Monday, April 13, 2009

finally, actually finished!

I finally completed my piece! It took me a really long time, but I finally came up with a decent 'b' section that I really liked. I happened upon the idea for it after bringing it to class and having a discussion about being stuck. I felt like I had come up with this main theme of klezmer but I didn't know how to elaborate on it. Jon Rowsell made the suggestion of picking something that I really liked in earlier sections of the piece and elaborating on that. I decided to go with an ascending passage that happens just after the main theme is stated. There are descending thirds in the piano and the violin has a descending pizz. scale. As soon as I starting to elaborate on this idea everything else came fairly easily. I eventually brought the b section back to the main theme by increasing the tempo and adding claps (which is what I originally had planned when I first though of the Klezmer idea). I'm pretty proud of the piece at this point!

Friday, April 10, 2009

I decided to take Jonothans idea about elaborting on a idea that you like early in the piece. I needed to create a "b" section and I was having al ot of difficulty with it. I wanted to create something that was a contrast with the tonal section, but I didn't want it to be an incredibly stark contrast. I decided to elaborate on a scalar figure that's heard in the A section that I really liked. Its just a descending scale that's heard as a pizz. in the strings and staccato in the piano.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Working...

I decided to add viola to my string quartet, so its now a string quintet plus a piano.
I'm having a really hard time elaborting on the motive that I already have. That motive is so clear and so tonal that I want to create a contrasting section so the listener doesn't get bored. That's the hardest part! I've been fooling around with a few different ideas for the contrasting section but I haven't like any of them. I'm going to bring my composition to class this week and see if anyone has any suggestions.