Week #3

This week I wrote my second character piece. I was really frustrated with the first, and didn't really know where to start work on it, so I'm going to leave that until last and then go back to it for revisions. This week I feel like I had a lot more success with my composition. While once again it took a while to get the creative process started, once it did, things fell fairly easily into place. While I didn't discuss it in class, I created this piece based on falling asleep while listening to the rain. I used a repeated F note to represent the sleep, and this was represented through both the piano and violin part. The F note is constantly heard through the piece with one two-measure exception (which reflected stirring from the noise of the rain). I felt like this piece was recieved a lot more positively than the last one. I recieved a lot of helpful comments, like the fact that I could have used more of the piano/violin alternating in the staccato and pizzicato. I only had this for one measure, but I was told maybe that it could be more. I was also made aware of more violin tones and techniques. I don't know much about violin (or strings in general really) so I found this very helpful and I'll definintely experiment more with these ideas in the next piece.

Week 2

Last week was week 2 of the composition character piece cycle, and I debuted my first piece. I found this piece really hard to create. I had a lot of thoughts and ideas but none of them seemed to materialized as I wanted them to on paper (or computer screen). I figured that at this stage, the best thing for me to do was to play what I have, and then get some feedback. I decided to pick the character "fear". I tried to display this through the repeated use of semitones and the unpredictable cluster chords in the piano leading up to the end. When I presented this piece in class I got some very helpful feedback. It was suggested that I use the more of the piano itself, and take advantage of the fact that it is a piano and not a single-tone instrument. Also, I was told it was a little short, but a lot of my ideas in the piece could be expanded on. For example, the semitones in measure 7 could be extended into a more complex echo, using different chords and notes than just the C# and D I have now.

First Composition

This week I began work on my first atonal composition. One of the biggest challenges in writing this piece was to create a clear and consistant "arch" in terms of the dissonant climax. I tried to approach this by slowly going down the keyboard with each of my 12 chords. I got a lot of helpful feedback when I played this piece in class, and one of the most popular opinions was that the piece did not have much of a resolution. The closing chords were just as full and "crunchy" as the climactic chords. In order to create more of a seamless arch (of dissonance) I need to try and make the last three chords (as chord 8 was the most dissonant) slightly less intense. I'm going to try moving them back up the keyboard into a higher register and experiment with them there this week. Also, I was told that the first three chords were also more intense than many of the other pieces we had heard in class. It might help to make an even clearer rise and fall in dissonance if I start off with less "crunchy" chords.

First blog

This is a test for my first blog entry!!!!