Fin

This course marks the end of my composition courses at memorial. When I started by taken Mus. 3100 over a year ago, I couldn't have imagined the music I would create over the next year or so. This really gives meaning to what Dr. Ross always says, that like anything else, to get good at it you just have to practice. I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to present my ideas to my classmates and get feedback in a comfortable environment.

Since last fall, every moment of my spare time has been occupied by composition. I continued to compose music during last Christmas, throughout the summer as well. The more I composed, the more music I listened to to steal ideas from, the more I realized what type of music I want to compose, the better I would become at composing.

While it is very sad that I may never take another composition course at memorial, I am relieved for now to not feel the need to compose any music (for a little while anyways) and I can just relax and maybe play music for a little while (something which always gets tossed to the back burner).

pressure vs. compromise

This final piece for this course has taken it's toll on me. I was very pleased with the work that I had done and the way which the piece was unfolding. it felt very natural and cohesive to me. I loved the way it felt like impressions were being put on the listener and nothing concrete was really played with the clusters. However my satisfaction with this had raised the bar for what would be to follow it.
I've worked very hard on the following section, and went through many ideas that just didn't seem to work. This would normally just be a matter of time, and working through for me. Normally when faced with this problem I would take a couple of days to come back fresh to the piece and see if I had any new ideas. Time in this case was something I didn't have. Therefor I had to just keep working away on it.

Ultimately, to fix this problem I made a slight compromise. I do enjoy what I have composed for the following section, however I know it is not as strong as it could be, however time dictates all. I do plan on coming back to this piece in the near future and making major revisions.

New Adventures

This past semester I am thankful for the progress that I've made in my composition. I feel like I'm developing somewhat of a voice with the music I write. The funny thing is, is that I am able to hear the relationship with my music in all of my compositions thus far, even though they may be totally different works.
I believe the music I write is getting better, however I still feel rather conservative with my writing. I wonder if breaking down those barriers is something that takes time to achieve. That seems to be the way in which it has been working for me.

When I look back to my first project in 3100, my character piece for glock and piano, it is atonal however still very consonant. This is logical I guess, I always strive to create something that is pleasing to listen to.

My attempt at writing a band piece last year in 4100 was my first attempt at handling dissonance. And ever since I've been introducing it a little more. I guess I'm still figuring out the most tasteful way to use dissonance and have it be pleasing. I respect when music can be highly dissonant but very pleasing all at the same time, however I have been unable to do this to any great degree at this point. I guess it's something I'm still striving for.

Lyrics

For this song I decided to use a set of my own lyrics. I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, considering I do not consider myself a poet by any means, however my reason for setting a text which I wrote myself is solely that there is something very specific in which I wanted to convey with this piece.

When dr. Staniland presented his piece for voice and cello, there was something very grabbing about it. The poem had such emotion and passion. It led me to think that hey, I haven't felt that passionate about anything in a long time...and as a matter of fact, passion that intense doesn't seem to be apparent in our society today. The more I thought about this the more uncomfortable with the notion I became. My thoughts as to why people in our society lack this passion is because we have been given everything we need. We are able to live very comfortable lives, thus meaning that we dont have to fight for the rights to live comfortably, and when you get everything you want, you appreciate what you have less. This leaves our society content and probably with the feeling like we shouldn't have to work for things we want.

This mindset for me has changed a bit and I believe I have a more realistic, less polar view on society now. However I do feel it was important for me to get myself out of the complacent mindset which has dominated this semester. It is also an uber romantic notion, over the top kind of view on things.

Couldn't hold on

to a dream where I felt

that there was something within me

that cared for all the things

that I'd been given

and I fell from the warmth

to the cold of the certainty

as I'm stripped of the sheets

and tossed into complacency

I am no poet by any means, however I feel very strongly for what I have written, and I believe that using this to express myself will result in something a little more meaningful.

Reshaping

The comment from class the other day that really struck a chord with me was how the sections in the piano interlude seemed to be a bit random. I felt that the material I had presented was totally organic and all related. In a way it was I guess, however I made no plan with this piece at that point. I just played something I liked on the piano and expanded on it very freely. This was the first time I had composed this way in a good while....and for good reason (har har).

I think sometimes the best thing when writing a piece is a set of fresh ears. I would just get very into composing at the time, and I was just trying to make very beautiful sonorities and build and release the tensions gradually with the addition and reduction of notes and registers. This did give me some nice material, however form, and other technicalities (such as the piano register with the voice) were tossed into the ocean to be forever forgotten about.

With the new understanding of this, I went back and decided I needed some unifying factor, some compositional device that I will use if I get stuck. Since I had random accents, I decided to use prime numbers to decide where to place these accents. Each accent falls on the 2nd 3rd 5th or 7th eighth note of the measure. Each following measure would be decided on the previous, therefore the second measure can only have an accent on the second eight note because it is the 2nd eight of the measure, however it is also the 11th 8th note of the whole piece. HOwever I would not be able to have an accent on the 13th eighth note of the piece because it is the 4th beat in the measure which is not a prime number. Once 3 Measures has past I repeat the process.

This was one instance on how I want to use prime numbers. I don't stick to that method strictly for musical reasons, however it does generate a cool rhythmic feel. It's funny, it just so happens that my intervals are also based on prime numbers, (3rds, 2nds and 7ths). These intervals are the characteristic intervals of most of the chords I use, however they are fairly standard. It's no surprise either that the intervals I do use are prime, because only 2 intervals inside the octave dont have a prime number.

Either way......I plan to use this element to unify my whole piece, and use prime numbers to develop larger structures as well, and what I have revised so far I am so much more pleased with. The material is the same, just arranged a little differently so I am very happy with the outcome of Friday's class.

Exhaustive

After finishing the scores to send to the ECM, and many sighs of relief, I began to reflect on the process that was composing this piece. The realization came to me a little late that notes weren't enough. Pitch and rhythm don't make music. In fact there's music out there that disregards both (maybe not so much rhythm, but pitch). So what does this leave us with?

Expression
mood
gesture

The discovery of this came after the fact that most of my piece was completed. But I now know and see how much a gesture can effect the music that precedes and proceeds it. It has so much to do with the mood and the tone established, that the notes are not as important, and with these things we get closer to what we want to convey....musicality.

I now feel silly looking back on my other compositions with how little direction I have given the performers. I am thankful that my works were not performed by robots and that the performers were able to interpret what they thought I had wanted instead of play the expressionless notes that I had written. My intent has to be in the score, and every note needs direction, a way to help determine the phrase.

If nothing else, I am happy to have had this experience if for nothing else than to realize the amount of detail I was neglecting in my composition.

Stuck Like A buck in a truck

Many times when composing things will be going great until the section I'm working on ends, or an idea just runs out of steam. That' s where I am now. My ideas in the way they are presented have got me in a bind. I feel like I am in a creative bind and I don't have the problem solving skills to get me out of this bind.

Normally when I'm in this position, I listen to as much new music as I possibly can and see the way in which those composers treat their material. The main things I listen for is not so much the way that they develop their ideas, rather the way they introduce new material, or use old material in a new way, and make the cohesion of this material with the material already present in the piece.

Presenting my work in class, it seems to be an attractive piece with good ideas, however I feel like my development of the ideas thus far, has been weak. If my piece were a buffet, I merely walked down the serving table and looked at everything, rather than took anything on my plate and ate it yet. I think this may be an interesting formal design, where I could spend the rest of the piece developing these ideas and concluding it. Or this could be a terrible idea, considering I am stuck and cant find direction, and I should probably go back and develop my ideas before leaving them so quickly.

What to do....what to do.....

Back to The Drawing Board

Starting off this project was a difficult task for me. With such an odd group of instruments, I was wondering what stylistically and sonically would work. Like every composition, starting an idea with promise is the hardest part (or at least for me).
For my main idea, I decided to base all of my material on what Schnittke does in his first string quartet and in other places of his music. Present a melody in a cannonic style and allow the melodic notes to form into the harmony. This idea in a way is a further development in counterpoint I guess, or at least it's a way of looking at it.

So I had this idea! Great! however, it took me a while to get running with it.
I Planned a form. I generated 2 themes and extracted multiple motives from this theme. I superimposed the motives over one another to make sure they make good counterpoint. But when it came down to it, I had no idea how to actually start this piece. I went through a good 10 trials before I just let go of the idea a little bit.

After letting go of that concept, Music finally started to happen. I just wrote out a rhythm I thought was pretty cool and expanded on it. My idea was in a way still present and able to be used later in the piece, however I'm going to follow through with this new motivic thing as long as possible.

Deep Dark Woods. responses reactions 1

I'm absolutely loving writing this new piece. It is providing me with new opportunities i haven't been able to explore before. I love the guitar, it's such a rich timbre. and every time I hear this performed I am more and more satisfied with it.
anyways,
I don't blog enough about the suggestions I get in class, so this is exactly what that is. And it works out perfectly because I was eating up every single comment/suggestion I got yesterday.

The piece is quite guitar heavy at this point, and as Dr. Ross pointed out, everything has a roll except for the cello and after considering this comment I agree. The bass is obviously doing a bass roll and the guitars are in the forefront, however the cello was just kind of floating around serving different purposes, just kind of being a loose cannon.

well I fixed this pretty well. I really like what I have, so most of the A section cello stuff is the same, however I've developed an entire new B section, and in this section, the cello and the bass have a ton more rhythmic interplay and have in a way become the counter duo to the guitars.

There are many other things I have altered/changed, but stay tuned to the next blog, for there is more to come!

The way of greatness

Last night at bitters myself and Jess Blenis had an interesting conversation I thought was really worth blogging on. It was talking about how sometimes composition can be such a chore and it's rough, and you just gotta plough through. But than on the other hand, sometimes when you get an idea all you wanna do is compose cause you're totally in love with the idea.

This discussion came about when she was asking me about my new piece. And That's how I feel about it. I wrote more music in one week than I have in 4. And that's why, that's exactly why. I am in love with the idea and always want to keep adding to it and making it better. Where as with the concert band piece, it was a astruggle to get to the computer or to the keyboard to expand on what I have.

Here's the thing... I don't feel satisfied with my first project of the three piano pieces. They were the sort of compositions that took a lot of grunt work and I'm not overly happy with the way they sound. My second composition from last term was the same way.... a lot of forced work with unsatisfied results. However the piece I entered in the arts and letters, as well as my first composition project from last semester I lived in and was very inspired by them.

So my question is;
does it take inspiration to make music that I will be personally satisfied with? and if so is there any way to seek this inspiration or come up with an inspiring idea? or would it be better to steer clear of the inspiring ideas and become the best at working with ok ideas and making them good technically? or like, approach them as practice instead of something that people will see?

perplexing

Road Block

Last week after class, I felt really insecure and unhappy with the piece I had written thus far for concert band. It was very linear and still very introductory. I really loved the theme I had and some of the development of that theme, however I felt as a whole it was unorganized and sloppy. I didn't have a plan really, I was just going with what I had and developing that as much as I could, leaving any aspect of form thus far out to dry.

I also couldn't think of anything else to add to what I have done. There are limitless possbilities of places for that piece to go, the problem is none of them satisfy me at this point. I could just not get anywhere with what I have and that was that. I was frustrated.

I than decided to leave this piece for a while. I realized that I've given it everythign I could for now, and I'm tired of the type of composing when it becomes monotinous (see next blog). I wanted excitment and passion when I compose, as lame as it may sound. So I found something that I loved. I was playing my classical guitar one night and this little dark motive came to me. I was so pumped...and please note that I had not yet given up on the concert band piece until I was sure I could really go somewhere with this new idea.

I plan on revisiting the band piece and finishing it soon. Just not in time to enter the composition (sadly). But you gotta go with what's working.

Cross Roads.

So,
I Haven't been blogging in a good long time. I never really feel like I have much to say I guess. I guess it's also possible I expect to need to have something of some significance to say in a blog, but maybe not. Either way, here is what I beleive to be significant, and just an update of what has been going on with my piece for concert band.

I stuck with the feathering out of single lines, and building and diminution. And so far that has been great. I now have the Introduction more or less complete. I always tweak it, for instance I decided to give more of a pedal tone in the tuba, to give it a darkness which I am kind of going for in this piece.

Anyways, much of the introduction has kind of gotten away from me...in a good way. It didn't quite go how I was expecting, but I am much happier with the project so far. There are a great deal of motives that developed from the supporting instruments which gives me a lot of options for the grand middle section.

And that's exactly where I stand. I have a sort of middle section beginning to take shape, but I honestly had a little fugue like idea with the beginning material planned to take the middle section. I really like both ideas, and I'm trying to incorerate them both some how, although they are both so different I am not sure that this will be entirley possible. However, whichever idea i end up going with, will need to have a more concrete feel that the introduction.

Oh The Possibilities

Composing a piece for concert band is much much more challenging to get started, and to develop ideas than I ever imagined. Mind you at this stage I have started and am well on my way, but getting it started was very strange. First off, I'm not the biggest fan of band music, or a majority of the band music I've heard. I appreciate it, but in the way I appreciate metal bands (appreciate the technical side, but can't get past the cheese). But that's the reason I chose this. I wanted to challenge myself to make something I really enjoy with minimal influences in the genre.

One of the biggest advantages, or the biggest plus sides of writing for band is the endless possibilties. With the last project I felt confined. Not only because it was for solo piano, but because I didn't compose as intuitivley as I normally do to push myself to grow and be able to do things more cognitivley. But aside from that, I was sick of thinking on a keyboard, there are so many limiting factors. With writing for band I'm in love with the different colors, and how I am able to change the harmony rather discretley by continuing with one color while adding a new color underneath with a different pitch class. The layering itself is becoming a whole new artform to me, and the way I spell chords......

Although these possibilities are a blessing, they are a curse. I say this because I am not writing in a chordal style, which creates a lot of work in working out the polyphony, but it's great pedagogically I guess.

New Found Music

My favorite time of the year (or at least one of them)has come and passed, the newfound music festival. I don't know why I love it so much, I guess because I am able to witness different innovations and new processes that different composers use in creating new music. It really is a shame that music students aren't exposed to more of this kind of thing.
The biggest highlight of the festival for me were the first two sessions in the P.C. Hall, Andrew Staniland with his presentation on loopin and Max MSP, and Derek Charke's presentation on his composition.
I am a huge fan of manipulating live sounds. I am always trying to make new sounds with the use of technology (electric guitar/keyboards & using different effect pedals) and the computer program that Staniland presented seemed to give him total control of the way that he was able to manipulate the sounds made in the microphone. This was my first real brush with electro-acoustic music.
I was also really blown away by Derek Charke's composition with the influence of inuit throat songs. The amount of energy created by the extended techniques he uses in the quartet is absolutley incredible. It was funny to see how his inspirations for some of his composition doesn't come from say Debussy or Stravinsky, rather he found something that has never been done before, (maybe bartok is more the inspiration for this kind of thing).
It was really fun to hear these innovations performed in the concert on the second night. Hearing Charke's disturbances of carcadian rhythm was really cool. The way he incorperated the electroacoutic element to establish a mood was totally effective.
It was also really nice to hear other modern composers, two of our own, and the way in which it is all music from the past ten years, yet the styles were vastly different. This year the new found music festival made me feel very appreciative that I live in the time that I do, with the freedom to be totally creative and so many different tools and ressources right at my fingertips.

New Directions

Last week I was very fortunate to get a composition lesson with Derek Charke. It couldn't have happened at a better time because for my second piece, I was stuck. I had all the ideas that I wanted, but presentation of my ideas was really sloppy, directionless and I had only gotten so far with them.

One of the biggest things that I took away from this lesson was the idea of a line. In the section that I felt lacked the most direction, dr. Charke pointed out that there was little direction in it because each of the notes kind of floated around, and to give it direction he suggested that I put in a descending line in the bass. This gives a paticular line for the audience to hold on to and it gives a very clear direction. A very simple solution, yet it's something that I haven't really thought about.

Another big thing I took away was the amount of times I am allowing things to repeat. It's something I'm very concious of this semester, however I cannot tell how much is too much, therefor he suggested to repeat things, but just use truncated versions of a paticular motive and develop that motivic idea, or just move on from that.

Very simple ideas and straight forward advice, but I appreciate it because it's not exactly obvious.

The Importance of form

After presenting my piece on tuesday, I feel like I felt the same way about my piece as some of my class mates. I have some good ideas, but they dont seem to go anywhere.
Musical form to me, in the past little while, seems to be growing hugley in importance to me. I never considered it much before, but as I listen to music, and compose my own I am beginning to realize how big of a difference the form can make. I really like my ideas, and I think that they are good ideas...but how long I am able to repeat those ideas and the way i repeat them I beleive will either make or break my compositions.
The good thing is that I trust myself to know when an idea gets boring, and that I have the creativity to alter, or introduce some change to keep the listener engaged.

Piano Piece 1

For my first piano piece I divided each octave into major seconds and minor thirds. This was the basis for the opening section.

Only having the introductory bit ready for tuesday wasn't ideal, but it still was good for another thing. Where I haven't started any development myself of this material, I was able to get some outside input of ideas I may not have had. WHich is cool because if I've already had some of the ideas developed I wouldnt have had the oppertunity to hear people's ideas.

One of the main ideas which Dr. Ross suggestedd that I drew from was to have the second part (the eighth note chords) be the bulk of the development and have the introduction theme interupt this development all the time...