COMPOSITION NOTES

Last week I attended part of the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival - it was truly inspiring, and in just a few hours I learned many things, and was reminded of some things I'd forgotten.

Paul Brust was the composer/conductor working with me. My original music sounded great, BUT....

• it was almost all diatonic - using more tones would add SO much flavor (tension is good)
  
• repeats should never be exact - if it repeats, then something needs to change
  
  • dynamics, rhythms, pitches, move the melody to another instrument, etc.
• phrases - one way to help make longer phrases is to avoid the tonic
• the melody should move around to different instruments, and can be harmonized differently
• if there's a solo in a part later, make sure someone else gets the melody part earlier - this will create more variety

When we had a group lesson, we got more general advice on composing:

• set aside time to write every day
  
• keep a different folder for each piece of music
• write every idea down on paper, with very specific notes
  
  • articulations, dynamics, phrasing, etc.
• sketch out the entire piece -
  
  • how long will it be? 8 minutes?
    
  • what type of piece - melodic? spacey? virtuosic? melancholy?
    
  • first 3 min: loud; next 2 min: soft; last 3 min loud again
    
• when working on a piece, go through the whole thing objectively every time you start - some things may need changing
• motivic development (I remembered this from college, but have gotten away from it)
  
  • a motif can be any set of notes to be developed
  • development can be:
    
    • fragment
    • inversion
    • reversal
    • etc
• Andrew List had great inspirational advice about composition
  
  • he said it took 40 years before he was really writing pieces he felt were successful
  • if you write a piece for a specific group, they should agree to at least 3 or 4 performances of it
  • he finds many groups to write for on MySpace
  • we heard Sonatine for Bassoon Qtet, Halcyon Quintet, and Noa Noa: A Gauguin Tableau

These guys were so positive and inspiring. I worked on music today. So much of what they told me makes me realize that I need to take my time, be persistent, and keep writing. I don't have to be the performer, so the music doesn't have to be playable by me. The musicians who played this stuff could play anything I can write. They were really incredible.

Here are the two pieces: