Friday, February 27, 2009

Final Project

Hard to believe, but there are only 5 weeks and 3 days of classes left in the semester (starting Monday). Our plan had been to spend about 5 weeks on the first project and 7 weeks on the second, but we must now adjust that plan somewhat to factor in the extra time we spent on the first project, the time it has taken to prepare for performances of this project, and the delays we experienced due to weather-related cancellations.

Here is the situation: I had originally proposed writing a piece for wind band as the second project, about 5 minutes in length, but last week I said you could write for a chamber ensemble of your choice (but run the idea by me first, please) instead, or write for string orchestra, or even a small symphony orchestra. While writing for concert band is still a great idea, it is a very ambitious undertaking, and you need to be practical and ask yourself what the likelihood of completing it will be, considering that we are approaching student recital and jury season, end of term projects, exams, etc.

If you still want to compose for band, however, I will support your decision and help you in whatever way I can. Here are some suggestions for how to approach writing a band piece, but they can also be used if composing for any other type of ensemble:

  1. Compose using "short score" format. Essentially, this means writing something that looks like it could be piano music (i.e., written on treble and bass clefs), or possibly 3-5 staves per system, possibly assigning different staves to different groups within the band. This gives you better control of the composing process. It's much easier to get a sense of the form and create longer lines when you can see more of your music on a single page (such as 4-5 systems of music on one page), as opposed to one humungous system per page.

  2. Write annotations on on your short score that indicate the instruments you think should play particular sections or lines of music. For example, you could write "clarinets and flutes in octaves" over a line, or "brass" over a chorale-like chord progression.

  3. I've had teachers insist that it is best to begin 'orchestrating' ('bandating?'  'banding?' 'bandifying?') your score after you have completed the previous two steps, but there is no rule about this; there are advantages to orchestrating as you go as well (i.e., composing a few pages in short score, then arranging them for band, then continuing the short score version for a few more pages, then orchestrating, etc.).

  4. Don't overscore. There is nothing wrong with having sections of your band piece with rests in the majority of the instruments.  Overscoring — writing a dense and confused score — is a mark of an inexperienced/insecure orchestrator, so try to be bold and consider including at least some thinly-scored sections, so that tutti textures will have greater impact when they occur.  On the other hand, thinly scored band music can sound less effective than we had imagined because it is more challenging to play; weaknesses within sections are more exposed, something that is a consideration when the performers are at an intermediate, amateur level. 

  5. Since you have a fairly wide variety of instruments at your disposal, consider using colour, texture, or density as organizing principles.

  6. Remember that most music fits into foreground-background roles (prominent-supportive), or foreground-middleground-background roles. Work hard at not confusing the listener as to what they are meant to be hearing most prominently.

  7. Are there some techniques or styles you've heard (or heard of) that you'd like to try? Minimalism, world music, fusion, klangfarbenmelodie, etc.? Sometimes a good way to begin is just to pick something you're excited by and then try writing a composition that uses some elements of that style or technique.

10 comments:

Jenn Vail said...

I don't know if you receieved my e-mail or not, but what are the chances I can write for SATB (2 singers on each part) and a brass quintet?

I'd like to write a "Crucifixus".
What are your thoughts?

Kim Codner said...

I'm gonna go for concert band. I have a cool rhythmic groove set by the percussion so far. It kind of sounds like jungle music (which wasnt the intention... haha but still sounds cool)

I've played in concert bands alot before but haven't written for any so I'm ready for the challenge!

Concert was great last night!

Jill A. said...

I'm definitely going to try concert band! I know it will be a challenge, but I am really looking forward to seeing what I can come up with.

Kate Bevan-Baker said...

hmm, I like the technique idea. Maybe I should pick one or a few and try to incorporate them into my piece. Perhaps something like world music would be neat! I'd like to try things that aren't usually done with string instruments and see what I can come up with. I'd love to use more extended techniques, like using our instruments more percussively. This blog post has really inspired me and got me thinking about some good ideas!

Jon Rowsell said...

Although writting for concert band seems like it would be a good experience, I think I'm gonna stick with brass chor because of the time constraints. I also think that the idea of a constantly changing color would work very nicely with the material I have. Especially since brass are capable of so many subtle color changes as an insturment family. :)

Unknown said...

I am doing a piece for concert band! I think it is easiest to write a short score and orchestrate as you go. That is what I am doing and it is going well. I play in bands and really like some of the colors that are possible with the ensemble.

Unknown said...

I agree with saird. Writing in short score does wonders for the concert band composer. So far I've been writing my parts in 4 or 5 staves. I find it works wonders when coming to orchestrating later. Also one thing I found helpful for tone colour is to have a brass stave, a woodwind stave a sax stave, etc. That way when one has an idea of the sound they would like then can put it in the respective area.

Bert Power said...

I intend on tackling a wind band piece for the Gower Competition (the deadline has been extended to the end of this month) and I will be using the advice laid out here to make the best use of the limited time remaining in the month. I want to try the short score method for the actual composing of the piece, hopefully making it easier for me to explode things out into their sections and experiment with different instrumentations/voicings without needing to completely redo every line. I want to play extensively with subgroups within the ensemble, and may do some cutaway work similar to the way Lutoslawski introduces the winds in Livre Pour Orchestre at about 4’ in. This is an interesting and exciting moment in the piece for me (in no small part due to the use of time scale writing at work there), and the interjections from various small choirs will be ideal for starting my piece by short score (I hope).

Bert Power said...

A link to the Lutoslawski for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Gz8MlATYY&t=2s

Andrew Luther said...

Last April I wrote a piece for wind band for the Gower band competition, and it was a really great yet difficult experience. Writing for a large ensemble is a lot more tedious than writing for a chamber group, because you have to think about the technical abilities of so many instruments at the same time. Though it isn’t what I did, I can see that there would definitely be an advantage to writing our your ideas on multiple piano staves and then doing all the orchestrating afterwards. I find sometimes it is really useful to keep the creative and technical processes of composing separate, and I can see that this would be a very effective way of doing that.
When I wrote my wind band piece however, I enjoyed just writing everything in the instruments, orchestrating as I went along. There were several reasons why I found this method of working to be effective for this composition. Composing this way, it was easy to be inspired by hearing what things sounded like on different instruments as I was creating motives. I found myself associating certain motivic/programmatic ideas with certain instruments which was easier to think about if I orchestrated the piece as I composed it. I also found that there ended up being a lot of work at the end of the piece to make the score look nice (adjusting spacing and dynamics, etc) and it would have been a lot more tiresome to have to add in the process of orchestration to the end of the process as well. I generally try to do as much as I go as possible, because it can be demotivating to have to do a ton of tedious technical work all at once as the end of a composition. By mixing these technical processes in with the creative process, it kept things from becoming tiresome for me.