COMPOSITION STUDIES

I’ve been taking an online composition class called Pillars of Composition through Master the Score. I’ve really been enjoying it. It’s been a thrilling experience to get back to the basics of music writing. Specifically, the course covers melody, form, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. Here I’m posting my assignments so I can revisit them and reflect. All of this I’m doing with a mind toward writing full-on non-pop, non-musical-theater orchestral art music pieces, such as my first symphony, which I plan on tackling at the beginning of the year. I will post that work in the Albums section. For now, this is a place for reflection and works in progress.

ASSIGNMENT 1: FLOWERS FOR SARAH

Flowers for Sarah is a small suite of four miniatures for solo piano. I wrote it to fulfill my first composition assignment, which was to write four 8-bar pieces in sentence and period form. Two had to be in major keys and two in minor. You can have a listen, follow along with the score, and download it below.

Download the score.

ASSIGNMENT 2: TULIPS

Okay, so our next assignment was to take a piece above and write it in ABA form. I took No. 4 above and added a contrasting B section to it.

ASSIGNMENT 3: LOST ISLAND BASILICA

Next we had to write a piece in ABA form for three instruments of the same family. The piece had to be in one of the modes of the major scale. I chose the Phrygian mode and wrote this little piece for flute, Bb clarinet, and bassoon.

ASSIGNMENT 3 (REDUX): THE DISTINGUISHED DERRING-DO OF DAVE THE DEPOSED

I wasn’t so happy with my first piece for Assignment 3, and I wanted practice writing in all the modes, so I decided to write six more pieces. I put them all together into a little suite and made up a little story. Each chapter in the story is written in ABA form, for 3 instruments of the same family, and in a different mode. The order and instrument breakdown is:

Chapter 1 - dorian, brass: trumpet, French horn, trombone
Chapter 2 - lydian, woodwinds: flute, clarinet, bassoon
Chapter 3 - mixolydian, brass: French horn, trombone, tuba
Chapter 4 - phrygian, percussion: vibraphone, xylophone, marimba
Chapter 5 - aeolian, woodwinds: oboe, English horn, bassoon
Chapter 6 - lydian, strings: violin, viola, cello

ASSIGNMENT 4: INTROS, INTERLUDES, TRANSITIONS, CODAS

Our next assignment was to take the piece we wrote for Assignment 3 and add an introduction, an interlude, a transition section, and a coda to it. Since I wrote six flipping pieces, the assignment is taking me a long time. The nice thing is that tale of Dave the Deposed is really benefitting from being enriched with little intros, interludes, transitions, and endings. Here’s the finished assignment.

OCTOBER 2022 COMPOSING COMPETITION, PIECE 1

In October I submitted an orchestral composition to a contest run by Ryan Leach, a composer of film, video games, and TV, who has a fantastic and very informative YouTube channel about composition and orchestration. He’s the instructor of the online course I’ve been taking.

We were given the visual prompt below and assigned to write a 90-second piece for 30-piece orchestra. The first prize winner will get his or her (or their, or ziz, or zir…) piece performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestral. Holy Crap!

I submitted my piece today so I’m quite nervous. We’ll know who won in November. I’ll post about it then. Feel free to let me know what you think.

OCTOBER COMPOSING COMPETITION, PIECE 2

Multiple pieces were allowed for Ryan Leach’s composing competition, so I submitted another one. This time I went for something a bit darker.

I also used a typical ABA form. While Ichabod’s Homecoming was more episodic, with three themes (ABC) joined together by little transitions, this piece is in ABA form, with an introduction and little transitions linking the sections. Instead of changing key altogether, I set the sections in different modes. The first A section is E Harmonic minor, the B section is A dorian, and the final A section is C lydian. All of these are modes of G, so I hoped to achieve a gradual lightening effect, from the dark, minor tone of the Fugitive’s escape to the lighter, lydian flavor of his final apprehension and death. The instrumentation reflects this. The low brass in octaves together with the bassoon in its high register play the A theme in the first A section, and the first violins playing the same theme softly, way up high, accompanied by very light strings, some timpani, and a little triangle to add some sparkle.

Once again, here’s the prompt:

OCTOBER COMPOSING COMPETITION, PIECE 3

Admittedly, I went a little overboard. This is my third submission for the competition. While my previous submissions were episodic, this one is based on a single poem. I wanted to stick with the Halloween theme and use some little effects that I didn't get to use in previous submissions. But I also wanted to subvert the Halloween theme a little bit, and so, in the beginning you hear a mournful theme as the carriage from the photo prompt lopes along, with bats and wind and creepy crawlies slithering around in the background. Then when the body is buried, out come the clowns and the acrobats! Like the poem the piece is based on, instead of thinking of death as something scary, the piece invites the listener to think of death not as something to fear, but as a celebration of a life well-lived. Below you’ll find the photo prompt.

Just a quick word about the audio. The competition called for no fancy orchestral production, just a direct playback from the notation program of your choice. So, the music you’re hearing comes directly from the notation program Dorico, using BBC Symphony Orchestra plugins. It’s completely unproduced, except for a little bit of compression. It’s pretty amazing how it sounds, even though it isn’t perfect. Someday soon I’ll create some more produced versions of these pieces, but I think these are good enough for getting on with. I hope you enjoy The Burial.

ASSIGNMENT 5: VIDEO GAME LOOP

For one of our three final projects we had to write a background loop for a video game, real or imaginary. The piece could be scored for any combination of orchestral instruments, but it had to include many of the things we learned in the course: modal interchange, altered dominants, sentence and period structure, etc. Structurally, it had to be in AB form with a repeat sign so it loops endlessly.

My video game is, of course, pirate themed. The A section is in the aeolian mode (with some occasional sidesteps into dorian and phrygian), followed by a B section in a (sort of) C major (with some borrowed chords from C-minor). In the score you can see the chord changes, which is not typical, but I left them in for uploading to the course discord server. Also, the score is in concert pitch for easy reference. Enjoy “Weigh Anchor, Me Hearties!” from my fictional video game A Picaroon’s Tale.

FINAL PROJECT: MAIN TITLE

For our final project on the Pillars of Composition course, we had to write a main title theme song for a TV show or series. I chose to write the theme song to a Sci-Fi sort of show, modeled after Star Trek. So I used a sci-fi name generator and came up with the illustrious 2619: Babylon. Sounds like a show I’d want to watch! Thanks random name generator! Anyway, below you’ll find an mp3 and the score.

I’m very sad to be have completed this course. I learned a ton and I really enjoyed writing these little pieces. My journey is only beginning, however. I signed up for another class called Wizards and Witches, in which we get to learn to write “magic” themed music. I’m excited to get started on that course. Also, I’m doing a course called Secrets of Orchestration from a professor at Azerbaijan University! I’m super excited to finish that course as well. So, things are afoot! Enjoy 2619: Babylon! Engage!

COMPOSING COMPETITION RESULTS

Well, I didn’t make the cut. My three pieces didn’t even get honorable mention. I figured as much. I never win things like this. But here’s a screenshot of my name among the peanut gallery of non-winners. Big thanks anyway to Ryan Leach for sponsoring the competition. It was a great learning experience.

MAGIC!

Our next assignment was to write in the style of “magic.” We were given a bunch of theoretical and orchestration techniques and asked to create a 2- to 3- minute piece in the fantasy, magic genre. We even had to make a produced mockup of the piece. Below is my contribution. The score is non-transposing and all the chord changes are above the staff, which is useful for instruction, but unusual. I also left the section markers in the score. The first audio file is completely un-produced (except for compression) and comes directly from my notation program. The second is my mockup. Enjoy!