Music Composition Brief
COMPOSITION BRIEF I will compose a piece of music for my instrument keyboard My composition will be in a blues story. Blues, type of music was first developed during the late 19th century by African American performers, as a form the first recording of the blues was in 1895 George W. Johnson's recording of "laughing Song" which was the first song to be recorded, which all was after a civil war. 2 bar blues: The most common musical form of blues is the 12-bar blues. The term "12-bar" refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Nearly all blues music is played to a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to one beat. I will use some of the features/techniques studied in my 3 study pieces Sprightly: Bass part uses a Pedal Note, the same not is repeated with a melody over the top. Key -C major 4 beats in a bar Right hand part is syncopated, it accents notes that are not on the beat structure ='AA' Melody use a Bb to create a C chord ( C E G B B ) Bar 5-6 are the same as bar 1-4 but with shortened rhythms (diminutia) using the C blues scale C Eb F C G Bb C the bass line also uses notes Melody use 3rds, 2 notes are played together CE, FA, GBb Keyboard Techniques Staccato - bass notes are played short sharp Right hand had accents,
Composition of Musical
Coursework: composition of musical I have been given a task to compose a musical, with lyrics. My composition is for a musical. It has been written to fit to one of Shakespeare's, most famous sonnets. The basic story behind my composition is, a tale of two lovers, who cannot be together because of their roles in society, the musical is basically a modern version of Romeo and Juliet. I started my composition by finding the chords/ ground base. I started with the chords A, C, E, then moved on to the chords G, B, D and F, A, C. In the chord A, C, E I used a C sharp to offer a happier/brighter feel to the piece. This would have made the piece in to a major chord. I changed my original chord without the C sharp; because it did not offer the right feeling to the effect I was trying to put across. To begin my melody again I used what I had for the chords but played them separately, my idea was to stick with as many of the same notes as possible, so the music had a sweet blend or harmony all the way through. This basically meant that I had to use simple chord structures, and a basic melody. I have added a few sharp notes throughout the piece and one or two flat notes, this gave my piece a sweeter feel, and tied it more to the romantic feeling I was trying to get across, through the use of the lyrics in the sonnet. The romance in the piece offered my musical the effect I had
The Blues
Blues Blues is a genre of Afro-American folk music which originated from slaves working on plantations in the southern states of the USA. Blues music reflected the status of Black Americans after slavery was abolished; there were over 4 million Black people in the country, a power that could not be denied. The slaves developed field hollers in a "call and response" style which served as the basis of all blues music. Blues kept the "call and response" form of expression but it differed in that the "call" was not answered by another participant but by the singer themselves. Early instruments used in Blues include the guitar, banjo and harmonica, these usually accompanied a solo singer. Blues players developed new instrumental styles, using typical banjo picking styles on the guitar and combining both chords and single notes by picking the melody on the bass strings and brushing the higher strings. In the 1920s the slide style was introduced, this used a glass or metal tube on the fretting hand to produce a glissando like effect. The slide effect was also used on the banjo. Later when Blues became more popular and moved north singers were accompanied by jazz instruments like the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano and contrabass. With the increased popularity of blues and the variety of instruments that played in the blues orchestra some instrumental problems were encountered
Composition analysis
MYP Music Year 11 Extended Twentieth Century Snapshots Ms. Neil Medora Choi 11AM 3th January, 2009 Composition analysis This expressionistic composition piece was named as "A Káosz Szeru Szafari", meaning the chaotic safari. As seen from the first bar, it starts off with a subtle tone, only playing with the right hand and staccato, building up the tension, but only for one bar. It reflected on a portrait of a leopard, hidden among the tall grass, having its eyes on its prey among the herd of zebras. The accents emphasizes each step the leopard takes, very fast but careful. Using crescendo, it moves on to the second bar, the leopard leaps out from the grass, and with a sforzando to show that the leopard has started the race with its prey, and by bar three, on the left hand of this bar, it had a whole bar of semiquavers, so the rhythm reflected on the leopard was using full force as the whole bar was fortissimo. In my first draft for the composition, it used too many triads therefore the composition changed to more cluster chords. Using cluster chords not only fits the twentieth century but it also creates more tension throughout this fast and exciting chase of the two safari animals. Therefore, it tension builds up in bar 5 where the time signature changes and the bass part is accented cluster chords, and the composition had an ascending pattern which reflected the
Comment on How Schoenburg Uses the Following Music Elements in Peripetie from Five Orchestral Pieces
Rore Erica Okoh 10 Sharman Music GCSE Mrs Yard Comment on How Schoenburg Uses the Following Music Elements in Peripetie from Five Orchestral Pieces: . Structure 2. Texture 3. Instrumentation 4. Melody Five Orchestral Pieces is an atonal Expressionist piece. The piece Peripetie is the fourth movement. Peripetie means 'a sudden change of fortune'. The piece is atonal and often with Schoenberg his music is quite dissonant, uses 12 chromatic music notes, has a rondo structure, a wide range of dynamics so a lot of extremes almost like terrace dymanics, the range is from fff to ppp and so only virtuosic could play his music and there is a overly large woodwind section. The movement falls into five sections A B A C A which is a rondo form. The Five Orchestral Pieces containing the Peripetie is written for a very large orchestra using three flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, also a piccolo, cor anglais, clarinet in D, bass clarinet and contrabassoon. There are extra horns, trumpets, trombones and a tuba and also with percussion. Schoenburg was famous for writing pieces for instruments where they often play at the extreme of their registers. The piece first starts of in the key of C, but because the piece lacks a key it continuously changes throughout. In the first few seconds of the piece the woodwind play triplets whilst the brass does a glissando and the strings are
Describe the features of music in Electric Counterpoint
Electric Counterpoint . Electric Counterpoint was written in the 1980’s. 2. Electric Counterpoint was composed for Pat Metheny. 3. Electric Counterpoint is a diatonic piece of minimalistic music. Steve Reich wrote movement 3 of Electric Counterpoint for 8 guitars and 2 basses. It is called ‘Fast’. There are 9 pre-recorded parts and 1 live guitar. Electric counterpoint is written in 3/2. A rhythmic displacement occurs when the guitars come in. This is where a repeated ostinato begins on a different beat of the bar. The ostinato is heard continuously until the end of bar 73. At bar 82 all of the guitars shift to 12/8 apart from guitars 1-4. The effect of the guitars playing at the same time but in different rhythms produces an “interesting rhythmic counterpoint”. The sound of the two time signatures together undermines the metre. The bass guitars strengthen the triple metre. The melody of Electric Counterpoint is based on the ostinati. Reich builds the ostinato at the beginning of the movement by using note addition. This is where you build it up by adding notes in stages. This builds up a repeating idea. The resultant melody – a new melody that emerges when two or more different melodies are played at the same time- gives a new life to the ostinato. At bar 82 the bass guitars play a new ostinato. There are two basses, one which pans to the left and one that
Serialism and Minimalism
Area of Study 2 Changing directions in western classical music from 1900 Introduction * Since the Baroque period, harmony had been progressing and became more and more complex * In the late Romantic period, composers such as Wagner, Bruckner and Strauss used more chromatic notes and dissonant chords Impressionism * In France, composers such as Debussy were part of a new way of thinking called impressionism * This word first applied to a school of French painting * It's chief representative was Claude Monet * Impressionism tried to either give a glimpse/impression of something- not a concrete view * Impressionism didn't seek to express deeply felt emotions, but it evoked a mood/atmosphere * The tonality was not so defined and it did not have a definite 'key centre' Expressionism * Expressionism represented inner experience and was a rebellion against established order and accepted forms o Real objects in a distorted representation * Artists reflecting feelings about themselves and their surroundings * Artists (notably Kandinsky and Munch) created vivid pictures, distorting colour and shape to express their innermost emotions * In the same way, composers put intense emotional expression into their music * Expressionist music avoided cadence, repetition, sequence and balanced phrases * It had constantly changing textures, extremes of dynamics and used harmonic
The Orchestra
The Orchestra The orchestra began to be used more from the time of Haydn and Mozart (the classical era), who wrote a total of 150 symphonies. It grew larger as composers added more parts for new instruments, and eventually it became the large symphony orchestra of the present day. The orchestra is made up of four main families of instruments; strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion. The string family is made up of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. There are usually around fifteen first violins, fifteen second violins, twelve violas, ten cellos, and eight basses. In Mozart's time, sometimes only one or two were used. The woodwind family is made up of the flute, and instruments with a reed which are blown: clarinets, oboes, and bassoons. Usually there are at least two of each in the orchestra. There are other woodwind instruments, such as the double bassoon, the bass clarinet, the cor anglais (like an oboe, but with a curved reed and a lower and mellower tone) and the piccolo. In the classical orchestra of Mozart and Haydn, oboes, flutes, and bassoons were used a lot, but the other woodwind instruments were developed later. The clarinet appeared later still, at the beginning of the 18th century. It was not used much until Mozart realised its possibilities, and wrote his clarinet quintet and concerto. Brass instruments date back to beyond the Middle Ages, but
Music Composition Brief 2
Brief I will compose a minimalist piece (Area of Study 2) for two violins which will be performed at a school concert. This will be played during the interval and should demonstrate the abilities of the violin in a short amount of time through minimalist music. Compositional Process To start off with, I decided on the tempo of the piece. I chose to use Allegro at crotchet = 120bpm as the piece would feature short and simple loops and I felt that a reasonably fast tempo would be suitable, as the rhythm and the notes played were not too complicated. For the first section, only three notes are used in both violin parts for the first 8 bars: G and F in the first violin; and D in the second violin. The first violin played crotchets and the second violin played a semibreve tied over four bars. I decided to use a minimal range of notes for this section to keep everything simple to start of with. I decided to make the first violin play pizzicato as this thin texture contrasts with some of the later sections which are played arco. The next 4 bars consist of the first violin playing two sets of quaver loops: G, A, D and C; and F, G, A and B. I decided to use them with every second bar having the order of the loops reversed, (i.e.: GADC, FGAB, FGAB, GADC) as it would be more interesting than having the loops played continuously one after the other (i.e. GADC, FGAB, GADC, FGAB) whilst
Baroque Music
Manisha Chohan Baroque Music The Baroque period came from roughly from the 1600 – 1750. It came from Italy. Baroque music was orchestral music. Baroque music is characterised by the contrast between loud and soft music, and solo and ensemble music. Baroque music has a polyphonic texture. This means the music has many voices playing different things all at the same time. It can also take other textures such as monophonic which is a single melody with no accompaniment. Also there is a homophonic texture which is melody and accompanied, so this means there will be one voice and the rest would be backing. Baroque has also a characteristic of tonality which are replaced by major or minor scales. In baroque music imitation and motifs are used. Melodies often had a lot of ornamentation for example there would have been a lot of trills in the music. It also had the use of the harpsichord continuo. The 2 main dynamic levels were loud and soft; this was known as terraced dynamics. An orchestra has a large instrumental ensemble with sections of strings, brass, woodwind, and occasionally persuasion instruments. A baroque orchestra was sometimes directed from a harpsichord. The continuo was a part which was normally played by harpsichord or an organ. This would be filling in the harmonies and holding the whole ensemble place together. A harpsichord is a keyboard instrument where the
