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.

Composition Class Concert - 7 PM, 27 February, 2009, P-C Hall.

Today's blog is about the upcoming concert - programme order, performers list, and dress rehearsal order (please provide any missing details in the comments area below).

Programme Order

Jon Rowsell — Brass Quintet #2
Jennifer Murphy, trumpet; Heidi Adams, trumpet; Jill Abbott, horn; Philip Holloway, trombone; Jon Rowsell, tuba

Jill Abbott — The Whirlpool (after Jane Urquhart)
Jennifer Murphy, trumpet; Heidi Adams, trumpet; Jill Abbott, horn; Philip Holloway, trombone; Jon Rowsell, tuba

Kim Codner — Quartet for Changing Time
Kim Codner, flute; Melissa Williams, clarinet; Kalen Thomson, violin; Ian Baird, piano

Simon Mackie — for the girl who got away
Katie Noseworthy, clarinet; Jennifer Emberley, english horn; Megan Buffett, viola; Josh White, double bass; Simon Mackie, piano

Jennifer Vail — Of Pearls and Stars (Heinrich Heine)
Erin Milley, soprano; Stephen Ivany, tenor; Kate Bevan-Baker, violin; Saird Larocque, cello; Ian Baird, piano

Michael Bramble — The Looking Glass
Heidi Adams, trumpet; Scott Latham, marimba; Kate Bevan-Baker, violin; Michael Bramble, synthesizer; Dylan Varner-Hartley, piano

Intermission

Meg Warren — Womanizer? (after Britney)
Meg Warren, soprano; Richard Klaas, Marimba; Scott Latham, percussion; Ian Baird, piano

Jessica Blennis — subconscious
Mitchell Hamilton, flute; Nelle Duinker, oboe; Richard St. Onge, cello; Ian Baird, piano

Melissa Butt — The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)
Melissa Butt, narrator; Stephen Hynes, flute; Richard Klaas, marimba; Kate Bevan-Baker, violin; Saird Larocque, cello

Dylan Varner-Harley — untitled
Richard Klaas, marimba; Kate Bevan-Baker, violin; Amy Spurr, violin; Kalen Thomson, viola; Saird Larocque, cello

Kate Bevan-Baker — The Crocodile's Toothache (Shel Silverstein)
Erin Milley, soprano; Kate Bevan-Baker, violin; Amy Spurr, violin; Kalen Thomson, viola; Saird Larocque, cello

• Please note that the compositions of Neil Bussey and Saird Larocque cannot be performed.

---

Dress Rehearsal Timetable – Petro-Canada Hall, Friday, 27 February

1:00 

1:20

1:40

2:00 Kate Bevan-Baker

2:20 Dylan Varner-Hartley

2:40 Michael Bramble

3:00 Melissa Butt

3:20

3:40

NOT AVAILABLE FROM 4:00 – 5:00 PM

5:00 Simon Mackie

5:20 Meg Warren

5:40 Jessica Blennis

6:00

6:20 Kim Codner

Group Composition Lessons - Pros and Cons

Learning composition in a class format has its plusses and minuses. I've been thinking about this for a while, so I thought I would try to list a few, and ask for your thoughts on the issue.

Plusses:

• Students get to hear each other's work on a weekly basis, which can create a sense of shared mission, and can foster a supportive and positive learning environment.
• Hearing others' works in progress can give us ideas we can use in our own compositions.
• Commenting on the works of others can help develop critiquing skills, and the more developed these are, the better we can critique our own music.
• Students can draw upon classmates' performance skills to arrange readings of works in progress, and to get tips on how to write idiomatically or use extended performance techniques for the instruments they play.
• Feedback given to any particular student is often relevant to other students.
• It gives students multiple perspectives on their compositions, which, since perspective about one's own creations is easy to lose, is particularly valuable.

Minuses:

• There is less time for individual feedback.
• It makes it harder to deal with details, and, as I think everyone understands by now, details are of tremendous importance in composing music.
• The peer feedback process works really well when you get useful feedback, but it works less well when people either don't comment, or don't feel comfortable saying anything 'critical' about others' work.

Any other plusses and minuses you can think of?

What do you think of the the group composition class format?

Running into a Brick Wall

"Running into a brick wall" is, in this case, a metaphor for getting stuck, something that everyone who has tried to create something (music, books, art, science, relationships, etc.) has probably experienced. Things may be proceeding swimmingly (i.e., smoothly) up to a point when you suddenly hit a proverbial wall. You feel stuck; you've tried x, y, and z, but none of them worked, and you feel at a loss as to how to proceed.

I wrote about this in part 8 of my "Composition Issues" series that I posted last August, and, because I know that at least one of you is feeling stuck right now, I thought I would revisit and significantly expand the part of my earlier blog post that deals with this issue:

There is no "one size fits all" solution for when you are stuck, so you may need to try several approaches until you discover one (or more) that helps you get out of your predicament. Here are some options to consider:

1. The "boot camp" approach: Suck it up, cupcake! Call upon your inner Rocky Mountain Bighorn and RAM that brick wall repeatedly until you break through! The main requirements for this are stubbornness on an epic scale and an extremely hard head, ideally equipped with ram horns and a concussion-proof skull. The upside is that it sometimes works! The downside is that it can lead to even greater frustration, which may make you feel like dumping the entire piece into the trash, which I strongly discourage. However, this "extreme stubbornness" approach can work, and it has worked for me at times, such as this: I had written about 30-40 seconds of a solo piano piece that I really liked, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't figure out a good way to continue the piece. I would revisit the piece periodically, until finally, ten years after I came up with the opening idea, I managed to "bull" my way past the section that had become an impediment, and I finished the piece about 2-3 months later. It became one of my all-time favourite pieces, and it has been played by a variety of pianists in different countries, including multiple venues in Japan, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.  It is "Dream Dance," if you want to check it out. 
2. When feeling stuck, we tend to focus our energies on getting unstuck from that point forwards. If we get stuck at bar 100, for example, we tend to spend days trying to progress past bar 100 in a way that makes musical sense. It may be, however, that the root of the problem occurred much earlier in the composition; we may need to go back several pages to identify the point where things began to go awry – such as bar 70 – and write a new continuation that improves the piece from that point forwards. We may need to scrap (or at least set aside) several pages of music, but it will be worth doing if it results in a better piece. And sometimes the music you removed turns out to fit nicely in a different section, or even in a different piece.
3. Analyze your music. We learn analytical tools to help us understand music better, but how often do you analyze your own music? You might be surprised at how often composers don't fully understand their own music until they analyze it. The composition process is inherently subjective, which makes it easy to lose perspective on your composition, but analysis forces us to think more objectively about it. Don't just browse the score to figure out where the major sections are; do a full structural analysis that includes pitch centres, cadence points and types, phrase structure, musical character, and formal structure.
4. Did you start with a plan? If not, now would be a good time to make one. A good starting point would be to analyze what you have written, then make your plan based on that. Plans can definitely be useful, but don't be afraid to change them as you go. In fact, it may be that we are stuck because the music we want to write at a particular point in the piece does not fit with the plan. In that case, change the plan.
5. Take a break – do something else for a while. Frequently all we need is a different perspective, which may be gained by simply not thinking about the piece for a couple of days.
6. Exercise. This is one of the things you can do while taking a break. Some scientists suggest that strenuous exercise releases endorphins in the brain that make us feel better. And if you feel better, you might be able to think more clearly about how to get out of the 'writer's block' that you are experiencing. The exercise does not have to be strenuous; many composers kept diaries in which they described taking long walks every day as a way to clear the mind. 
7. Lower the bar! Stop trying to write great (or even good) music! We can sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves when we do that. You may have to lower your level of expectations in order to finish the piece. You can always return to your composition later if you wish, and improve sections that are less than you feel they could or should be. But frankly, my advice is generally to finish the piece, and then move on to your next piece; your tenth composition will likely be better than your first one, or your first few, but you won't get to your tenth composition until you finish the first nine! Beethoven's first published works, the three Opus 1 piano trios, were not his first compositions; he had written over one hundred works before that. Nobody ever started out writing great music; it takes time to become a good composer.
   
   
   Beethoven's Opus 1; clearly not his first rodeo
   
   
8. MEET YOUR DEADLINE, NO MATTER WHAT! This is, or at least can be, related to the previous point. You are on the verge of panicking because a deadline is imminent, and you feel that if you blow it, YOU WILL NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN! Perhaps missing one deadline will not necessarily torpedo one's career, but below are a couple of scenarios that are possible:
1. If you are a student, some professors may give you a mark of zero if you miss a deadline, while others may impose a less Draconian penalty, such as a grade reduction of 10- 20%; you will not be forcibly removed from your Institution of Higher Learning for missing one deadline, of course. But even so, being penalized for missing a deadline is something that most of us would prefer to avoid.
2. If writing for professionals, or even non-professionals who have asked you to write something for an upcoming concert, missing a composition deadline is very bad form. The musicians (a) may decide against playing your piece if and when you finally manage to finish it, and (b) may not ever ask you to write something for them again, because you have added the stress of having to quickly reprogram their concert at the last minute, and any printed materials such as programmes and posters will need to be changed. And, if you develop a reputation for missing deadlines, it's a pretty safe bet that others will not ask to compose music for them either.

Neither of these situations is one that any of us would want to experience, obviously, so what I have done on at least two occasions that I can think of is this: Work like an obsessed crazy person for days on end, writing as much music as possible, all the while asking myself a simple question: Is it okay, or isn't it? If my answer is "yes," or "maybe… I guess so?" then I keep it and move onto the next part of my piece. If my answer is "no," or "this isn't terrible, but it kind of sucks!" then I try to improve it before moving on, or I set it aside and move on with the plan to return to the problem section later.

But I avoid asking myself if it's great, or, if it's good, then how can I make it better – both of which I constantly ask myself during my normal composition process if a deadline is not imminent – because doing so slows everything down, and the consequences of missing a deadline greatly outweigh the consequences of completing a piece on time that might have been slightly better if I had spent more time on it. And for me, the most surprising thing about going through this process was that in both cases, I actually felt pretty good about the compositions when I had finished, and I continue to be happy with them.

9. Stop listening, and start imagining. Or, more precisely, stop relying on the playback capability of Finale or Sibelius to give you a sense of what's going on in your piece. Try not playing back your music for a day, then two days, then longer, if possible (it's tough to do; most of us are addicted to MIDI playback!), and see what difference it makes. It may cause you to think more about motivic relationships, or you may begin paying more attention to structure, or set theory, or gestures... You will almost certainly start to think of your piece in a different way if you try this. (This suggestion courtesy of Andrew Staniland.)
10. Perspective; use it or lose it. This is a quote from a Richard Bach book (Illusions), and my point in mentioning it here is that perhaps the most common reason that we get stuck is that the subjective nature of the composition process makes it remarkably easy to to lose perspective on our own creations. All of the above suggestions (except the first) are ways of overcoming this loss of perspective.
    
    Another way of gaining perspective on your music is to play it for others (your teacher, another teacher, your classmates, a non-musician) to see what they might suggest — but make it clear that you REALLY want their honest reactions/suggestions, as opposed to a pat on the back. While it can be encouraging to receive compliments on your music, sometimes what we need most is an honest critique. I have received some great suggestions about my music from my wife, who is not a musician. Not all feedback you receive will be equally useful, but even suggestions you reject (or comments with which you disagree) are sometimes helpful if they cause you to reconsider some aspect of your composition, and if doing so makes the piece better. Part of making good decisions is discerning when to take advice and when to reject it.
11. Listen to other compositions that are in some way similar to yours. If you are writing a string quartet, listen to a few different models and study the scores as you do so. If you are writing for a non-standard collection of instruments, just listen to different examples of chamber music while studying the scores if possible. The models don't have to be of music composed in the last 50 years, but it probably would help if some were. Or just listen to any music, even if it has nothing to do with what you are writing; you may get some ideas that way.
12. Look at an orchestration textbook. Orchestration texts have information about the capabilities of every orchestral instrument, often including contemporary extended techniques, some of which you may wish to try.  In addition, there is usually information about writing idiomatically for instruments, different articulation possibilities. etc., all of which can be inspire ideas for your own compositions.
13. Stop the piece you are writing and start again. This is a pretty extreme option if you have already invested a lot of time in the composition — after all, you are almost guaranteed to get stuck at some point, especially in a longer composition, and if your default response is to scrap it all and start again you are unlikely to complete very many compositions — but if you are in the early stages of a work, a fresh start may get you back on track.

---

Never throw your rejected ideas away; I recommend keeping a compositional "blue box" (recycling bin) for ideas that didn't get very far.

At some later point, when you are in a different frame of mind, you may be able to browse through your recycling bin and find a compositional fragment that inspires you to complete it, or to use it in a completely different composition. I once tried this approach in a piece called Memory Quilt (1999), in which I began by laying out a some compositional fragments from earlier projects that I liked but had never used, and then I experimentally combined them in different ways until I found a result that I liked. I also composed a significant amount of new material based on the musical fragments to give cohesiveness and organicism to the overall musical structure.

One of the worst cases of "running into a brick wall" I ever experienced took place a long time ago, when I abandoned a composition that I had spent about 6 months writing; I had about fifteen minutes of ready-to-perform music written, but it was during a particularly low period in my life and I could not figure out how to finish it. I then started a new and completely different piece ("Steppin' Out") that I finished in about a month. I have never been able to bring myself to even look at the abandoned piece again; too many traumatic memories.

Getting stuck is common, so perhaps the most important thing to remember is that it is a normal part of the creative process. If you can learn to take it in stride you are less likely to stay stuck for very long.

Sometimes, the solution(s) you come up with to being stuck end up being the the most inspired part of your composition. Here is an axiom that may sound trite or corny, but it is true, or at least it is if you allow yourself to see things this way:

Challenges present opportunities for inspired solutions.

Concert Date

WHAT: Composition Class Recital (1st project)
WHEN: Friday, 27 February at 7PM
WHERE: Petro-Canada Hall, Memorial University School of Music

We also have PC Hall from 1-4 PM and 5-7 PM that day, for warm-ups and dress rehearsals.

COMPOSITION DUE DATE: Monday, 16 February, in class.

Looking forward to the concert!

Festival Feedback, Please

The Newfound Music Festival, which had its final concert this past Saturday night, involved more than 100 performers this year, if you include the 4 evening concerts, the student performers concert, and the performance of Terry Riley's "In C" that took place Thursday at 9 AM. We also had 12 presentations on that Thursday, the list of which was posted in my previous blog.

If you figure that everyone involved spent a number of hours preparing for their various performances and presentations, and add in the administrative hours spent planning the event, you could estimate that perhaps over 1000 hours were spent on this year's festival…

All of which begs the question: Do you think the festival is a worthwhile endeavor?

And, while I am at it, here are a few more questions; answer as many or as few as you wish:

• What concerts did you attend?
• What did you think of them?
• What Thursday events did you attend, and what did you think of those you attended?
• How do you feel about being required to attend some of the Thursday presentations or evening concerts?
• Would you have attended as many presentations and recitals if you had not been required to do so?
• Do you have any ideas as to how we could get more students to take in festival events without making them required?
• Make a rough estimate of the percentage of the students at the School of Music who did not attend any of the Thursday presentations, and/or who attended only one of them.
• Do you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see/hear at future festivals, or things that you feel could be improved?