The Terrible Year - A Collection of Vignettes

‘Imagine yourself breathing in the colour blue, hold it, and exhale your negative emotions’. After a considerable amount of convincing I tried yoga and meditation. I was sceptical, but to my surprise it really did work. I could feel the stress and angst leave my body. 

Escapism

The Terrible Year - A Collection of Vignettes

I was lucky enough to have a handful of great friends and an understanding partner to support me throughout this past year. They helped me so much in overcoming my issues and offered distraction from the situation back home. I also had weekly counselling sessions; it was my one-hour a week to truly vent without fear of repercussions. This motif is the original Pigeon March; it’s almost my personal theme tune.

Coping Mechanisms

The Terrible Year - A Collection of Vignettes

‘Every so often I can feel myself slipping… I feel okay at the time but I know I won’t be okay the next day. It’s like standing of the edge of a cliff and knowing you’re going to fall. I wrote this on one of those days. It may not sound very sad to you, its quite light – but I don’t write my music to wallow in my self-pity. I want to feel better, feel happy, positive. I feel that is reflected in the light texture of the music. I couldn’t tell you the prevalent emotion, because I don’t feel one.’ This is part of my script for my FMP presentation. It was written at a time when, even if I felt okay, I knew I wouldn’t by the end of the day. Looking back now I wish I’d tried to stay positive. Easier said than done when you’re in that from of mind though, I guess. 

Self Doubt

The Terrible Year - A Collection of Vignettes

This is the first vignette I composed. I wrote it the day I decided on the subject matter of my FMP. I was nervous and reluctant to open myself up on such a personal level. I’m Glad I went through with it. 

The Rainy Day Of Ideas

The Terrible Year - A Collection of Vignettes

Overture

During the summer the only time I felt truly at peace was when I would sit out in my garden and feed pigeons. By the end of the summer I had 8 Pigeons that would wait in my garden every morning! It was a perfect time for reflection. I wrote a piece of music entitled ‘March of The Pigeons’ inspired by the relationship I developed with these wild birds. This collection of Vignettes was born from that original composition.

John Hegarty