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