My candidate number: . My centre number:
Toby MacDonald. Software: MuseScore2.
- Personal Goal 1: Develop my understanding of the relationships between instruments in various ensembles by experimenting with a variety of instruments.
- Personal Goal 2: Improve my ability to use the more advanced features of my choice notation program through consistent practice .
- Personal Goal 3: Broaden my compositional abilities by experimenting with different styles and genres, including exploration into the use of lyrics .
Current Skills:
- Skill 1: I have a good understanding of compositional styles .
- Skill 2: I am experienced in the realm of Musical Theatre, meaning that I have an understanding of how vocals and instrumentation can be used to create dramatic effect .
- Skill 3: I have several years of experience working with notation software, and have developed a good understanding of how these pieces of software operate .
I will know if I have achieved my goals because I will listen back to my compositions as a form of reflection. I will also ask audience members questions relating to my goals that are designed to work out if they think I met them. This will allow me to gain an outside perspective that was not involved in any way in the development of my pieces.
The audience I am playing my compositions to is the A&R department of a local record label. Their expectations will be that my music incorporates well-known themes and ideas whilst also bringing my own personal twist to those ideas .I will meet their expectations by taking inspiration from various 20th and 21st century composers, therefore displaying a modern style and format within my compositions. As my style leans heavily towards classical music, they will likely be expecting longer than average developed pieces.
I will compose my music in the classic style, but also drawing influence from popular modern composers. This is because A&R departments are looking for artists that will impress and attract modern audiences, and so a level of modernism is required in order meet what they are looking for in new musicians.
My main idea for composition is to tell a story using my compositional skills. I intend to create a fifteen minute long interpretive story using various techniques used in the musical theatre genre in order to portray the beginning, climax, and resolution of a story. I also intend to title my pieces to aid in this storytelling, for example titling a piece "The Approach" automatically brings a feeling of tension into the mind of the audience.
The brief asks that I compose fifteen minutes of music to be performed to the A&R department of a record label. This means that my composition standard must be the best that it can be, as well as presenting a range of different abilities related to composition, therefore showing off my flexibility as a composer.
In addition to the composition I will also need to involve a concert crew to manage the running of the performance. This is essential, as during a performance there is a great deal of background management that goes on behind the scenes, and this is managed by the concert crew.
In composition the main piece of equipment I will need is a keyboard. Apart from this, I will be using my notation software of choice (MuseScore2) as well as suitable headphones. I will not need more than a minimum amount of space required to effectively access both of those main pieces of equipment.
I would need various leads, cables, as well as things such as microphones and a performance desk.
I would need various leads, cables, as well as things such as microphones and a performance desk.
I will need to spend 20 hours at school preparing, performing and evaluating the event.
The vast majority of my time will be spent composing, as my method of composition takes more time than other methods, such as using software such as GarageBand or Logic. After every session of composition I will also spend some time evaluating what I have been able to complete on my blog.
Health & Safety:
1. Risk of eye damage from a computer.
Risk Assessment: Ensure regular breaks and limit the amount of time I spend in front of a computer to thirty minute periods with rests in between.
1. Risk of eye damage from a computer.
Risk Assessment: Ensure regular breaks and limit the amount of time I spend in front of a computer to thirty minute periods with rests in between.
2. Tripping over wires and cables in my workspace.
Risk Assessment: Make sure that I manage any cables I'm using well, making sure that none of them are at tripwire level.
Risk Assessment: Make sure that I manage any cables I'm using well, making sure that none of them are at tripwire level.
3. Ear damage due to volume.
Risk Assessment: Regulate the level of volume I'm exposed to, to a level that is safe to hear.
Risk Assessment: Regulate the level of volume I'm exposed to, to a level that is safe to hear.
4. Risk to an audience of tripping over wires during a performance.
Risk Assessment: Keep any wires/cables out of the way of the audience to minimize the trip hazard
Risk Assessment: Keep any wires/cables out of the way of the audience to minimize the trip hazard
- Composition 1: Style: Piano Solo Song title: The Approach, 2:14 .
- Composition 2: Style: String Quartet Song title: Hope, 7:02 .
- Composition 3: Style: Violin Solo Song title: Songbird, 2:17.
- Composition 4: Style: Classical Orchestra Song title: Hope Returns, 3:28 .
Total Length: 15:01
I have chosen to write these songs in this order as it allows me to convey a story to the audience. I have ordered them in a way that allows an audience to interpret a storyline. I wrote "Approach" as a way to intrigue the audience, ending it with a repeating scale pattern to draw interest and tension from the audience. "Hope" is designed to play with the audience's feelings, it rises to a crescendo of joyfullness before slowly descending into a darker mood, then finally giving a small shadow of the joyful feeling there was before.
Diary
Week 19 Thursday 18th January 2018
Today I began work on the composition named "Hope". I began by using a theme I had previously noted down in my "bank of themes", and constructed a chord sequence and melody in the key of A Minor. I also decided to move it away from my original intention, a piano piece, and instead write it for a string quartet. At the moment I feel as though I am on good track to meet the brief as what I have so far is to a standard that I am more than happy with.
Week 20 Thursday 25th January 2018
Today I continued working on "Hope", this time working on adding dynamics and certain articulation in the section that I completed last week. I also extended the end of my piece along with a transition into a second section in order to bring a new feeling to the piece. I think that the main thing that needs work in this piece is my use of rhythmic variety, as at the moment there is very little. At the moment the entire piece consists of minims and "transitional crotchets"with very little deviation from this pattern. This concern was met by the feedback of one of my peers, who commented something very much along the lines of the above. Next week I plan to begin work on another compostion, as well as fix my lack of rhythmic variety in "Hope".
Week 21 Thursday 1st February 2018
Week 21 Thursday 1st February 2018
Today I started out by replacing the second violin's line between bar 81 and bar 88 with a decscending scale of quatrets. I feel I was successful in my objective from last week as not only was I able to add the rhythmic variety that my piece previously lacked, the newfound variation emphasises the uplifting effect that I was trying to produce when originally composing that section.
I then moved on to another composition, which I decided to base around the idea of a songbird. I chose this idea as it would provide a good sequel to the incredibly dense "Hope", and to follow that idea up I only included a single violin. In order to follow the idea of a songbird's song, I intentionally made it repetitive. It's also designed to be calmer than it's predecessor, and my intention with this is that it will act as a bit of breathing space for the audience, as well as showcasing my ability to compose in a diverse range of styles.
In order to better introduce my intention to give the audience an opportunity to interpret a story from my portfolio, I think that my next objective is to compose an introduction.
I then moved on to another composition, which I decided to base around the idea of a songbird. I chose this idea as it would provide a good sequel to the incredibly dense "Hope", and to follow that idea up I only included a single violin. In order to follow the idea of a songbird's song, I intentionally made it repetitive. It's also designed to be calmer than it's predecessor, and my intention with this is that it will act as a bit of breathing space for the audience, as well as showcasing my ability to compose in a diverse range of styles.
In order to better introduce my intention to give the audience an opportunity to interpret a story from my portfolio, I think that my next objective is to compose an introduction.
Week 22 Thursday 8th February 2018
Today I created a short introduction to my portfolio. I decided to write it for a solo piano, as bringing in too much complexity in an introductory piece risks removing the effect of the more complex and dense pieces in a repertoire. I was able to keep this piece relatively simple, beginning with a series of long modulating chords followed by a very large middle section where I use constant semi-quavers to simulate a fast pace. This piece was very easy to compose.
Week 24 Thursday 22nd February 2018
Today I focused on creating a follow-up to "Songbird", and also a conclusion to the interpretive storyline. I decided that, much like "The Approach", I didn't want this to be an overly complicated and dense piece. That was the job of "Hope", my intention here was to create something to conclude my repertoire. Also like "The Approach", I made it rather repetitive, however the difference is that this piece is heavily based around a canonic structure. I feel that this piece has met the brief because it once again presents my ability to compose in different styles, which was one of my main objectives before beginning my compositions. Next week I think my main focus should be refining my approach to this canonistic style and adding more variation to the peice, simply to make it more interesting for an audience.
Week 25 Thursday 1st March 2018
This week I began by reworking the middle section of the newly named "Hope Returns", the final piece in my portfolio. The main problem that I noticed last week with this piece was the general lack of variation, and so today I added a bridge between bars twenty-five and fourty-four. Although this did draw from a recurring theme from earlier on in the score this bridge adds a change of character to the piece, and this along with a small xylophone solo is designed to be reminicent of the emotions conveyed during "Hope", hence the title "Hope Returns". Next week I plan to revisit "Hope", primarily to rework the ending in order to conclude and almost evaluate the ideas portrayed earlier on.
Week 25 Thursday 08/03/18 Dress Rehearsal of Demo Showcase
I started today by removing the original ending that I had for "Hope", as I felt as though it did not fit with how the rest of the peice had set itself up to finish. "Hope" is designed to be a wavy line of emotions, diving in and out of uplifting and low feelings, and I wanted the ending to almost summarise those feelings. Therefore, added a reprise/summary of the first section at the end of the first section. At first the transition was very jarring and this transition went through a number of different iterations, until I overlaped the beginning of the reprise with the ending of the second section (Bar 131-134). This combined with a further reprise of the climax of the first section (Bar 148-146) delivered the exact effect that I was originally looking for. To finish it off, I added a slightly modified reprise of bar 124-130, and this absolutely finalised my intended "emotional evaluation". In my final week of work next week I plan to finish off the finer articulations and dynamics, specifically for "Hope" as I feel that has the most potential when fitted with these precautions.
Week 26 Wednesday 14/03/18 Final Demo Showcase
As I said last week, I spent today adjusting the articulation in all of my pieces, however focusing on "Hope". The main addition was the use of crescendos and dimminuendos in areas where I feel that they add a good effect to the piece as well as contributing to my goals relating to this score. The whole idea of this repetoire is to give the audience an opportunity to interpret a story from the music, and I feel like the use of articulation is essential to this vision.
My Compositions
Strengths Reflection:
The purpose of "The Approach" was to serve as an introduction to the rest of the repertoire, and I feel that I was able to achieve that well. As I've never written a piece in the same style, I was very happy by the outcome, especially how I was able to effectively modulate without it seeming too jarring, which is something that I have struggled with in the past.
In "Hope" my objective was to create a dense and complex piece that formed the climax of my repertoire. My main success in this piece was my ability to keep the structure going without it seeming too repeitive. In the past I have produced a series of very short compositions that I was unable to find a way of getting past the two minute mark, however while putting "Hope" together I found that I was able to find many different ways to carry the piece to the next idea.
My second success in "Hope" was my integration of the melody into the chord structure. In many ways the chord structure was the melody, and once I had that in place there was very little change needed to set up an effective tune as the vast majority of it was already there.
My second success in "Hope" was my integration of the melody into the chord structure. In many ways the chord structure was the melody, and once I had that in place there was very little change needed to set up an effective tune as the vast majority of it was already there.
"Songbird" is unlike many compositions I have worked on before as it contains only a single voice, that being a violin. I think that this piece more than any of the others showcases my ability to write effective melodies that work without a backing ensemble, which in the past I have very often relied heavily on.
"Hope Returns" allowed me to develop a skill that I have previously lacked, that being formulating a conclusion. In this piece I had to do this in a big way, as I wanted it to be the conclusion of the repertoire as a whole. I feel as though I did this well, as I was able to draw ideas from how I planned out "The Approach". I've found that composing a conclusion is very similar to composing an introduction.
Improvements:
Improvement #1: Instrument range
Strategy: My strategy for improving in this area is to practice with different ensembles and solo instruments. I feel as though at the present time the range of instruments that I can confidently compose for is very limited, and this in turn limits my ability as a composer.
Improvement #2: Rhythmic variation
Strategy: My strategy for improving on this weakness will be to listen to a variety of famous composers and take note of how they integrate rhythmic variation into their pieces. At the moment my pieces feel very static, and so a certain degree of interest is lost by the audience.
Improvement #3: Knowledge of specific instrument needs
Strategy: Although I am aware of how to manipulate the sound of the instruments I compose for, I lack the knowledge of any specific needs they may have. For example, I couldn't confidently tell you the pitch range of a viola. My improvement strategy for this will be to research each instrument that I commonly use in my compositions, and hopefully through that I will develop a greater understanding of how to make quality of life improvements in my pieces for these specific instruments.
Feedback from others:
The general feedback that I received from my peers was that my compositions do convey the emotions that I had intended to include, however they also noted a number of areas for improvement. The main criticism was my use of a flute in "Hope". My response to this is that I did not add the flute as a method of adding to the harmonies within the piece, but more as a way of enhancing the texture.
Another thing that consistently came up in feedback was my lack of rhythmic varitation. The consistency of this caused me to include it in my improvement evaluation as I too agree that I sometimes lack the ability to move away from the rhythm that I had originally created for a piece.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I am fully of the belief that my compositions suit the brief. This is because I feel that they show off my range of skills as a composer, including the ability to write for ensembles as well as soloists and my ability to construct melodies and chord structures that convey meaning and emotion to an audience. I therefore believe that my compositions are suited to being presented to an A&R department.
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