The overall experience

This past year has been an interesting one for me; from being thrust in atonality back in September, to experimenting with a blues cliche, writing for a new instrument, and finally back to my routes in a saxophone quartet. I've grown so much as a composer and finish my two composition courses with a new found confidence, that I can write music that people (including myself) will actually like. I really appreciate all the feedback I've been given over the last two terms, and the oportunities to work with great musicians to bring my music to life, it's an experience I'll never forget.

Don't want to make this too sappy, but it's been a great year!
-NB-

C'est Fini!

It's DONE! I finished my sax quartet today. Named "Influence" it show cases a few things I've come across in the past 4 years and explores some ideas I've only recently learned about. I managed to get the piece away from my typical 'fun and fast' style of writing, but in the end it is still very evidently written by me (a comment from a colleague). My approach to include a minimalist section, with a brief attempt at phase shifting seems to have come off quite effectively and overall I am very happy with the piece.

NB

Almost Done

With the semester drawing to an ever closer end my composition is also almost finished. I've got a few changes to make after it's Monday performance to make some of the exposed sections a little more interesting and add a bit more length to it. That being said it's coming together really nicely and there's an overal sense of coherence that was in it before. I'm going to expand on the 12 tone row I put in and do some work on the final minute and a half of the piece, with any luck it'll be done by the weekend.

NB

More Quarteting?

My sax quartet isn't coming along quite as well as I had hoped. I had it played in class Monday and due to a lack of time prior to the class I didn't get a chance to do much with it except for throwing in section in 12 bar blues. This didn't exactly work, it wasn't interesting enough for the music and Dr. Ross said it lacked the 'integrity' that was in the rest of my piece. I never had much invested in the blues section and I'm going to take it out completely, so much for that.

The interesting thing was how much conversation came from the part of my piece that people had already heard. There seems to be a genera consensus that the first two bars of my 9/8 section seem a little redundant and the piece could work well without them. Dylan made the comment on how my writing is almost always fast and fun and to try expanding on the slow section in the intro to the piece. This was followed by some more recommendations to try using isorhythms to bring some of the 9/8 stuff into the intro, this would create a longer slow section and set up the 9/8 so that I could take the previously mentioned two measures out.

I got pretty excited after all the good ideas that came out of the discussion from class and already have made significant changes to my work. The blues section is gone, it may come back later but it will be a much more thought out and integrated way and won't be obvious. I've also done a lot of work on the slow section in the beginning and it's way better now (I hope) and the two measures of the 9/8 are gone and the piece seems to flow a lot better.

Good things to come!
NB

Sax Quartet Week 2

My sax quartet is coming along nicely, I've got about 1 minute of music written so far and up to now I've stuck with the Blue Rondo idea. The piece is currently building towards a larger climatic section that will have to occur before I move on from this theme. I had the piece played today in class and the feedback, like always, was centered around the high level of Fun in my piece, a compliment I appreciate. I stand by the ideal of only composing what I like and adapting guidelines to fit that feeling and it really seems to work well for me. Dr. Ross also commented on the fact that I need to keep going towards a climax in the first theme before moving on. He also suggested taking my constant moving figure and develop it into a melody. He also enjoyed the fact that a bar after I modulate the original key comes back and then alternates with the new one until they play simultainiously in poly tonality.

So much to do, so little time.

NB

Final Project

For my final project for this compostion course I've decided to write a piece for sax quartet. I've got a few ideas for it so far: I want to give more focus to the bari, letting it be one of the primary interests in the piece. Also, the style for my piece is jazz, I'm going to include references to Dave Brubecks 'Blue Rondo A la Turk', Charlie Parkers 'Moose the Mouche' & "Yardbird Suite". I'm also thinking of experimenting with Poly-tonality and parallel organum, and also 3,6, and 7 bar phrases to help give my piece a more original sound.

-NB-

Almost Done!

Friday past I presented my, what was at the time, finished copy of "Rise of the Xaphoon." I was pleasantly surprised with how well the piece went over with everyone in class. Since they last heard it I added a completely different "B Section," that goes double time and kinda grooves, everyone loved it (me too). I had a lot of great feedback: Everyone loved the quirky nature of the piece and the Xaphoon and how I had made sections where it sounds like a tone deaf Xaphoon is trying to sing along with the Clarinet, but just can't quite get there. I also recieved comments on my carefull use of texture and contrasting sections. Dr. Ross noted that the first few meausres of the piano part are written very much like a wind instrument line and don't suit the piano very well, after class he played a couple different ideas for me that could work very well and I've since incorperated them into my piece.

Composer Robert Rival was preasent in class for this performance and he gave me a few ideas for the piece to take it from great to superb. He suggested I add a Xaphoon cadenzsa (to which Dr. Ross recomened I place when the Xaphoon first enters which I think is a great idea.) He also commneted on how programatic my piece sounded. I explained that I just write what I like with no program in mind and he said to try and write a program for it anyways. I have since tried to write a program and I couldn't come up with anything that I considered to be good enough for my piece. I don't really have much experience with programatic music, and the deadline for this project is in one day; so I think for now I'm going to forgoe the idea and maybe consider it for my next composition. He also suggested I try having the xaphoon come in in the "wrong place" in the begginning of the B section, again this was something I've since tried and just don't have the time to make it work in a way I'm happy with.

The metamorphisis this piece has gone through suprised me a little. I started off with one idea and then developed into something that sounded o.k. but was missing something. I dogged at it and eventually it paid off as I am extreemly satisfied with the way the piece has turned out. I've also had a huge amount of professional help along the way in the form of Dr. Ross, Larysa Kuzmenko, Dr. Scott Godin, and Mr. Robert Rival. I think in a large way the piece is wouldn't have turned out the way it did without their input and the input from my colleagues in class.

The concerts on the 27th of Febuary, should be a good one!
NB

Not quite stuck, just kinda missing something

My composition is coming along pretty good so far. I had it played in class Friday past and it went o.k. Dr. Scott Godin was there and he gave me a few ideas for improving the overall look of the work. I incorperate a large crash section in the early middle of the piece where the piano, clarinet, and trombone play really loudly on material that is meant to create a lot of tension. This is followed by a soft melody in the xaphoon as it is first introduced to the piece. Dr. Godin recomended not using standard notation for the last part of the crash, instead giving dynamic markings and letting the pianst play whatever notes they wanted as long as it was in an ascending pattern. I like this idea, it would probably add more tension, which is what I am looking for, and at the same time cover the requirement of having limited alletorism (as set by the class guidelines for this project).
I've also got to go back and fix some of the notation to make it easier to read. The final suggestion was to make use of the two hands of the piano playing at the same time. This is something I've been told before and have yet to incorperate, but I'm going to do that now before the next time I present it.

As far as I'm concerned I like what I have written but theres something missing from it. That one little elusive thing that I just can't put my finger on that seems to be holding this piece back. In trying to figure out what it was I went back and looked at some of my previous compositions and I realised that Rise of the Xaphoon does not make use of any melodic space what soever. I think thats the problem and I'm going to experiment with the material to see if I can remold it into something I'm truely happy with.

Cheers!
NB

A lesson with Larysa Kuzmenko

Yesterday I got the chance to have a lesson with Composer Larysa Kuzmenko. We spent the time working on my piece "Rise of the Xaphoon" and we re-visited her comment on phrase structure. My piece currently has a lot of ideas, each one comes in breifly and then goes away just as quick. There's no real solid themes to latch on to which is what gives the piece it's manic feel. I think this is what I had been missing, it's the reason why I'm not enjoying the work as much as I could. I have a lot of antecedent phrase's but it never gets responded to. She suggested the idea of picking a couple ideas in the piece that I want to make the focus, and then incorperate the idea of imitation to expand on the ideas and the develope them later in the piece. Also, Larysa told me that if I use fragments of the opening motifs later in the piece it will give the listen a sense of familiarity and make it easier for them to listen to how the piece works as a whole.

The idea of unity in my piece is just what I'm looking for. It was deffinitely a great lesson!

NB

Rise of the Xaphoon

My latest composition is coming along quite nicely. While it still lacks any realisation I did at least manage to come up with a title for it. The idea for "Rise of the Xaphoon" comes from the way the Xaphoon emerges after a chaotic crash in the beginning of the piece. Friday past myself and a few colleagues played my piece in class and I got a lot of feedback. The way the xaphoon comes out of the clash works quite well. The following recomendations were made: 1) Try expanding the upper and lower range of the piano to the extreems, and use 2 two hands together more often. 2) Explore the idea of using a preapared piano. 3) The trombone can go a lot lower then what I've got written.
We are required to include an alletoric element I wrote a section where the clarinet and xaphoon are improsing, but after I heard it acutally being played in class I deiced that I'm going to remove that part of the piece as it's to much freedom given and not enough control.
Because the NewFound Music Festival happened this week composer in residence Larysa Kuzmenko was also present in class and she recommended I try and outline a clearer phrase structure to get more an antecdent/consequent feel to my music.

I'm still kinda frustrated with the piece and am not really sure why. I'm sure I'll figure it out, it's just gonna take time.

NB

Composing For High School Concert Band

Continuing along with the NewFound Music Festival on Thursday I also attended Scott Godin's Prestentation "Composing For High School Concert Band." He talked about his experience working with a teacher colleague of his to write a contemporary work for their high school band. His challenge was to create a work that would serve as both a piece of music that he could be proud of and that was a pedagogical tool. To do this he met with the students and discussed different ideas that he could incorperate into the piece. He then wrote a 3 movement work, with each movement based on the works of a different composer. One of the things that Dr. Godin's colleague noticed after the work had been completed was that the students who had been involved in the colabrative process were much more advanced in the musical ability after they had participated and performeed the piece. Part of this is believed to be because the students were much more engaged in the work and so focused a lot more on listening to each other as ensem.

In C

This Thursday past I got the chance to play Terry Riley's "In C" as part of the NewFound Music Festival that happened at Memorial. The piece is unlike anything I have ever played before, it has 53 cells of music that each performer plays at their own discretion. Throughout the entire time a keyboard instrument (piano/marimba/xylophone, etc.) plays octave C's in eigth notes. The performers play repete a box as much as they want, but may not go back to a box once they move on to the next one. The performers are allowed to stop and take breaks whenever they choose and what makes the piece really cool is that when you do there are two things to be heard. If you just listen to the music as a whole and not focus on anything in particular it sounds like a band warming up, just kinda noisy. But if you listen for the individual lines you can here how the cells of music are interacting and it sounds awesome!

NB

1st Post: What to to? What to do?

That time of year has rolled around once again, composition course has began and is running full swing. For the first project this term we have to write for 4/5 instruments and again tonality is not allowed, at least this time it's not a total system shock :) I'm writing my composition for Clarinet, Trombone, Piano, Saxophone/Xaphoon. A Xaphoon for the record kinda looks like a recorder only with a sax reed, and has a distinct sound. I've got about a minute and half written so far and I'm not sure where to go next. I had my piece played in class and the feedback was that I was teetering on the edge of tonality but still within the guidelines of the project. Also my piece was described as being quite manic with a very thick texture. Unlike many of my colleauges I do not have an ispiration for this piece, all I know is that I wanted it to include the Xaphoon.

I'm trying to find an inspiration for this piece, and I know I'll come up with something eventually. (You would think the xaphoon alone would be enough, but sadly no.) I do know that I like the manic feel of my piece, and while I don't intend to have the entire thing like that the section will remain a part of my work.

NB