Group 2

Here's what I've got for the first week.  It's not much, just a few measures, but the beginning of an idea that I think can grow into something more substantial.

I knew I wanted to do something constraint-based, so I started with just thinking for a couple days of what constraint(s) that might be.  I tried to tell myself that anything was on the table, good ideas or bad, so some that I came up with were:

- Continue to use the same rhythmic pattern throughout 100% of the piece, passing it between the right and left hand.

- Use only eighth notes.

- Use no rests.

- Never play two adjacent notes one after the other.

I hated all of those, haha.

I was starting to get stuck just figuring out how to start.  Then I told myself, the point is, this is a way to get me to start writing, and nothing is set in stone.  So with that in mind, I told myself I HAD to use the next idea that came to mind.

So, I'm trying a piece where the A above middle C is played in quarter notes constantly, with no breaks whatsoever.  :O

Like I said, I'm only a handful of measures in, but surprisingly, I kinda like what I have so far.  I'm already quite certain I'm going to break the rule (see my last couple measures), but that's ok.  It got me to start writing.  And now, I think even if I don't use that specific note throughout, I may try to write the whole piece with that same type of heart beat going the whole way.  We'll see.  :)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ibk42esnuivh9gp3jzbh4/First-Idea.mp3?rlkey=zattvb7fti90f8vfwcpkjwgti&dl=0

This second lecture is really informative and useful. Thank you!

Hi. I have no experience in composing music, but sometimes I like to play the piano and start just playing whatever I feel like. I’m interested in this intensive because I would like to take this ideas further and develop short compositions. 
I selected melody variations. I started with few notes and the first chords, and the rest just happened. 

Assignment 1

(I’m getting this out much later than intended due to some scheduling surprises, but am hoping to be able to catch up this week.)

I’ve chosen “Musical Storytelling” for this assignment. I’m currently reading Moby Dick (along with a reading group), and was struck by one chapter in particular that seems ripe for a musical retelling: Chapter 35, The Mast-Head.

The structure of the piece will comprise 7 sections, each described below with accompanying excerpts from the chapter (and one other chapter the very briefly echos the same imagery).

At the bottom, I've include the few ideas I've actually notated so far.

(I’m hoping this is not too ambitious; I have intended so far to follow a strategy of breadth and completeness and hopefully avoiding overly refining at the expense of having a complete piece. But may have to focus on a smaller set of sections, in which case I might cut sections 4 through 6.)

1 - Exposition

There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep [...] There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves.

The main theme is introduced here, evoking a vast, serene scene of sea, sun, and waves. (A separate motif evoking sun glinting on waves will recur in other sections.)

2 - Berceuse

The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor. [...] The waves, too, nodded their indolent crests; and across the wide trance of the sea, east nodded to west, and the sun over all. [...] [T]o and fro I idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could withstand it; in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness.

The theme is developed here in the manner of a berceuse, reflecting the “serenity of those seductive seas” and being in a meditative state or reverie.

Here, the music will focus on swaying, rocking; there may be a rhythmic alternating of tonic and dominant.

3 - Nocturne

With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I–being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude–how could I but lightly hold my obligations

The meditative state evolves to a greater extreme, where the external scene fades from awareness to be replaced by a meditative state.

This is reflected by the main theme seeming to fade--though remaining present in some form--and being replaced by a countertheme, which could simply be the main theme inverted. The harmonies will be distractingly distinct from what came before.

4 - Transcendence

...lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie [...] by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature;[...] In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; [...] There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. [...] [A]t last my soul went out of my body; though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will, long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn.

To indicate this loss of identity here, the theme and countertheme blend into something ambiguous, while still echoing the swaying and rocking of the berceuse. In the bass, the chiming of a clock starts to become apparent; it becomes more prominent in a later section.

5 - Watershed

...every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, uprising fin of some undiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it.

This is more of a subsection of the above rather than a distinct section on its own and marks a turning point.

Here, a tie (back) to reality is hinted at via the “flitting” thoughts conflated with a sudden “uprising fin”; this forms a transition to the next section (where “identity comes back”). 

The motif introduced in the Exposition (sun glinting on waves) return here to illustrate the "flitting."

6 - Dégringolade

But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch; slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at mid-day, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!

This is essentially the climax of the piece. Here, the swaying mast-head seems to become swinging bells in a belfry, heard as a simple ringing round (in a descending scale). The steady chiming of a clock (or death knell?) introduced earlier returns and seems to grow from beneath, imparting a sense of inevitability. The bells collectively descend in tone and the harmonies and texture reflect a sense of growing terror with variations of the earlier glinting/flitting motif.

7 - Rearrival

Here, we return to the scene of the exposition; the main theme is recapitulated to close the piece, almost as if the intervening hadn’t occurred. (The transition from the prior section may be somewhat sudden. This represents a return to reality, as the reverie and state of intense meditation disappears at the very practical concern of falling from the mast-head comes as a jolt to the fore.)

The first image quotes the main theme, and then shows a proposed elaboration on it, likely for the Exposition.

The second shows an elaboration on the them potentially for the Berceuse. This would likely come at the end during a transition to the next section, as it is a bit busy, noisy and less placid than I'd want.

Assignment 2

Hello, for this assignment I wrote the second half of the minuet that I started in the first assignment. I used constraints, mostly using the Petzold Minuet in G Major as a template. I tried to follow the modulation used in Petzold's minuet, while using different melodic development. I have never written in the "classical" style before and I really enjoyed doing this. I think I would like to try writing a few more minuets. Attached is the PDF & MP3. Thank you so much for the great presentations.

Thank you so much for these thoughtful suggestions. I do see that I added measures! I am working on cleaning that up.

I am sorry, I do not know what "2-2-4 subdivision of the measure" is. I am trying to find more information on this, but I cannot seem to figure it out. Is that two, two measure phrases and a four measure phrase? Thank you for explaining. 

I will try to do something less clumsy with that M. 22. You are right, I was following the Petzold too closely!  

Thank you so much for this thorough response. I can already hear an improvement having removed the m. 16-17.