What I Learned this Semester

    I feel like I learned a lot this semester, mostly due to the challenge to expand our music harmonically, more away from conventional tonality. I also learned a lot about focusing on one idea, and making pieces sound less sectional.

The major challenge of this semester has been writing for Concert Band. This was the first time I had ever written anything for a ensemble so large, and It felt like a pretty intimidating challenge. Overall I feel like I did a good job at it, especially for my first piece for the ensemble. I enjoyed it quite a bit once I got used to it, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

I had a great semester, thanks all you guys for your comments and suggestions.

Extending ideas

                  One significant contribution to finishing my piece was extending a few sections, that were too short. One being the triplet section, and the section with a of winds interacting with each other.

extending each section wasn't too difficult, it just took a lot of restraint to stay focused in the idea, and not begin another idea.

In the triplet section I did change the patern of the triplets from just two notes, to some times running up the scale  before returning ot the pattern, and each instrument has this variation at a differetn time, so there isnt really any point when all you hear is the two note pattern.

finalizing piece

          When I was writing the last minute or so of the piece, it was a little weird to just be using previous ideas and trying to bring the piece to a close.
          Using all my previous ideas even more than I had makes it feel a lot less creative, however it's so much easier to write, and makes better musical sense.
          I was just trying to return to original ideas and gradually let the euphium solo come back but I interupted it with a sudden tutti ending.
         

Wind Ensemble reading.

         The reading was very interesting. Especially since I had forgot to print off one of the parts and had to do a lot of running around and rushed printing.

          In terms of sound, it was a little different than I expected, and parts that I wanted louder were more quiet. However upon hearing it played I ended up preferring the way the balance was when it was read rather than in the midi. Overall I didn't change anything that I had already written, but the reading definitely changed how I wrote after the reading.

Composer vs. Performer

            Last semester the Wind Ensemble played a piece by John Mackey , called Xerxes. In this piece there was a bunch of percussion parts which used some traditional instruments for us, but also some interesting colours through placing a bell plate on a brake drum etc. The piece itself sounds awesome, however there was something that turned me off from the composer. That was the paragraphs which were directed to my part specifically about how I HAVE to use the SPECIFIC instruments he listed in the parts, and went on to say what I SHOULD NEVER use as a substitution. I normally wouldn't really mind this but he used a lot of caps lock words and was so specific it just sounded rude. Upon reading this I showed someone else and they told me a story where the composer was listening to a band play this piece, and they had used one of the things they were told NOT to use because they didn't own the instruments specified. He spent the first ten minutes freaking out at the percussion for not listening to his instructions, even though to a listener they probably wouldn't notice any change in the sounds.

         To me this feels inappropriate. Of course the composer has the right to want a certain sound and not another, however they should be a little bit flexible when the performers don't own the specific instruments requested. On the opposite spectrum I am playing a piece for Vibraphone called Drifts by Steve Kastuck. In this piece a lot of the notes are only the note heads, leaving the performer to play whatever rhythm they want. From another composers point of view this may seem as lazy, or not knowing what you want to hear in your piece. However what I enjoy about this piece from a performers point of view is the freedom I have to do whatever I want. It's also exciting to hear how other performers interpret the piece, which creates a lot of incentive to listen to the piece many times, cause it'll be a little different every time.

        As  a composer I do feel like I should be as specific as possible, but I also feel that you can't get too upset when people interpret your piece differently than you envision, and this doesn't mean that you failed as a composer. as a listener I find it exciting when piece lend themselves to interpretation, so they always sound a little different, and remain interesting every time you hear the piece.

  One thing i have been wondering about recently is when someone suggests you change something about your composition, but it is one of your personal favorite things about the composition. In this I am in no way saying that the advice given is bad, in fact I do realize that the advice makes a lot of sense.

 Now, just doing a school project this has no relevance to me, however I was wondering what people who are making their living writing music what they would do when the person who commissioned the work wants them to change something which they like a lot about the composition. I suppose in this case, you should try and make the costumer as happy as possible with the music. Though i guess if they have commissioned you then they tend to like your music.

  Then I think of composers who have challenged what music is, for example John Cage, who definitely had people who didnt like what he was doing, or schoenberg as another example. These people obviously had their supporters, or they would not have been as successful.

  I'm not sure why I wrote this here, but it was a topic i was wondering about, when someone who definitely knows more about composition, and is much much better, disagrees with something which you really like, how does someone know when to stick to their guns, or listen to someone who knows more than you and has more experience.

One of the comments a few weeks ago on my Band piece was about slowing down then tempo of the euphonium solo at the beginning of the piece, as well as creating a arrival point at the end of some crescendos that, seemingly go no where.

What i did about this was essentially follow those suggestions quite strictly. I did slow down the euphonium solo at the beginning to 80, where as before it was 100. This end up giving the solo much more weight, and underlying tension. In regards to the crescendos, I did at a down beat in the percussion as a arrival point for the crescendos.

Last weeks comments

   Writing for concert band has been a very interesting experience so far. Previously I had only written something as large as six performers, so the jump to a full band was pretty daunting. One thing I found very interesting was that your mind set doesn't necessarily change because there are so many more parts. I discovered that everything sounded much better when you thought as if writing for a smaller group because no matter how many parts there are there are still only melody, and accompaniment.

   Last week, what I played in class was a very rough kinda sketch of what I really wanted, that being said all the  comments helped bring my piece to where it is now, which I am extremely happy with. One comment was to have more rhythmic features in the brass that don't have the melody. So i went ahead and added some rhythm, and it really added to the piece, also I am using the rhythm as a kind of theme or motif. Another comment was about having the melody line and stuff in the french horn, and even though I really like the sound of horn I moved the melody and counter-melody to other instruments, which I am equally as happy with especially if it will be played much more accurately.

Week 2

Some of the comments this week were similar, so I've kinda compressed them a little bit.

A comment that came up a few times was that of giving a glimpse of things to come, both melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically. This was due to my piece changing very suddenly without much warning.
I will definitely run with this idea, as it is a great comment, and I feel very comfortable finding a way to incorporate this suggestion. I feel that it would add a lot to my piece.

Another comment was having the cluster chords more spread out so that we don't hear huge dissonance but you can tell something funny is on the go. This was already something I had looked at doing, However i had difficulty finding anywhere that it would work and still be remotely playable. Often times when they occur the right hand is doing a fairly quick melody of its own, and your left hand is only so wide, I am not sure that i could fit this suggestion in, however it is still a great comment that i will keep in mind when continuing work on this piece.

Another was that it ends kind of suddenly. This I was completely aware of, but these were the ideas i had, I am not opposed to extending ideas/sections which are already in the piece.

First comments of work in progress piece.

One comment was good development of my motif:

This was very encouraging as that was definitely my goal for this piece, and I wanted to make sure every note can relate back to that one motif.

The harmony is repetitive, and I should explore other harmonies or scales:

This was the only thing about this piece I knew I did not really like. After hearing the comments today I think that I am going to keep the repetition for the first eight bars, to establish my motif strongly. Then when the triplet section starts I and going to add some accidentals gradually to slowly move to another scale, like a wholetone scale, or an octatonic scale. I feel that still will be a solution to the expectedness the piece has now.