The Warebrook Institute for the Advancement of Modern Music 2010

The Warebrook Institute for the Advancement of Modern Music
2010 notes:

String Writing (Darry Dolezai & Susan Jenson)
BOWING & EXTENDED TECHNIQUES: Violin, Viola, Cello

• Double Stops - fast repeated dblstops are difficult - 5th high on fingerboard on violin are BAD, but 6ths are great anywhere - 5th on cello are good anywhere
• key - often there is a key at the beginning of a piece to tell the performer what the composer wants, similar to a percussion key
• legato - more sustained
• detache - less sustained ("separate bow movement")
• marcato - accented but with bow staying on string
• spicato - bouncing bow (fast 16ths will be spicato unless marked otherwise)
• staccato - spaces on end of notes, bow stays on string
• jete - dropping the bow on to the string 3x, like a ricochet, in same direction - can be measured or unmeasured - something like three 16ths with staccato marking but tied....?
• colegno battuta - hit with the wood of the bow
• straight colegno - bow with the wood of the bow (!)
• mute - does not quiet the instrument much, more makes the tone "mellower" (?)
• loure - wild vibrato
• portato - pulsating slightly, separate notes - like 8th notes marked tenuto and tied
• ponticello - play on bridge - lack of real notes
• portamento - actual slide
• gliss - actual notes during a slide (cellist demonstrated a gliss as sort of wiggle his finger on the way down)
• pizzicato - generally done with one finger
• snap pizzicato - written as a circle with a stem above a note - i don't recall what this was, though
• harmonics - these made perfect sense when they explained it but now are a bit confusing. It seems that a note written with a regular head and a diamond-shaped head a fourth higher would sound the regular-head two octaves higher
• "whip" bowing- for example, 1/2 note tied to 1/4 note with a dramatic crescendo
• microtonal music - 1/4tones are "easy"
• Website with some of these bowings listed & explained: http://cnx.org/content/m13316/latest/

Woodwind Writing (Sarah Brady & Mark Margolies)
EXTENDED TECHNIQUES: Flute

• Robert Dick's book is an excellent resource for modern flute-writing (Ian Clark also)
  Tone Development Through Extended Techniques
  Modern Guide to Fingerings for the Flute
  
• 16ths at 168bpm ok
• fluttertonguing works with short AND long notes
• harmonics- play lowest note and overblow to get the various harmonics
• key clicks- use low octave keys - very quiet
  
• multiphonics- difficult to play - need space before and after playing them
• singing a different note is really pretty easy
• pitch bends - small only/ 2nds are pretty safe
• microtones - there are fingerings for them (quartertones I believe)
• Tongue-stops - mouth covers the hole completely, and the tongue slaps the tone hole percussively - write this like percussion, but use a key - must have space before & after
• Jet whistle - ?
  
• Air sounds - I believe this is when the flutists blows through the flute without making a tone - very soft sound - great with string harmonics
• Timbral trills - ?
  

EXTENDED TECHNIQUES: Clarinet

• Clarinetists generally prefer to not play higher than their highest G
• 16ths at 120bpm are usually ok, 140bpm for short periods - easier lower
• bends up or down a 4th or 5th
• key clicks can be notated - use a key at the beginning of the piece
• vibrato - type should be notated
• multiphonics - better with soft dynamics - write the fingerings RIGHT IN THE MUSIC
• Eb clarinet written the same as the Bb, but has different tone (hard to describe)
• Bass Clarinet - key clicks are great, slap tongue, growl, fluttertongue, sing a different tone
• Saxes - limited range compared to clarinets

Private Composition Coaching (Allen Anderson)
with input from the strings, clarinetist, guitarist, and conductor (Paul Brust)
Scene Change

• Courtesy accidentals should definitely be added. Remember, even when musicians are ridiculously good they still need that sort of thing to sight-read.
• Very high clarinet & 1st violin playing in unison was very difficult to play and didn't sound as good as when they were harmonized or in counterpoint.
• When articulations are repeated a lot and then change, it needs to be noted (for example, 4m of qtr notes staccatto, then something else, then more qtr notes- if I don't want them to be staccatto it better be marked.)
• Beaming is very important- is it 4+3 or 3+4 or 2+2+3 or 5+2.....?
• Different sections become more interesting with shifts in timbre or register
• Remember to put in measure numbers
  

BASICALLY, the parts need to be viewed one by one, through the performers eyes. Leave

nothing to assumption.

2nd Movement / Piece for Guitar & String Quartet

• Find a little something in the 1st movement that's good but not really important
• Keep a "scratch pad" to use for each piece. As I work on them, write down interesting chords (and scales) that would be good to work into the piece.
• When working on the melody, sing the part
• Composing w/o and instrument assures that I won't play stuff with which I'm already comfortable or have already played.
• It's still good to have instruments nearby, though, to assure that it's playable (esp guitar)

My pieces: http://ff.im/nLE31


OTHER Music to listen to:

• Warnen Quartet
• other woodwind quintets
  

2009 notes: http://mrprue.blogspot.com/2009/07/composition-notes.html