Robbie vs Suggestions

Last thursday I finally got my first reading on my string quartet, which was also the first time I head the piece myself. Although being a bit tricky to recreate, it was great to hear it being played by real musicians for the first time. No foolish midi instruments to discourage anything.

So far this piece is definitely a whole lot different than anything I've written in the past. So far it is broken up in to two main sections. The first section being very sparse using a lot of space and only revealing fragments of a line. The second section is based entirely on atmosphere and the instruments are mainly used more percussively than melodically. The next step is to figure out where I want to go with the piece. Steve suggested that I develop the first section further, hinting at the second section slightly at the beginning and then really open up with that second around the golden mean, which is more or less what I had in mind. Kim, however, suggested that I write a piece entirely on the second idea of muting all the instruments except for one and throwing around a melody to that one instrument.

Currently I have decided to keep writing the piece the way that steve suggested while still keeping kim's idea in mind when I'm focusing on the second section. That way if I feel as if that section could be strong enough to stand alone as an entire piece then I can just go for it and make the other section in to something else.

I've also spent more time this week playing around with the violin that I have at my house. I didn't want to resort back to the piano and I wasn't too fond of the idea of listening to the midi either, so I figured that this would be a good way to hear some of the ideas without falling in to the same traps. It also helps when figuring out how to write the lines for each instrument as well.

Robbie vs String Quartet

After many attempts at many different combinations of instruments I decided to go with the string quartet for the final assignment. The closest thing that I've come to writing for something like this was last year when I wrote my cliche piece for violin, cello and piano, so it should definitely be a learning experience.

Since I haven't studied, or have ever been a part of, a string quartet before I tried to get myself more familiar with the concept by listening to Beethoven's string quartets op. 131 and 135, six of Bartok's, and Webern's for inspiration. I particularly liked Bartok's no. 4 mvt. IV Allegretto, which was entirely pizzicato, and this sparked my main inspiration for my next piece.

At first I tried to dive right in and write the piece using mainly pizzicato however my sense of melodic direction was lacking. I didn't want to write a purely tonal piece but I had no idea how to approach it otherwise. I could grab a chord and rhythmically manipulate it but other than that I was stuck. Dr. Staniland suggested that I completely forget about every other method of writing melody, harmony and rhythm and focus one specific interval to write my piece. If I were to become stuck in any situation, just pick use the interval to help me out. Go up by an interval, down by an interval, have a chord repeat by that interval, have the passage start on the interval in that bar, etc.

So for this assignment I went with the interval of a 6th. I've also taken the approach of not listening to the playback on the computer. The recreation that sibelius makes in nowhere near the actual sound of what the instruments make (especially when you're using extended techniques) and this becomes very discouraging. It is very beneficial to have musicians play through your pieces as much as possible. "mom, I want a string quartet for christmas to put in my closet!"

Robbie vs Tonality

Well, time to catch up on some of this blog writing

The last one I attempted ended up getting erased because I kept it open too long and when I went to finally send it it came up for me to sign in again and I couldn't retrieve the majority of it. So I got discouraged! But here I go again..

Upon completing my three pieces for solo piano I realized how dependent I am on tonality. I was somewhat pleased with my compositions, but at the same time I found them to be relatively predictable melodically as well as lacking a sense of direction. I also find it, ironically, to be a lot more difficult to write for solo piano than other compositions I've written for. Possibly to do with the fact that I'm writing in my comfort zone and a lot of the time only writing things that I can play myself.

For the next assignment I tend on stepping completely away from the piano to try and break some bad habits. It's too much of a safety crutch for my writing and it tends to lead me to the same sort of ideas. I'd like to try and be more free with the use of tonality by stepping away from cliche melodies and harmonies and not be afraid to get a bit ugly instead of writing things that seem more naturally pleasing to the ears. My pieces usually contain a lot of passages that can be repeated consecutively over and over (like a chord pattern or 'riff' in popular music) but I would like to focus more on creating transitional sections.

robbie vs piece #2

In Thursday's class I presented my 2nd piece for the first time. I played it at the concert on the saturday before, but I wanted to get some feedback from it and I didn't exactly play it the way I had it written.. whoops!

The main few areas of the piece include:

the opening, which is very open and spaced out

the middle section, which is quite constant moving in the left hand with the right hand being very simplified

the final section, which contains the main melody of the piece

A couple tweaks that I have so far made to it are:

The first section could definitely be more exact with its spacing. I'm going to try and give a specific length to my empty passages rather than leave it up to the performer.

After Kate mentioned there being a lot of B double flats throughout the piece, I decided to reevaluate the key signature in which I realized that instead of Db flat major (C# major), the piece would contain far less accidentals in E major.

I originally wanted to elaborate on the final melody in my final piece, but I have been working on lengthening this section instead.

The middle section almost seems like it could stand alone as another piece, so I might incorporate this idea in to my final piece.

robbie vs Newfound music

The Newfound music festival is one of the very few activities at mun more so intended for the composition faculty. Obviously it's something that everyone can all enjoy, but for us composers it really helps to see what new tactics are used for composition that can help us write on a different level. This year I managed to attend the thursday and saturday night concerts as well as the morning lectures in the PC hall.

The lectures that Derek Charke and Andrew Staniland presented on the topic of looping and recording were quite intriguing. I spend a lot of time fooling around with looping pedals and recording software to create pieces for 'pop' music, but have yet to attempt to write for anything like this. Using the looping device as an instrument certainly gives the composer a lot more options for composition. The art of real time looping and manipulating would definitely be an interesting concept to toy around with.

As for the concerts, I enjoyed Scott Godin's piece for electric guitar and recording (or two electric guitars) entitled 'Gwan' in particular from the thursday night's concert. Guitar is something that I play quite frequently (even more than my primary instrument to be quite honest) so I could take in the performance a lot easier. I also find myself stuck writing pieces that are more western pop oriented, so to see something that bridges this sort of genre with traditional elements was very enlightening.

The Saturday concert I found to be very enjoyable to watch all around. It was definitely a change of pace from a lot of the concerts that take place at the music and was very refreshing. Jeff Dyer is a personal friend of mine so it was really nice to see him performing again. Dawn Avery's pieces were also very relaxing to sit down and listen t after all the stress that the composition concert caused me.

Overall I really enjoyed this year's festival. In past years I never really took in as much as I did this year and now that I have I'm excited for next year's. Definitely something to look forward to.

robbie vs deadlines

Well it sure is crunch time now!

Just under three days until the performance and I'm frantically trying to finish writing my pieces plus learn a half dozen of them to perform. I decided to scrape the idea that I presented in class yesterday, however I'm keeping the idea of having the melody in the left hand/lower register. I'm going to use this idea for my first piece of the three, which will be quite short in length and lead tonally in to the piece I performed last week.

My third piece is based around a motive that I wrote last week some time. It begins in the same key that my second piece eludes to, then the piece changes colour in the middle and I've toyed with motive coming back in the major to finish it off.

I'm hoping to get all three pieces finished by tomorrow night because I think they would be more effective to be played together in the concert. If not I'm not sure which two would sound the best without the third. Then, of course, I have to figure out a name for them. I'm considering calling the pieces 'serenade of the blueberry fritter' in dedication to my friend at work that told me she would buy me a doughnut if I named a piece after her. That's all I've got really!

Man vs Wild then bed!

mmmmmm eating bugs

-Robbie

robbie vs facebook

I just set up a facebook group for this year's class. Anyone who was on my list I sent an invitation to and anyone who wasn't I can add at the cost of being my friend! This way we can let people know about the concert and any other events and then post some pictures and whatnot.

okay bye!