagining on the train.
It's for a trio of flute, oboe and bassoon. I'm basically working on this for the Aeolian Trio (Carin Levine, Peter Veale, and Pascal Gallois) for their workshops at Darmstadt this year (http://www.imd.darmstadt.de/ferien2006/hauptseite.htm).
I think that it's going to include some really basic material: single iterated notes, scales (mainly chromatic), and triads (arpeggiated). All of these materials are hocketed between the three instruments. It's all going very fast as well. There are accent patterns splashed across the ensemble that aren't in synch with either the hocketing patterns or pitch patterns. There are also going to be big pauses.
And then...
In the middle there's a ridiculously difficult section with plenty of complex rhythms and separate staves for articulation.

Although a lot of the details haven't been worked out, there are plenty of ideas. I'm only worried it's a little unproblematic at the moment. Only time will tell!