NOTE: This is a blog entry I completely forgot to put up a little while ago…Which is why it’s so out of date….
Editing a piece you thought you had finished feels like digging up a body you’ve already buried to put ridiculous yet important things on it, like that person’s favourite bowtie, lucky socks, and that hat with the fur around the edges which always looked ludicrous but they wouldn’t be seen in the winter without wearing it- these things are tedious to do, but in order to do that person justice, you’ve got to dig up the corpse and dress it up.
Great. I’ve just used the analogy of digging up a corpse to represent editing my piece. I swear I won’t be quite as morbid throughout the rest of this blog entry.
Here is my checklist of things to fix:
‘Moderato’ marking- it goes above only the flute and piano line in the score…CHECK.
‘Synthesizer’ isn’t specific…So I have to change the name of that staff…CHECK.
No dynamics on rests…CHECK.
take out the ‘cresc’ in the repeated section….CHECK
Indicate what dynamic to start at and finish on in the repeated section…CHECK
Indicate the speed of the presto section…CHECK
notes in bar 42-43 too fast for piano…change them…CHECK
Respace the score…CHECK- I finally figured out how to fit the score on the page better! Thank goodness for google!
Take out dynamics in LH of piano…CHECK
Edit tangled slurs…
Wite a drum part just in case the keyboard doesn’t have the drum button…CHECK.
Well, the ‘corpse’ is dressed, now to take it to the next step and release it into the public. Let’s just hope this doesn’t end up like Frankenstein…
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Entry 12.
Because I like lists, this blog entry will more or less be a list of things that pop into my head as I compose my new cliché piece- kind of like a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on inside my head as I compose, though that’s probably somewhere you never really wanted to go. I’ll keep my thoughts civil and appropriate, though…Or at least not write down all the strings of swear-words that come to mind when I hit a wall.
- So it starts as a motet. Yay...Three voices, with imitation and all that jazz. Luckily I’m taking 16th century counterpoint (putting my education to good use) so I’ve learned a bit about writing in this style.
- Note to self- add in markings/dynamics/style as I go, not after!
- Use the G Dorian scale (key = 1 flat)
- Gradually move away from standard motet form by adding in things such as fourths and dissonances, off beats and rhythms that otherwise wouldn’t be used in that style.
- One thing I really like that both motets and techno music have in common- they don’t modulate all over the place! Yay, I have something else to use to link them together!
- Lots of syncopation stemming from the use of offbeats later on in the techno section.
- I could possibly use multiphonics on the tuba to see how that sounds…Though I may or may not like how this sounds.
I jotted down the suggestions I got in class on Wednesday, and wrote a few things down myself as I listened to my piece being performed for the first time.
- Add more chords in the left hand of the piano for a thicker texture
- The flute part could possibly go up an octave so it doesn’t get drowned out by the tuba
- Write in when the drum section begins
- Maybe leave the tuba out for a section
- Modulate- I’m not writing techno music, and nor am I writing 16th century counterpoint so modulation is an OK thing to use, especially where it will surprise the listener.
- Kalen suggested that I use direct modulation in the techno part which is a definite possibility seeing as we learned about modulation in theory not so long ago and direct modulation seemed pretty easy to me.
- Vary the instrumentation in the repeated sections
- Change the colour of the piece in sections
In going through my piece and eventually finishing it I tweaked it here and there to incorporate some of those ideas and adding to them. It feels good to have this piece written, especially since it only took three days, and I have gone marking-crazy on it, writing in dynamics everywhere and accents and such. I know I might be missing a few things, but as far as I can see, it looks like it’s going to be a success.
- So it starts as a motet. Yay...Three voices, with imitation and all that jazz. Luckily I’m taking 16th century counterpoint (putting my education to good use) so I’ve learned a bit about writing in this style.
- Note to self- add in markings/dynamics/style as I go, not after!
- Use the G Dorian scale (key = 1 flat)
- Gradually move away from standard motet form by adding in things such as fourths and dissonances, off beats and rhythms that otherwise wouldn’t be used in that style.
- One thing I really like that both motets and techno music have in common- they don’t modulate all over the place! Yay, I have something else to use to link them together!
- Lots of syncopation stemming from the use of offbeats later on in the techno section.
- I could possibly use multiphonics on the tuba to see how that sounds…Though I may or may not like how this sounds.
I jotted down the suggestions I got in class on Wednesday, and wrote a few things down myself as I listened to my piece being performed for the first time.
- Add more chords in the left hand of the piano for a thicker texture
- The flute part could possibly go up an octave so it doesn’t get drowned out by the tuba
- Write in when the drum section begins
- Maybe leave the tuba out for a section
- Modulate- I’m not writing techno music, and nor am I writing 16th century counterpoint so modulation is an OK thing to use, especially where it will surprise the listener.
- Kalen suggested that I use direct modulation in the techno part which is a definite possibility seeing as we learned about modulation in theory not so long ago and direct modulation seemed pretty easy to me.
- Vary the instrumentation in the repeated sections
- Change the colour of the piece in sections
In going through my piece and eventually finishing it I tweaked it here and there to incorporate some of those ideas and adding to them. It feels good to have this piece written, especially since it only took three days, and I have gone marking-crazy on it, writing in dynamics everywhere and accents and such. I know I might be missing a few things, but as far as I can see, it looks like it’s going to be a success.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Entry 11.
Renovations. The act of tearing down something old, and rebuilding wit new ideas and materiels. Normally, I hate ‘em. But life is full of all sorts of little pleasantries like this, like when you realize you’ve put up wallpaper before you paint the walls, when you go down six flights of stairs only to realize that you’re going to class an hour too early, or when you miss the fact that the best before date on that microwave dinner you just ate is day/month/year, not month/day/year and that it expired three weeks ago.
Fortunately you can’t get food poisoning from composing.
I know that it’s a bit late to be restarting, but I couldn’t help doing so when I realized I already had an awesome idea for a cliché piece. The whole movie thing was interesting, but I think perhaps it was a bit too ambitious, and didn’t really encompass what I believe Clark wanted us to achieve while doing this project. I'll keep it saved on my computer for some rainy day when I decide to add to it. The idea that I have now will be much easier, I believe, as I have experience writing the genre I have chosen, and because I’ve discussed the idea of doing this with the infamous Alex Pryor several times, it seems nearly imperative that I compose a techno motet.
That’s right, I went there. Techno motet.
Needless to say, I have to give Alex credit, seeing as he and I came up with the idea together and had planned to write some techno motets just for fun, and when I approached him about using the idea for composition class, he also helped me pick out the instrumentation- for a keyboard, tuba and flute. When I say keyboard I mean the type that can sounds like a piano until a button is pushed, at which point it plays a basic drum beat and you can change the piano sound itself into a more synth-like sound.
I’ve been listening to some good old techno in order to prepare myself for this, namely listening to ‘Dance Mix 93,’ and finding it really amusing, seeing as I remember listening to this and thinking that it was AMAZING when I was 5. I think we had ‘Dance Mix 91’ and ‘Dance Mix 92’ on tape at home, and I’m sure we’ve got ‘Dance Mix 94’ and possibly ‘95’ on CD at home. Yeh, I was a cool kid, I listened to all the right music. I’ve also downloaded some music so I could get the feel of what makes techno music into techno music, and have jotted down a few things I’ve noticed.
- Very steady drum beat that doesn’t change.
- Very steady chord progression which has a very square rhythm, usually on the offbeats of the drums
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections.
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections.
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections. (Ok, this is a joke. Haha)
- Gradual building in intensity
- Basso continuo which occasionally drops out to thin the texture for a regular number of bars (2, 4 or 8) before coming back in.
- Some chromatisicm
- Lots of offbeats
- Almost always in 4/4 time
- Accent on beat 2 and 4
- Lots of accelerating rhythm (eight note to sixteenth note to thirty second note.)
- A legato line floating over top of the short, rhythmic pounding of the harmony/drums
Well, off I go. The best thing about this, I think, is that it’ll give me a bit of practice writing counterpoint…Yay!
Fortunately you can’t get food poisoning from composing.
I know that it’s a bit late to be restarting, but I couldn’t help doing so when I realized I already had an awesome idea for a cliché piece. The whole movie thing was interesting, but I think perhaps it was a bit too ambitious, and didn’t really encompass what I believe Clark wanted us to achieve while doing this project. I'll keep it saved on my computer for some rainy day when I decide to add to it. The idea that I have now will be much easier, I believe, as I have experience writing the genre I have chosen, and because I’ve discussed the idea of doing this with the infamous Alex Pryor several times, it seems nearly imperative that I compose a techno motet.
That’s right, I went there. Techno motet.
Needless to say, I have to give Alex credit, seeing as he and I came up with the idea together and had planned to write some techno motets just for fun, and when I approached him about using the idea for composition class, he also helped me pick out the instrumentation- for a keyboard, tuba and flute. When I say keyboard I mean the type that can sounds like a piano until a button is pushed, at which point it plays a basic drum beat and you can change the piano sound itself into a more synth-like sound.
I’ve been listening to some good old techno in order to prepare myself for this, namely listening to ‘Dance Mix 93,’ and finding it really amusing, seeing as I remember listening to this and thinking that it was AMAZING when I was 5. I think we had ‘Dance Mix 91’ and ‘Dance Mix 92’ on tape at home, and I’m sure we’ve got ‘Dance Mix 94’ and possibly ‘95’ on CD at home. Yeh, I was a cool kid, I listened to all the right music. I’ve also downloaded some music so I could get the feel of what makes techno music into techno music, and have jotted down a few things I’ve noticed.
- Very steady drum beat that doesn’t change.
- Very steady chord progression which has a very square rhythm, usually on the offbeats of the drums
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections.
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections.
- It tends to mull around in one place in particular…Lots of repeated sections. (Ok, this is a joke. Haha)
- Gradual building in intensity
- Basso continuo which occasionally drops out to thin the texture for a regular number of bars (2, 4 or 8) before coming back in.
- Some chromatisicm
- Lots of offbeats
- Almost always in 4/4 time
- Accent on beat 2 and 4
- Lots of accelerating rhythm (eight note to sixteenth note to thirty second note.)
- A legato line floating over top of the short, rhythmic pounding of the harmony/drums
Well, off I go. The best thing about this, I think, is that it’ll give me a bit of practice writing counterpoint…Yay!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Entry 10
So I’m not quite going back to square one, but I’m definitely going to have to do a lot of tweaking to what I have done of my piece thus far in order to make it both organic and change it so that it is based on a certain style (or in my case a series of styles) but then elaborates on them and takes them in a different direction. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to do film music- I’d like very much to be a film composer someday so my natural tendency is to write film music…Plain and simple, without deviating away from the music’s natural style and without tweaking anything In other words, what comes naturally is definitely not best for this project, and from this I challenge myself- to leave the railroad tracks behind and start writing as though I’m thinking for myself, rather than for the film. It is for this reason that I’ve decided not to use the movie clips so much, seeing as before I was using them as a constant reference. Doing this only encourages me to write music which would suit the film, and in doing so, I’m not following the guidelines given in class…Earning me a (metaphorical) slap on the wrist. With this in mind, I’m going through what I have written so far, and analyzing it before I tweak it.
Part 1: Romance. I have no problem beginning the piece with something that sounds like typical romantic music, though I definitely have major problems diverging from that. What I’ve done this far to make it different is just substituting crunchy, dissonant chords for where a resolution should be…But I can tell already that that’s not quite enough. I’ve thought about how to elaborate on this quite a bit, often while knitting which makes little to no sense because not only am I drawing blanks left and right but my ‘scarf’ looks like it has been eaten by a house hippo. Obviously I’ve got to start with the basics…What are the components of romantic music? Thick texture, slow rhythms, lots of octaves, big leaps, and some chromaticism.
First, though, I need to have a destination in mind…Where do I want this to go? It can begin as a romantic piece, but where should it end? Well, I should begin with the random crunchy chords, for starters. By putting them where the resolutions should be, I’m leading it somewhere…Possibly toward the world of atonality, but I don’t want the whole purpose of this to be taking a romantic piece and unraveling it into an atonal piece. I could quite possibly take it somewhere completely unromantic, but I don’t want that just to be a progression of crunchy chords. I’ve decided to add a few little hints throughout the piece which lead to a staccato end of the romantic piece- staccato isn’t usually used in a romantic piece, and the texture wears out to be very thin as well, a big change from the full texture it began with. The crunchy chords simply lead toward the question of whether the ending section is actually tonal or atonal...I still haven’t decided, and will leave that decision up to the listener.
I’ve also taken the tenor clef out of the cello to make more of a bass line…And because tenor clef is a bit hard…heh.
Part 2: Horror. Yeah, I’ve scrapped the use of a cult film. As fond as I am of Reservoir Dogs, it’s hard to compose music typical of a cult film because cult films generally use a very wide range of music…A Clockwork Orange uses the theme from Rossini’s “Thieving Magpie,” and Beethoven’s 9th, while Donnie Darko uses more mellow pieces, like Gary Jules’ rendition of “Mad World.” I need something a bit more specific to write for, and horror films are fairly stereotypical…Which should be easy to write. For this one I’ve got a fairly good goal in mind. It’ll begin atonal and discordant, with a very high register and maybe some special effects on the violin like playing behind the bridge- we all love that noise, don’t we? But the rhythm will be what moves it toward a kind of jazzed up version of horror music. This part could be interesting and fun to write. What sucks is that I’m going to have to get rid of pretty much everything that I have right now L Oh well. Live and let die.
Boooooo there it all went…I just deleted it and then saved the changes I made. Bye-bye music!
I’ve decided that the cello will play an important role in this section, and it’ll be pizzicato, like a bass. More bass is always good. While the violin keeps the tremolo going on notes played behind the bridge (it’ll eventually work slowly to ponticello and finally playing on the actual strings)
ORGANIC! So this has to be organic, an organic whole. “characterized by the systematic arrangement of parts; organized; systematic: elements fitting together into a unified, organic whole.” So says www.dictionary.com. So my piece needed to be more unified, and I found a way to solve this- a motif! The motif present in the very beginning of the romance part comes back- surprise surprise- in the horror section! The interval of a minor 6th followed by downward motion, though it’s changed from a major 2nd to a minor 2nd, which will help with making this section sound more horrific and clashy- just what I want.
Fast-forward to today (I wrote most of that last night) after it was played in class. Thanks again to Kim and Saird for playing today with me J Here are a few things I’ve jotted down to keep in mind for when I edit it/add more to it.
- bring some of the lyrical section from part 1 back in part 3- an idea I had was to do so playing it as artificial harmonics on the violin or cello, to keep the kind of ‘corpse around the corner’ (haha) mood.
- Make it a bit clearer where I’m heading in section 1.
- Tweak the eighth and sixteenth section in the piano in the 2nd section to make it less blahhhh
- Change the triplet section in the left hand of the piano in the first section or put that part in the violin instead
- Write ‘pizzicato’ in the cello part where it is appropriate
- Add more to the jazziness of part 2
Part 1: Romance. I have no problem beginning the piece with something that sounds like typical romantic music, though I definitely have major problems diverging from that. What I’ve done this far to make it different is just substituting crunchy, dissonant chords for where a resolution should be…But I can tell already that that’s not quite enough. I’ve thought about how to elaborate on this quite a bit, often while knitting which makes little to no sense because not only am I drawing blanks left and right but my ‘scarf’ looks like it has been eaten by a house hippo. Obviously I’ve got to start with the basics…What are the components of romantic music? Thick texture, slow rhythms, lots of octaves, big leaps, and some chromaticism.
First, though, I need to have a destination in mind…Where do I want this to go? It can begin as a romantic piece, but where should it end? Well, I should begin with the random crunchy chords, for starters. By putting them where the resolutions should be, I’m leading it somewhere…Possibly toward the world of atonality, but I don’t want the whole purpose of this to be taking a romantic piece and unraveling it into an atonal piece. I could quite possibly take it somewhere completely unromantic, but I don’t want that just to be a progression of crunchy chords. I’ve decided to add a few little hints throughout the piece which lead to a staccato end of the romantic piece- staccato isn’t usually used in a romantic piece, and the texture wears out to be very thin as well, a big change from the full texture it began with. The crunchy chords simply lead toward the question of whether the ending section is actually tonal or atonal...I still haven’t decided, and will leave that decision up to the listener.
I’ve also taken the tenor clef out of the cello to make more of a bass line…And because tenor clef is a bit hard…heh.
Part 2: Horror. Yeah, I’ve scrapped the use of a cult film. As fond as I am of Reservoir Dogs, it’s hard to compose music typical of a cult film because cult films generally use a very wide range of music…A Clockwork Orange uses the theme from Rossini’s “Thieving Magpie,” and Beethoven’s 9th, while Donnie Darko uses more mellow pieces, like Gary Jules’ rendition of “Mad World.” I need something a bit more specific to write for, and horror films are fairly stereotypical…Which should be easy to write. For this one I’ve got a fairly good goal in mind. It’ll begin atonal and discordant, with a very high register and maybe some special effects on the violin like playing behind the bridge- we all love that noise, don’t we? But the rhythm will be what moves it toward a kind of jazzed up version of horror music. This part could be interesting and fun to write. What sucks is that I’m going to have to get rid of pretty much everything that I have right now L Oh well. Live and let die.
Boooooo there it all went…I just deleted it and then saved the changes I made. Bye-bye music!
I’ve decided that the cello will play an important role in this section, and it’ll be pizzicato, like a bass. More bass is always good. While the violin keeps the tremolo going on notes played behind the bridge (it’ll eventually work slowly to ponticello and finally playing on the actual strings)
ORGANIC! So this has to be organic, an organic whole. “characterized by the systematic arrangement of parts; organized; systematic: elements fitting together into a unified, organic whole.” So says www.dictionary.com. So my piece needed to be more unified, and I found a way to solve this- a motif! The motif present in the very beginning of the romance part comes back- surprise surprise- in the horror section! The interval of a minor 6th followed by downward motion, though it’s changed from a major 2nd to a minor 2nd, which will help with making this section sound more horrific and clashy- just what I want.
Fast-forward to today (I wrote most of that last night) after it was played in class. Thanks again to Kim and Saird for playing today with me J Here are a few things I’ve jotted down to keep in mind for when I edit it/add more to it.
- bring some of the lyrical section from part 1 back in part 3- an idea I had was to do so playing it as artificial harmonics on the violin or cello, to keep the kind of ‘corpse around the corner’ (haha) mood.
- Make it a bit clearer where I’m heading in section 1.
- Tweak the eighth and sixteenth section in the piano in the 2nd section to make it less blahhhh
- Change the triplet section in the left hand of the piano in the first section or put that part in the violin instead
- Write ‘pizzicato’ in the cello part where it is appropriate
- Add more to the jazziness of part 2
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Entry 9.
Onto the next part…Because I haven’t got the guts yet to start composing a new score for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers yet, I’ve decided to continue on rather than going back to the beginning and composing from there. The Breakfast at Tiffany’s piece is the second, preceded by the LOTR, and followed by a clip from the cult film, Reservoir Dogs. For this, I’ve decided to use a compilation of videos chronicling the adventures of Mr. Pink in the film, though I was seriously tempted to do the scene in which Mr. White dances around a bound victim with a tank of gasoline…Watch the movie, seriously. You’ll understand why I was so tempted to write for that scene.
The music for this clip will be atonal. Yaaaay! For the most part, anyway. The cliché here will be jazz…Though jazz has a tendency to have a freer range of sonorities, I’m cutting everything loose and the bass line, which will mostly be in the left hand of the piano (which may switch to right hand piano and violin later on for more funkiness) allowing the cello to do a bit of bass too while the right hand in the piano and the violin jazz it up.
I wasn’t planning on getting much of this done to show in class on Friday the 31st, but since the power’s out in my residence and even the emergency lights have worn out (the power was out earlier today as well) my computer screen is my light source, and since I’m not keen on going to sleep anytime soon, it’s composition time.
It’s funny how easy it is to go back to writing atonal music, after doing the first section based on a tonal melody. I always thought it would be so much harder composing atonal music, but without all the rules that go along with tonal music and the need to write something that will be accepted by the general public, it’s so much easier. It’s so much easier not to worry about what your audience will think, as opposed to tonal music, which I now find much harder.
Annnd cue power. Excellent. Now I don’t have to worry about my computer running out of batteries in the middle of a compositional rant.
I’ve gone back and added a bit more funkiness into the romantic part of my piece….Instead of letting it resolve where it should, I decided it’d be nice to play a trick on the listener and say ‘ha ha, too bad,’ and put in a fairly discordant chord where a nice resolution should be. This way people get the point that it’s both romantic music, and a parody of that very cliché.
Back to part 2…Part 3, really, after I compose the first part- action. So I’m working on music for a cult film right now, beginning with a kind of jazzy motif which is completely atonal, though I haven’t done too much with the rhythm…It’s definitely something to consider when I go through and edit, though right now I’d like to have at least something to lean on, when I can’t lean on the tonality. Because I don’t really want this part of the piece to go where people think it will go, I’m having it trail back into tonality fairly early in the piece- this segment probably won’t be very long- and switch characters almost completely, to be something which is much more action packed rather than jazzy. I’m keeping in mind that the clip going with this part of the piece has guns in it, so I might throw a few musical sound effects in just for kicks. For the latter half of this section I’ve put a good amount of random warbling in the cello and left hand of the piano just to add a bit of tension, over which the violin has a melody which is in a different key than the rest, which seems to be centered around the note B. Every once in a while it touches base with a B, and ends with a good, climactic ending, just as this section of the piece finishes.
And bonus! I have both power AND printer ink!
The music for this clip will be atonal. Yaaaay! For the most part, anyway. The cliché here will be jazz…Though jazz has a tendency to have a freer range of sonorities, I’m cutting everything loose and the bass line, which will mostly be in the left hand of the piano (which may switch to right hand piano and violin later on for more funkiness) allowing the cello to do a bit of bass too while the right hand in the piano and the violin jazz it up.
I wasn’t planning on getting much of this done to show in class on Friday the 31st, but since the power’s out in my residence and even the emergency lights have worn out (the power was out earlier today as well) my computer screen is my light source, and since I’m not keen on going to sleep anytime soon, it’s composition time.
It’s funny how easy it is to go back to writing atonal music, after doing the first section based on a tonal melody. I always thought it would be so much harder composing atonal music, but without all the rules that go along with tonal music and the need to write something that will be accepted by the general public, it’s so much easier. It’s so much easier not to worry about what your audience will think, as opposed to tonal music, which I now find much harder.
Annnd cue power. Excellent. Now I don’t have to worry about my computer running out of batteries in the middle of a compositional rant.
I’ve gone back and added a bit more funkiness into the romantic part of my piece….Instead of letting it resolve where it should, I decided it’d be nice to play a trick on the listener and say ‘ha ha, too bad,’ and put in a fairly discordant chord where a nice resolution should be. This way people get the point that it’s both romantic music, and a parody of that very cliché.
Back to part 2…Part 3, really, after I compose the first part- action. So I’m working on music for a cult film right now, beginning with a kind of jazzy motif which is completely atonal, though I haven’t done too much with the rhythm…It’s definitely something to consider when I go through and edit, though right now I’d like to have at least something to lean on, when I can’t lean on the tonality. Because I don’t really want this part of the piece to go where people think it will go, I’m having it trail back into tonality fairly early in the piece- this segment probably won’t be very long- and switch characters almost completely, to be something which is much more action packed rather than jazzy. I’m keeping in mind that the clip going with this part of the piece has guns in it, so I might throw a few musical sound effects in just for kicks. For the latter half of this section I’ve put a good amount of random warbling in the cello and left hand of the piano just to add a bit of tension, over which the violin has a melody which is in a different key than the rest, which seems to be centered around the note B. Every once in a while it touches base with a B, and ends with a good, climactic ending, just as this section of the piece finishes.
And bonus! I have both power AND printer ink!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)