Classical Composition Reflections
Week 9 Reflection
I will be writing for a saxophone quartet. Although saxophones are not traditionally chamber instruments Miss Bergersen has very kindly allowed me to do this. The specific instruments I will be writing my classical composition for will be: a soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and baritone saxophone.
The 3 compositional devices I would like to use are sequence, fragmentation, and treating the motif harmonically.
Week 10 Reflection
In the first four bars I decided that to introduce the motif I would keep it nice and simple. I accomplished this through the alto saxophone playing the melody and the tenor saxophone providing a simple harmonic accompaniment.
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Then, in the next four bars I have used fragmentation to develop the motif by using only the original rhythmic pattern and applying different pitches, keeping the motif recognisable by having a similar melodic contour. This is more obvious in the second two bars, when the melody passes from the soprano saxophone to the alto, as it descends. The tenor and baritone provide harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment to shape the tonality and create rhythmic interest.
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In bars eight to 12 I have developed the motif by treating it harmonically and using rhythmic augmentation. In these four bars only the first half of the motif is played as it is half the speed of the original. Through these four bars I have explored the harmonic capability of this motif. I have constructed chords that include the notes of the motif essentially hiding it within the chordal accompaniment. To make the motif's presence more noticeable I used dynamics, making it louder than the other parts.
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Everything is going really well so far and I am happy with my progress.
Holiday Reflection
During the holidays I finished my graphic plan, polished the parts I had already notated and did a rough notation of the last half of the composition.
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To polish, I added some dynamic variation and articulation. I also changed the harmonic accompaniment in some parts because it just felt a bit off.
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In bars 13 to 18 I used sequence, repeating the motif three times, gradually getting higher in pitch. I also treated it as an accompaniment figure as the soprano saxophone has ornamentation that kind of sounds like a new melody on top of the motif. Then in the following two bars it descends back to the original key. I'm not too happy with the way this sounds right now but I plan to fix it in the near future.
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Then in the last bar I use a combination of many techniques such as rhythmic augmentation, repetition of the original motif and ornamentation. The piece concludes with a c major chord which is a nice resolution after some dissonance earlier in the phrase.
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I am very happy with the progress I've made and I'm already enjoying how it sounds.
Week 1 Reflection
This week I finished my notation of the last half of my composition, adding in dynamics and articulation as well as a few minor tweaks to some harmonies. This made it sound more polished.
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This week I also showed my composition to Miss Bergerson and she said it was very good. She recommended one minor change in the second last bar to give the composition a little more harmonic interest and I totally agree, it sounds much better now and less empty.
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Other than that I think I'm done for now!
Week 2 Reflection
This week I began uploading all of my work to this site and finished my graphic plan. I had forgotten to add dynamics to it so I quickly wrote them in and then re-uploaded the pictures to my site.
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Overall I'm really happy with the way the composition turned out and I really enjoyed the development of this motif. At first I was daunted by the restrictions around the number of bars but it actually streamlined the process by giving me some clear direction.
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It was also great to learn how to use Flight, the composition creation software we used, as it may come in handy for other assignments. Overall this was really fun.