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