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.