Final Blog (for now)

I've been thinking for a while now on writing a blog on what goes through my head when I compose. I thought it could be a neat way of helping myself see what I do and what I could improve on, as well as sharing with others an insight into my way of doing things. After we played my final piece at the composition concert I recieved a lot of feedback regarding how 'fun' my piece and it left thinking, why?
Then it hit me, no matter what I write I always strive for something that at the end of the day I can honestly say 'that's my music, and I like it.' In composing based on the 12 bar blues cliche I wanted mess around with some of the typical elements of the idiom and make it my own. Like instead of sharing solos the clarinet and trumpet have a section where they are competing for who's the feature. Also, I used a plunger mute at one point and had Heidi open it slowing creating a "waa' sound. I only did it cause I thought it'd sound cool, and luckily that's the way it was received (it's hard not to smile when in the middle of playing your own piece you hear positive laughter).

For anyone who is ever thinking of taking this course with Dr. Ross I highly reccomend it (and no, this isn't an attempt at earning browny points, though if it works, then i'll roll with it).
But honestly I found this course teaches you to take an idea or set of guidelines that you may not be pleased with (such as writing atonaly) and finding a way to write something that both satisfies them and yourself. That to me was what I got the most out of in this class.

I've already started thinking of some ideas for my next composition, I've kinda got myself hooked on it now, who knows what will develope over the holidays and into the new year when my next course in composition begins.

If this blogging is required for that course then stay tuned for future updates!
Neil

Hell of a show!

Last night we all performed our musical cliche based compositions at a public concert. The concert went off quite successfully, there was a lot of great music composed and performed. One of cool things about this class was that we got to hear each others compositions as they were developing and it was really cool to hear what everyone had arrived at in their music. With everything from jazz to baroque, and disco to tango on the program the concert was very well relieved and it was a great way to end off this course for the term.

NB

Me thinks it be done . . . almost

I finished some of the final touches on my blues cliche composition tonight. After a quick fight with sibelius (I won, of course) I was able to fix some editing issues that plagued visual presentation of the work. I also added in the remaining dynamic details to guide the performers a bit more in how I want the piece shaped. I also changed around a couple notes in the pointelistic section just to make it a little more unexpected. There are two things still outstanding for this work. First it was suggested that I have the trumpet play with a mute, and that I should meet with trumpeter Heidi to see which one I want to use. I'm thinking a harmon, or a cup, and there's also a section where I want to use either a plunger, or a harmon with the stem in to get a "wa wa" sound.
The other thing I'm not sure of is the end of the piece. For some reason it's just not sitting with me. It works, and will remain as written for the sake of this concert but its something I can see myself going back to and expanding on maybe over the holidays.

We've got a great concert coming up, I can't wait to here what the current final version of my piece sounds like.

NB

Where, oh where, did my big ol bass go?

As the semester draws to a close so does B Flat's Blues. I've got it written to the point where I don't feel that I need to add much more to it to make it complete. That being said, I realized after I had it played in class last week one major thing I am missing from my piece. . . the double bass. It's come to my attention that the poor ol' bass is out for almost 30 bars of the work, which so far is only 100 measures long. Needless to say it was recommended by my classmates that I devise a way to fix this, and I whole heatedly agree. The bass just kinda goes along when it is playing doing a walking bass figure which gets really old, so I'm gonna add a section in the middle featuring the double bass as a soloist, and re-wirte some of the other lines to make them a little more interesting, and less predictable. Other then the bass issue my piece is coming along nicely, the balance problems seem to be totally gone, and to make sure of this I've included a more dynamics to guide the performers. Oh, and the section I have at the end left people wanting more, it's figure that repeats three times so I didn't really plan to drag out any more then that, but because it's liked so well by everyone, myself included I'm going to do something with it to give it a litte more air time. Maybe i'll incorperate into the bass solo or something. I'm gona go work on it now and see what I come up with.

Untill next time!
NB

B Flat's Blues (Musical Cliches round 2)

After the feedback I had received on my first attempt at writing a musical cliche I rewrote a lot of my piece. I made a new introduction that clearly established the twelve bar blues cliche and tried a few different things to both give the piece a slightly more unexpected feel and to fix the balance issues. This resulted in something that worked out quite well, the piece was much better received this time by my colleagues, and I am also much happier with it. The latest suggestion I received was to add in a pointillistic section, I'm not totally sure why? but when I tired writing it into my piece I came up with something that works well and sounds pretty cool, which I must admit is a little on the surprising. I'm still trying to decide where I should take the piece next, right now I'm at about half the required length. I've not yet wrote a tenor or bass solo so I think thats going to come soon.

That'll be it for now.
NB

Musical Cliches

For our latest project in composition we're supposed to write based a on musical cliche. For my cliche I chose the 12 bar blues form, only I'm having it played straight instead of swung. I've also wrote it in 3/4 time to give it a bit of a different feel then what is expected. I began writing this piece for clarinet, trumpet, and tenor sax, but the piece lacked a bass line that I felt was very much needed, so I got permission to add 4th instrument, being the double bass. After performing it in class it was brought to my attention that there are some balance issues that I need to address, as well the piece gets really busy, really fast. Some people also were not clear on the cliche based on the 4 bar introduction I had wrote. I agree with all of the above criticism and have come up with a couple plans to improve my piece. To begin the introduction is going to expand up to 12 bars (or maybe 8, I'm still not 100% sure) and will be the double bass walking in 4/4 time to outline the chord progression and help people get the style of the music I am writing. To keep it interesting I will be including some different elements rubato. When the busy section of my piece begins I am going rewrite the parts so that they are all distinctive, and have the clarinet and tenor sax play in a different range, as right now all three winds are playing in the middle of the treble clef staff, and this is where the trumpet has the melody. I don't want to move the trumpet part up to much, or at all, as it will end up getting to high for bith what I want, and what is within a good range for the trumpet. I'm going to expand on my piece to include the traditional element of shared soloing as typically found in 12 bar blues, but I have a couple different ideas in mind to mix it up and make it unexpected.

Great Things to Come
NB

Fragments (Character Piece number 3)

On Friday past myself and Kim played the final of my three character pieces for composition class. This piece used a lot of glissandi that were ment to be smeared. Since this is not technically possible on the piano or sax (sax can bend notes, and smear the sound going between two notes but not in a large run) the glissandi were meant to be messy and not rhythmic or metric. They however have to hit a top or bottom note at specific time as I had them change direction every two beats on specific notes. This creates a messy wave of sound which is exactly what I was going for. On this note, I have the pianist playing the gliss figure in the left hand in the middle of my peice, I had not considered the physical demands that this would place on the pianist, and it was determined after a consultation with Kim, that while they were possible it would require a glove or some other tool, so as not to damage the hand. Dr. Ross then suggested working in some space into the piano part to allow time to either put on the glove or pick up the tool. I agreed with this completely and am experimenting with a couple ideas to see what works best. It was also suggested that I play around with the smearing idea more and I plan to as I think it can really add a lot to my piece.
Another Idea suggested by Dr. Ross was to have the loud peddle of the piano pressed down for the beginging and ending of the piece, as this is where just the saxophone is playing (an idea that went over well with my classmates) and doing the glissandi. We acutally tried that in class and the sound is really cool, so I've already added it in.

That looks like enough for now,
NB

Character Piece #1 & 2: Round 2

Myself and Kim played the revised versions of my first and second character piece in class. The reactions were much the same as when we had first played them. For the piece the main comment was that I was successful in writing great lines when the sax and piano are playing together. The main recommendation for change was to do something with the last measure to give it a more interesting appeal. Initially I did not want to change the last measure (its a rolled whole note chord in just the piano) however after I thought about it a bit and experimented with some different ideas I think I came up with something that both goes along with the recommendation and appeals to me.

For the second piece I was advised to look at some of my notations. Specifically notes spellings for the piano, and ways to notate rhythms to make them more readable. I've since tackled this and it has been written a lot more clearly. Again the main compliment for the piece was about the great interaction between the piano and sax. Also, my last chord was staged having each note played in a different register on a different beat or part of a beat and then after each note was heard the chord was sounded as a whole. This idea was well liked, by everyone including myself.

NB

Character Piece #2

Last week myself and Kim played the my second character piece for composition class. The piece went quite well, though we did play it under tempo as it is supposed to go quite fast and this will require more practice on both our behalves . Some of the feedback I received about it included that it was light and playful, with nice interactions between the piano and saxophone. It was also noted that piece had an air of tonality to it but was clearly not tonal. Also the final chord in the piece is actually a tonal chord (Ab7) which I had not picked up on because of the mixture of sharps and flats in the chord. I'm not yet finished writing this piece and feel that it could go almost double the length There are some thematic ideas in the beginning and middle that I plan on reusing and expanding upon, which will hopefully add greatly to the music. I'm also planning on adding more to the piano, I had underestimated Kim's capabilities, and knowing now that she can play music more difficult then I wrote will allow me to add more depth to my music, which is exciting.

That's it for now, Thanks for reading!

NB

For lack of a better name (Character piece #1)

Yesterday myself and Kim played the first of three character pieces that I have written based on the chord progression I came up with last week. I wrote it for alto sax and piano and I focused on using a lot musical space to help create the requested feeling of rhythmic timelessness. I was successful in doing so, and the effective use of space was noted by classmates and Dr. Ross (class instructor). I was asked what the character I had intended for my piece was and I drew a blank, completely forgetting that the point of the assignment was to write a "character piece." That being said when I was writing the music I focused on the lower range of the alto sax, and this in combination with my use of space gave the piece a character my colleagues described as sneaky and mysterious/mischievous. The use of varying texture between the piano and sax, as well as the balance of the two parts was noted, and it was recommended that in my next variation I try adding more the piano part, so that each hand is playing more then just one or two notes at a time. This would make better use the capabilities of the piano.

I surprisingly am really happy with what I wrote, what comes next should be interesting.
NB

A work in progress - my chord progression

Hearing the chord progression I wrote with played in class this week I heard something very different then when I had played it for myself at home. As my piano skills are somewhat underwhelming it was interesting to hear the chords played by someone who knew what they were doing (thanks Mike) and was able to play them evenly. It turns out that my progression has multiple high points in tension, however this is accompanied by a notable decrease in tension in the last few chords. It was also brought to my attention by both my own ears and the feedback from fellow classmates that I used many high tension chords and have room to explore chords of a much lower tension level. In revising my progression I'm planning on moving some chords around and maybe adding a few to take my progression from 12 chords to 13 or 14.

Thats it for now.
NB

Exploring Atonality

First impressions of this class, composition 3100, left me a little unsure. I've never spent much time with atonal music as I honestly never saw much interest in it. However after spending some time making up a chord progression, and while I am starting to come around to it I think it will take some time before I can decide whether or not it is an idiom I will continue with after this course, time will tell. I am looking forward to seeing what I can create with it and to listening to what the others in the class create.

That's all for now,
Neil B.