So our first concert of the semester went over very well!!
It was really nice to hear everybody's two piano pieces in the PC Hall. I think that the show was a success because it didn't run to long, there were no awkward pauses in between performances, and the show was about 45 minutes long, which is perfect for a pre-show to an 8 o'clock concert! I think we had a good sized audience as well! I was half worried that we'd have trouble getting people to come, but with a facebook group, a poster (by yours truely), and word of mouth we were glad to see so many people! It's always better to have a bigger crowd than I small one.
I had a short meeting with Derek Charke on Friday, and that was very helpful! Just to get another professional opinion is always a great thing, and he offered many tips and suggestions that I think will really help shape my pieces better.

So this will be a blog on my second piano piece.
Since it wasn't presented in class, I haven't had as many comments or suggestions about it. I originally had another idea in mind for the second composition, but the more I spent with that idea, the more I started to not like it. So I decided to try something new. Since the first piece had what I thought to be a flowing, or waterfall, feel, I decided to continue on with composing with a "nature" or an effect we can see or feel. I was composing at the piano in my house, and I saw the tree outside moving with the wind, so I thought about writing about wind. In the piece, it starts out with a gentle and slow movements, but gradually increase speed and direction. There is a part where it goes to a minor section, with a interpreted as a brewing storm, where the winds get more violent and malicious. It then comes back to a fairly calm state and starts to die away.
I loved hearing it performed live, and I got some pretty good complements about it too!

An update on my first piano piece:
I had it presented in class last thursday and it went over really well! Everyone seemed to like it, which is great, and they gave me some helpful ideas on how to improve. I am going to expand the opening material with more of my rhythmic alterations (4 sixteenth notes, and quintuplets) and also do this towards the end of the piece, and also change the ending.
The only change that will be used for this coming concert is the ending. With another composition being finished, and other work, and also leaving enough time for my performer to learn the music, I'll have wait until after the concert to do the other changes just because there isn't enough hours in the day.
I'm relatively happy with the new ending, I'll wait until Andrew plays it on piano to really see how it fits with the rest of the music, but hopefully it works out!

1st piano piece done

I just finished my first piano piece for the project.Well, when I say it's done, it's "pretty much" done. It's got a beginning and an ending, and hopefully I won't have to change much else in between! I called it "Cascade" because of the continuous descending triplet motion. I added a lot since my first sketch, such as more melodic material, a more concentrated harmonic progression and some alterations to the rhythm content. I'm fairly happy with it, I've played all of it on piano as I composed, but I'll have to wait until I give it to my performer to really hear the real thing.
So now I have to get started on my next piece! I think it's going to based on some of Bartok's works, and I have a pretty good idea of the character. The title "Thief" really comes to mind when I picture it in my head! So hopefully I can produce what I was on paper!

So this is my first post for 4100!
The first composition project is writing 3 short pieces for piano. So far I've been tossing around a couple ideas back and forth, trying to decide which ideas to use for my pieces. I started to work on one using a triplet motive with a harmonic progression like Bach's first prelude from the WTC. I've yet to finish it, and right now I am trying to find different ways to alter the rhythmic motion and incorporate some melody lines. I think I have thought of everything I'm going to do, I just need to put them to paper.

Looking back at this past semester, I think I have come a long way in how I think about composing music. In September, I hadn't composed much of anything at all, so all of this has been a new and unfamiliar world. When we were assigned the first project, I honestly had no idea how to go about any of it, especially since it was supposed to be atonal with no tonal inflections or ANYTHING. It was like jumping in uncomfortable water. I started a couple of ideas that eventually went nowhere, but finally settled on an idea of a programmatic piece about creation, life, and destruction. It soon started to become more natural and the ideas seemed to come to me more often and it was easier to put my ideas onto music.
The second project but me into even more unknown waters. I had no idea how to set a poem to music or write for a vocalist. This, and the added instruments, really put more pressure on me, but I started out with a solid idea for the music, and was able to start writing effectively right away. I wanted to write a piece with a fast tempo, which was fine and dandy, but I soon realized that in order to write a piece that is supposed to be 3-5 minutes, you must write a lot more music then, say, a slow piece with the same time limit. So I found myself spending many hours in the wee morning trying to write page after page. It only turned out to be 17 pages, but that seemed like a lot for a schmuck like me who is so new to this composing thing. In the end, I was able to write some pretty amusing and interesting moments, and I was very pleased with the end result.
I now understand why we were bound by the world of atonality for these two projects. Had we been given the option of using standard tonality, I think that most of us would have ended up taking that road. But by limiting yourself just to tonality, which all of us should understand, and are quite comfortable with, we would not have given our self the opportunity to experiment with atonality. So by forcing ourselves to use only atonality we, or at least I, have now developed a new opinion, or appreciation to writing in that style, and I will continue to do so, which I probably would not had I not done it for these two projects.
I've really become a much more confident and inspired composer and now have even more drive and ambition to continue experimenting down that road. (I know that sounds corny)
I also think that everyone in the class has improved a lot as well! It's crazy to see how they've grown and developed with their compositions, and it's only been one semester!
I had a lot of fun this semester! A lot of work, definitely my busiest course, but the most satisfying.

So I passed in my composition yesterday, and I gotta say, I was very pleased with the way it all turned out in the end. I didn't have to spend half as much time editing this score as compared to the last piece. While I was composing this current piece, I made articulation and phrase markings as I went, and I didn't have to spend as much time determining where things were going to go. I am very happy with the performance, and I am also happy about my editing. I tried to be as specific as I could be with my directions and markings, so I think my ideas and thoughts are clear and easy to understand.