Mid-term

The mid-term break provided some additional time for me to work on my compositional projects, of which only a couple are for this course. I spent a lot of the break working on the string quartet part for my piece for string quartet and electronics that I am writing as a final project for Mus 4104. I have been playing in string quartets for a long time, but writing for one is a very different experience, especially when the final product will ideally be seamlessly integrated with samples and signal processing. Most of my work so far has been on developing the harmonic tools that will be the basis of the work. I found it easier to work backwards for this piece, first composing the end (for which  I had a clear programmatic concept), and then using those sonorities to aid in my development of the preceding material.

I also took some time to clean up and submit "Brutus" for grading. Having left the score for a couple of weeks after a month or so of working on it, I found it much easier to make some definitive adjustments that brought it to a more polished and presentable state. For instance, the length of silences in the opening of the piece had been the topic of much discussion and questioning in class and I wasn't fully satisfied with any of the directions I had given, but when I approached it again after a break, I knew exactly how long I wanted them and how to best notate it.

As for my concert band piece, I continued to work away at developing the middle section of the work, as well as making some mild orchestrational adjustments to what I had written already. I am looking forward to receiving more comments in the coming week, as the response I received when I last presented was very encouraging! Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will have the piece written from start to finish and I can begin to work out the finer details.

Band-a-stration?

Since my last post, not only did I have the opportunity to present my short score for band to the class, but we were also visited by a delegation from the Gower Community band, for which my piece is intended. They led a very informative class on what to keep in mind when writing for a band of their level, and things to consider if you want your work to be played by an average high school band. 

The next class I presented what I had so far of my piece. Most of the feedback was concerning things that had been mentioned in our class with the people from Gower band. There were a couple of runs and rhythms that looked a bit too complex, but I plan to orchestrate them in a way that will make it as easy as possible for the band to execute. I had expected more comments on my content, but the general consensus seemed to be that what I had so far was ample material to begin orchestrating with, so over this past week I got to work bringing the short score into its full form.

I found this extremely challenging for a variety of reasons. The first, and most trivial, being the teeny tiny size of my laptop screen and its inability to show hardly any of the score at one time. Switching back and forth between the piano reduction and the full score didn't help with the already cluttered space either. I need to devise a more intelligent strategy for my work flow. 

My second, and probably most significant challenge: transposition. While I had played in a concert band for 6 years, two of those were on French Horn, and the rest were in the percussion section. I have a very very limited understanding of wind instruments, their capabilities, and most of all their ranges/transpositions. This is especially frustrating when working from a short score that is in concert pitch. The process was slow going at first, but by the third hour I finally began to remember which instruments did what, somewhat. 

My final frustration with writing for this medium is the specificity of each instrument. This is something that I hope to learn to use to my advantage, but at the moment it feels like the band is just begging me to write a generic band piece. I'm beginning to understand why so much of the repertoire sounds so similar. But this is a challenge that I accepted in choosing to write for band, so I will put my head down and push on.

Although the process is slow going and quite trying on my patience, I'm glad I decided to do it. In the very least it will be a great learning experience!

... and band

I presented the same piece this week as I had the last two weeks, "Brutus" for cello and piano. I felt as though it was near completion, and the class agreed. Most of the comments that I received were in regards to some final polishing that would be needed before showing the piece to a performer, such as spacing of glissandi, placement of dynamics, and consistent use of articulations. There were some specific notes in measure 70 that were suggested as an alternative for one of the chords that I was using, and I very much liked them, so I will change them to the suggested ones!
Another helpful suggestion was to do a structural analysis of the work to see if I unknowingly followed any formal structures that I could then use in my favour to make the piece flow better. This was suggested in part due to an issue that has still yet to be resolved pertaining to the abrupt loss of energy towards the end of the piece. The middle, development section flows nicely, but the beginning and end seem somewhat disjunct.

I chose to not address these comments right away, but to let the piece sit for a bit as I had been plugging away at it for three weeks consistently. This week I began to sketch out a short score for a wind band composition. I wasn't initially interested in composing for band, but after discussing it with Dr. Ross it seemed like the perfect challenge to get me out of my comfort zone. The piece will be submitted to the Gower community band competition in April, so I got started right away to make sure I had lots of time to deal with this unfamiliar venture. Since the band is an amateur ensemble it requires me to write something playable, and enjoyable, that is still me and not just another band piece. This is everything I don't know how to do, and for a whole band of instruments I don't know how to write for... so I guess we'll see how it goes. I am presenting the first few systems of material to the class tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll get lots of feedback that will set me on the right path.