So we're off to the races with the next composition. I had more or less expected to be told what to do for this one, or to have some kind of change from the guidelines for the previous composition, but I guess that since the three compositions are linked by being based on the same, basic chord progression, it makes sense that they should share the same guidelines. Despite this, however, my main aim for this composition is for it to be much different than the first, which I was told had a kind ethereal feel to it. That's all well and good, but this next composition I want to be quite a bit different, like it's simply a different movement that shares some of the same motives (in this case, chords) but with a different character.
This time I've got a character in mind before I've even started writing. I'd like for this one to be of a devious nature, much less amiable than the first. The first piece had its moments of tension, but it was still fairly legato in most of its aspects, something I'd like to avoid with this one, which will force the musicians to play with a more attacked approach. I've already been thinking about the third piece, which I'd like to be some kind of dizzying waltz, like a broken record of music box or something, but that's all yet to come.
Just in case you're wondering, I'm composing my piece as I write this, so that I can jot down my ideas and thoughts as I go along. That and writing this gives me a break from thinking about what to write (music-wise) next so it is, in my opinion, a fairly productive way to go about things.
I’ve decided for the piano part and clarinet part to alternate fairly often between harmony and melody. I’ve also figured out by now that in order to best write a piece involving piano, it is best to have a sound knowledge of that instrument. It’s the same way for every instrument, but for someone who’s used to reading only one line, it’s hard to suddenly begin writing at least four. Luckily, I’ve decided on writing for a fairly thin textured sound for this piece, so I don’t have to get too involved in writing the piano part, and worrying about whether it is playable.
I’m happy to say that this piece turned out to be three pages in length, though since it goes faster than my first piece, it’ll probably be even shorter, time wise. Maybe I’m too anxious to begin writing long, involved pieces, but I just don’t feel quite as accomplished when I write something that’s maybe a minute or two long as opposed to something which is at least 5. That’ll come with time, I guess, and maybe a piece with more thematic materiel. These pieces do have snippets of a melody, though they’re a bit too…Scattered to be developed to any great length.
I think this piece will be a great deal easier to sight read- I would be able to sight read this, and my sight reading is abominable to the point of being offensive. In my opinion (though I might be biased) it still has a free feeling, despite the lack of complex rhythms. I’ve decided to juxtapose a series of quick, short thoughts on top of a longer line, which is almost always trilled. In places it kind of sounds like the music that’s played in a movie in which the victim is being stalked by a murderer in their own house…The long notes create tension, which builds up and eases down a fair amount, and the short notes create a sense of dread, as tough the murderer has come around a corner, and is getting closer and closer to the victim. Once again, I’ve created programmatic music unintentionally, though at least this piece has no real end. There is no dying shriek or wail of police sirens…Though those might be added in later if I really feel like it, though it wasn’t my aim to create another piece with a story behind the music. I’ll let the audience be the judge, and they can decide to see what they want to see. I’m done, for now.
Jess.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Entry 2.
So I’ve begun the first part of a three-part epic clarinet and piano….Thing. It’s not exactly a sonata or concerto, so I’m not quite sure what to call it, though to me, it sounds more like a concerto than anything…And I think that’s what I’m going for, though I find it extremely hard to believe that I’ll be able to turn this into a concerto, unless concerti can be very short, roughly 2-3 minutes per movement. Who knows, though, I might ramble as much in my compositions as I do in my journal entries and if that’s the case, then I guess this’ll be my first concerto…Though I’m not sure still if I want it to be a concerto…Quite a dilemma. I’ll just call it a three part epic for now, while keeping my fingers crossed that it actually is epic…And that I can compose three parts before ripping my hair out.
The hardest part was definitely just beginning the darn thing, though that may have been the case simply because my first chord was technically an m9- a minor chord with a 9th on it? Well, it’s not anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds (I had to delete the word ‘bad’ here because it endorsed the wrong type of connotation) tense enough to be atonal. As I wrote this, I glanced at my semi-edited composition and realize that I have forgotten to change another one of my chords which is actually a triad with a 6th before putting it into my new piece…It’s going to be a long night.
Don’t ask me why I’m writing for clarinet, because I haven’t got a good answer other than ‘I dunno’ or ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ I’ve never played clarinet (the time I tried it for kicks at music camp when I was 15 doesn’t count.) and I hate transposition, so writing for this particular instrument is a total pain in the asymptote. But it sounds pretty neat, at least I think so, you may or may not agree, but I’m not composing for you. (No offense.) Don’t ask who it’s for either, because you’ll get an answer which is equally as vague as the last one.
Well I managed to ‘finish’ it, the quotation marks around finish being the operative punctuation. It’s done for now, I guess, would be the best thing to say. It’s three pages long (two and a half, but who’s counting?) and very strange. Every time I listen to it I’m left more or less clueless, thinking “Woah….Did I do that? Did that come out of my head? Oh dear…” I’m definitely not used to this type of music yet. Some parts of it sound as though they’re going to merge into tonality- but then something else comes along and blows that notion out of the water completely.
I have to say though, that it was nice to have so much freedom. I read Clark’s article titled ‘What Next?’ and was left wondering “Well, what can’t I do?” In general terms, this would definitely not be a good thing for me to be asking, because without the laws of physics and plain, common law, I’d be invincible. The only thing I felt was holding me back, if anything, was that it had to feel devoid of rhythm…This got to be a bit difficult, and I had to keep giving myself the musical equivalent of a slap on the wrist every time I made a rhythm that went along on its merry way without syncopation, odd entries or anything to really throw it off balance. This is definitely another thing to get used to.
One of the things I tried hard to obtain was a general character in the piece…Naturally, I don’t have a sweet clue what type of character it has, though it definitely has one. Or two. Or Pi, maybe, I’m, not sure, though I get the feeling when I look over it that the piano and clarinet definitely have some dialogue going on…And reading this, it makes it sound as though the piece wrote itself, without any of my help, and I’m just looking at these dots and lines and saying “Ouuu, nifty, what does I mean?”
I get the feeling that I’m being outsmarted by this music, that it kind of composes itself in a stream of something close to sub consciousness, and then when I play it back, I’m always surprised to hear what it sounds like when it’s altogether, though I hear it in my head before I type the notes in.
Whatever the case, the two voices, piano and clarinet, remind me a lot of an elderly couple. Specifically, an elderly, half-deaf couple, who sit on the porch…The woman (the clarinet?) busies herself talking away about something trivial while doing something menial like knitting mittens or something of the like while the husband (piano) sits, only half-listening while he sings a little tune to himself, maybe something he learned in childhood which has been partially forgotten over the years and warped by loss of hearing. Sometimes the man seems to have a coughing fit…That’d definitely be the tremolos. The woman starts talking again, patting his back heartily and telling him he should have gone to the doctor last week. After this, he continues to mumble to himself, a bit more pronounced this time, while she continues to berate him. A good example of this would be from measures 7-12, and again from 13-22. Eventually, both fall quiet. The wife says her final piece, kind of like an aside, after which the husband sings a little bit of the tune, and falls silent. The little song he’s been singing is most present from bar 3-5, and again in bar 21-22, and in the last three bars. Kind of an odd thing to write about….But the thing is- I didn’t write about that. That’s just the mental image I get when I hear the piece, and after reading this, you probably will too. Yay for programmatic music that wasn’t intentionally programmatic music which became programmatic music because I gave you a funny yet clear enough picture of a story which could be depicted by the piece.
This piece has been titled "Floss." The original chord progression I had written had been temporarily christened "Chrysallus," though I doubt it will ever make it to the world outside this composition class. "Floss," on the other hand, I'm growing fond of, the more I listen to it and assess it. It's not finished yet, but its rough draft is saved and shall stay as such unless my computer goes on another binge and eats it like it has done with a few other things I have written. No, this is not my lame excuse for a 'my dog ate my homework' excuse. (Though my dog did eat my notes once while I was studying for exams.) I named it "Floss" because I was told over the weekend that my great aunt Flossie had passed away. Normally I would have written a piece which was much more...Well, tonal, to dedicate to someone, but since this was the my project at hand, it now has a part of her name in the title.
The fact that the piece seems to have a notable elderly lady in it with a fairly spunky character makes it even more suitable. Due to the fact that she lived in New York, I only ever got to see Flossie when I was young, though I can't remember seeing her the last time we went to N.Y. We've written back and forth several times a year since then, and our letters are of a fairly amiable nature, though my mom assures me that one visit in which I, as an infant, had been terribly fussy at the dinner table had resulted in great aunty Flossie throwing a package of soda crackers at my mom so she'd have something to shut me up with. Needless to say, it worked, and to this day I still love soda crackers.
So the piece is ‘finished’ and has a character…I consider my work here to be finished...For now.
Jess.
The hardest part was definitely just beginning the darn thing, though that may have been the case simply because my first chord was technically an m9- a minor chord with a 9th on it? Well, it’s not anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds (I had to delete the word ‘bad’ here because it endorsed the wrong type of connotation) tense enough to be atonal. As I wrote this, I glanced at my semi-edited composition and realize that I have forgotten to change another one of my chords which is actually a triad with a 6th before putting it into my new piece…It’s going to be a long night.
Don’t ask me why I’m writing for clarinet, because I haven’t got a good answer other than ‘I dunno’ or ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ I’ve never played clarinet (the time I tried it for kicks at music camp when I was 15 doesn’t count.) and I hate transposition, so writing for this particular instrument is a total pain in the asymptote. But it sounds pretty neat, at least I think so, you may or may not agree, but I’m not composing for you. (No offense.) Don’t ask who it’s for either, because you’ll get an answer which is equally as vague as the last one.
Well I managed to ‘finish’ it, the quotation marks around finish being the operative punctuation. It’s done for now, I guess, would be the best thing to say. It’s three pages long (two and a half, but who’s counting?) and very strange. Every time I listen to it I’m left more or less clueless, thinking “Woah….Did I do that? Did that come out of my head? Oh dear…” I’m definitely not used to this type of music yet. Some parts of it sound as though they’re going to merge into tonality- but then something else comes along and blows that notion out of the water completely.
I have to say though, that it was nice to have so much freedom. I read Clark’s article titled ‘What Next?’ and was left wondering “Well, what can’t I do?” In general terms, this would definitely not be a good thing for me to be asking, because without the laws of physics and plain, common law, I’d be invincible. The only thing I felt was holding me back, if anything, was that it had to feel devoid of rhythm…This got to be a bit difficult, and I had to keep giving myself the musical equivalent of a slap on the wrist every time I made a rhythm that went along on its merry way without syncopation, odd entries or anything to really throw it off balance. This is definitely another thing to get used to.
One of the things I tried hard to obtain was a general character in the piece…Naturally, I don’t have a sweet clue what type of character it has, though it definitely has one. Or two. Or Pi, maybe, I’m, not sure, though I get the feeling when I look over it that the piano and clarinet definitely have some dialogue going on…And reading this, it makes it sound as though the piece wrote itself, without any of my help, and I’m just looking at these dots and lines and saying “Ouuu, nifty, what does I mean?”
I get the feeling that I’m being outsmarted by this music, that it kind of composes itself in a stream of something close to sub consciousness, and then when I play it back, I’m always surprised to hear what it sounds like when it’s altogether, though I hear it in my head before I type the notes in.
Whatever the case, the two voices, piano and clarinet, remind me a lot of an elderly couple. Specifically, an elderly, half-deaf couple, who sit on the porch…The woman (the clarinet?) busies herself talking away about something trivial while doing something menial like knitting mittens or something of the like while the husband (piano) sits, only half-listening while he sings a little tune to himself, maybe something he learned in childhood which has been partially forgotten over the years and warped by loss of hearing. Sometimes the man seems to have a coughing fit…That’d definitely be the tremolos. The woman starts talking again, patting his back heartily and telling him he should have gone to the doctor last week. After this, he continues to mumble to himself, a bit more pronounced this time, while she continues to berate him. A good example of this would be from measures 7-12, and again from 13-22. Eventually, both fall quiet. The wife says her final piece, kind of like an aside, after which the husband sings a little bit of the tune, and falls silent. The little song he’s been singing is most present from bar 3-5, and again in bar 21-22, and in the last three bars. Kind of an odd thing to write about….But the thing is- I didn’t write about that. That’s just the mental image I get when I hear the piece, and after reading this, you probably will too. Yay for programmatic music that wasn’t intentionally programmatic music which became programmatic music because I gave you a funny yet clear enough picture of a story which could be depicted by the piece.
This piece has been titled "Floss." The original chord progression I had written had been temporarily christened "Chrysallus," though I doubt it will ever make it to the world outside this composition class. "Floss," on the other hand, I'm growing fond of, the more I listen to it and assess it. It's not finished yet, but its rough draft is saved and shall stay as such unless my computer goes on another binge and eats it like it has done with a few other things I have written. No, this is not my lame excuse for a 'my dog ate my homework' excuse. (Though my dog did eat my notes once while I was studying for exams.) I named it "Floss" because I was told over the weekend that my great aunt Flossie had passed away. Normally I would have written a piece which was much more...Well, tonal, to dedicate to someone, but since this was the my project at hand, it now has a part of her name in the title.
The fact that the piece seems to have a notable elderly lady in it with a fairly spunky character makes it even more suitable. Due to the fact that she lived in New York, I only ever got to see Flossie when I was young, though I can't remember seeing her the last time we went to N.Y. We've written back and forth several times a year since then, and our letters are of a fairly amiable nature, though my mom assures me that one visit in which I, as an infant, had been terribly fussy at the dinner table had resulted in great aunty Flossie throwing a package of soda crackers at my mom so she'd have something to shut me up with. Needless to say, it worked, and to this day I still love soda crackers.
So the piece is ‘finished’ and has a character…I consider my work here to be finished...For now.
Jess.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Entry 1.
Knock on wood, I think this is going to work…So this is more of a test than anything, though I’ll put some relevant stuff in here just so it’s not just me standing on a stage, tapping a microphone.
So the first project, if that’s what it’s supposed to be called, was to compose 12-16 chords, none of which can be ‘real’ chords and none of them can repeat. Sound simple enough, yes? I thought so too, but I was pretty darn mistaken. I thought ‘Sure, we’re making up 12-16 chords and putting them in order so that there is a swell of tension and dischord (yes, I spelled it that way for a pun…ha ha.) about 61.8% of the way through, tapering off toward the end. Piece of cake, right?
No.
I have to admit, my first attempt was terrible. First of all, it is a lot harder to compose music when both of your hands are on the piano. I have a newfound admiration for composers who write for piano, because they’ve got to memorize two hands, while writing them down, while those two hands are probably occupied with the keyboard. Involving a second party would definitely be a good idea the next time I try and do this.
In order to make chords which don’t exist (which sounds kind of paradoxical in itself- the first indication that this was going to be a lot harder than it seemed) I more or less simply plonked my hands down on the keyboard, and wrote them down, putting a star next to the ones I liked. Unfortunately, all the ones I liked were about the same intensity, which was UBERINTENSE. Not quite what I was going for. By the time I finished my first draft of this piece, it was a mess of thick, dissonant chords which were impossible to put into any manageable order.
So I retreated to my computer and did some work involving my Finale program. For someone who has the skills of some type of early primate on piano, clicking notes onto a staff and listening to them afterward is a lot easier. (This isn’t cheating, right?) The best thing about doing it this way is that I can hear the chords played back to me without all the hesitation between chords, not to mention a rather colourful string of curses, in the comfort of my room. This string of chords turned out much better than the first, so it made the cut and was presented in class.
Having your composition played in front of a semi-critical audience was just about as revealing as I had expected it to be. It wasn’t so bad, on account of the fact that this is just the harmony, fairly simple, and nothing too grandiose or insightful.
Rating:
- Upon listening to my piece being played and rating it myself, my ratings were as follows:
2, 4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 4, 3, 4.
Class comments:
- Chords 7/8 – 13/14 were very thick, layers came off after the 14th chord. (Definitely a valid point, seeing as I took roughly one voice out of each chord on the tapering end of the piece)
- Chords 2-6 there was a kind of ululation. (I totally agree, looking back on the ratings I gave myself.)
- Three definite levels- Chords 1-7/8, 7/8- 13/14, and 14-end. (Once again, I agree, my transitions between less intense and INTENSE are still a bit jerky.)
- Needs a bit more arc shape (right now it’s kind of a _-_ shape.)
- Start with less tension and grow from there (Personally, I really liked my first chord, but I could probably put an even less intense one or two before it, and take out a few of the later chords.)
- It got intense a bit too quick after the first chord (which is probably why it flatlined in the first section before the thick, middle section.)
- Chord errors! Chord 1 is an m9, and chord 5 is a triad with an added 6th. (For this one, I blame ignorance (which will soon be corrected because I’m in second year theory now!). But I’ll learn ASAP what the chords are beyond major/minor and dominant sevenths…Those Neapolitan ones and such…Yeah theory…)
- Oh yeah, and chord 10 was impossible…(Sorry Melissa! I guess this is definitely one of the drawbacks to composing on a computer rather than a keyboard…Lesson learned.) There was a stretch from a C to a C#...Oups.
The Plan:
- Fix tonal chords…Yeah, they’re definitely one of the first things to go.
- Fix impossible chord…Another thing to fix right away.
- Add a few, less intense chords to the beginning and delete some of the ones which have the same intensity level to make a better curve.
- Make a definite peak- this could be fun, actually, trying to find that really, really clashy (though possible!) chord.
- Do a bit of reordering- Ive already got a plan drawn out.
- Back off more at the end, so it doesn’t end on a 3 or 4 tension level.
- Listen to it over and over to make sure there’s a definite arc shape before composing the melody
- Get some feedback and more outside opinions- I can ask people in my residence/other music majors if they’ll listen to it and see what they think.
- Melodyyyyy and rhythmmmm. Rhythm to the chords, and write a melody over it…Once I get all the other things done, too!
Soooo I rambled. If you think I’ve got anything else to add to my plan list (chords to tweak, things to move around) please leave a note! I’ll try not to ramble so much on my next entry…Thanks for hanging in there if you read all of this!
Jess
So the first project, if that’s what it’s supposed to be called, was to compose 12-16 chords, none of which can be ‘real’ chords and none of them can repeat. Sound simple enough, yes? I thought so too, but I was pretty darn mistaken. I thought ‘Sure, we’re making up 12-16 chords and putting them in order so that there is a swell of tension and dischord (yes, I spelled it that way for a pun…ha ha.) about 61.8% of the way through, tapering off toward the end. Piece of cake, right?
No.
I have to admit, my first attempt was terrible. First of all, it is a lot harder to compose music when both of your hands are on the piano. I have a newfound admiration for composers who write for piano, because they’ve got to memorize two hands, while writing them down, while those two hands are probably occupied with the keyboard. Involving a second party would definitely be a good idea the next time I try and do this.
In order to make chords which don’t exist (which sounds kind of paradoxical in itself- the first indication that this was going to be a lot harder than it seemed) I more or less simply plonked my hands down on the keyboard, and wrote them down, putting a star next to the ones I liked. Unfortunately, all the ones I liked were about the same intensity, which was UBERINTENSE. Not quite what I was going for. By the time I finished my first draft of this piece, it was a mess of thick, dissonant chords which were impossible to put into any manageable order.
So I retreated to my computer and did some work involving my Finale program. For someone who has the skills of some type of early primate on piano, clicking notes onto a staff and listening to them afterward is a lot easier. (This isn’t cheating, right?) The best thing about doing it this way is that I can hear the chords played back to me without all the hesitation between chords, not to mention a rather colourful string of curses, in the comfort of my room. This string of chords turned out much better than the first, so it made the cut and was presented in class.
Having your composition played in front of a semi-critical audience was just about as revealing as I had expected it to be. It wasn’t so bad, on account of the fact that this is just the harmony, fairly simple, and nothing too grandiose or insightful.
Rating:
- Upon listening to my piece being played and rating it myself, my ratings were as follows:
2, 4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 4, 3, 4.
Class comments:
- Chords 7/8 – 13/14 were very thick, layers came off after the 14th chord. (Definitely a valid point, seeing as I took roughly one voice out of each chord on the tapering end of the piece)
- Chords 2-6 there was a kind of ululation. (I totally agree, looking back on the ratings I gave myself.)
- Three definite levels- Chords 1-7/8, 7/8- 13/14, and 14-end. (Once again, I agree, my transitions between less intense and INTENSE are still a bit jerky.)
- Needs a bit more arc shape (right now it’s kind of a _-_ shape.)
- Start with less tension and grow from there (Personally, I really liked my first chord, but I could probably put an even less intense one or two before it, and take out a few of the later chords.)
- It got intense a bit too quick after the first chord (which is probably why it flatlined in the first section before the thick, middle section.)
- Chord errors! Chord 1 is an m9, and chord 5 is a triad with an added 6th. (For this one, I blame ignorance (which will soon be corrected because I’m in second year theory now!). But I’ll learn ASAP what the chords are beyond major/minor and dominant sevenths…Those Neapolitan ones and such…Yeah theory…)
- Oh yeah, and chord 10 was impossible…(Sorry Melissa! I guess this is definitely one of the drawbacks to composing on a computer rather than a keyboard…Lesson learned.) There was a stretch from a C to a C#...Oups.
The Plan:
- Fix tonal chords…Yeah, they’re definitely one of the first things to go.
- Fix impossible chord…Another thing to fix right away.
- Add a few, less intense chords to the beginning and delete some of the ones which have the same intensity level to make a better curve.
- Make a definite peak- this could be fun, actually, trying to find that really, really clashy (though possible!) chord.
- Do a bit of reordering- Ive already got a plan drawn out.
- Back off more at the end, so it doesn’t end on a 3 or 4 tension level.
- Listen to it over and over to make sure there’s a definite arc shape before composing the melody
- Get some feedback and more outside opinions- I can ask people in my residence/other music majors if they’ll listen to it and see what they think.
- Melodyyyyy and rhythmmmm. Rhythm to the chords, and write a melody over it…Once I get all the other things done, too!
Soooo I rambled. If you think I’ve got anything else to add to my plan list (chords to tweak, things to move around) please leave a note! I’ll try not to ramble so much on my next entry…Thanks for hanging in there if you read all of this!
Jess
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