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