Getting ready for the concert

So this has been an insanely busy week. Working out the fine details in each of my three pieces seemed to take much more time than I had anticipated. The hard part was finally closing Sibelius and accepting what i had down, knowing I would not be able to change anything else before hearing it in the concert.

Since i wrote two slower more atmospheric works, and one faster more ambitious work, it took me awhile to settle on an order and in the end I left it was I wrote it (chronologically). The two slower movements surround the more rhythmic one.

I think the pieces work as a set, but could also be preformed alone and would still create an effective atmosphere. I also came up with titles for them individually

I. Haze - The piece really is a gloomy atmosphere which leaves the listener with a sense of timelessness. I thought the word Haze described this very well

II. Advert - Which literally means to draw your attention to something. To point something out. Since i use a lot of rhythmic accents over a more flowing line, this title fit very well

III. Comatose - I received several comments on this piece. Particularly the piano line which was described as "going no where" and "no direction". I did edit it a little but i was quite happy with the part myself. This piece can be described as Comatose which means Unconscious

anyway I have done a lot of work on this music and am happy with the outcome. I am definatly looking forward to the concert and hearing these works preformed on the big stage.

Revision Of Number 2

So i played the revision of my second piece in class and it went very well. I agree that a little tweaking could do it some good but over all i am happy with this composition.

Some of the comments

- Could be longer..... Because i am using a 5/8 time signature and placing eight note rests on random beats the piece does seem to have a feeling of timelessness. The listener looses track of the bar lines. In order to make this more effective the piece could have been longer and developed much more slowly. I have a lot of material that repeat's a lot.... It could potentially go on for longer and would still not seem boring.

- At measure 35 There is defiantly a point of highest tension. This is further than 60% of the way through the piece. I could rethink this. Maybe lengthen the material after or just have this happen a little before.

- The vibes have a repeating line that piano never plays. The material in both instruments is very different. This is not bad BUT I could incorporate some of that moving line in the piano

- Make use of the huge register that the piano has. I am sticking to the ledger lines for the most part. Maybe write in some double octaves.

That is All

Revisions and such

My third piece was played this week and it turned out very well. Some of the general comments i received,

- Good Unity of character throughout
- Could be expanded
- Piano line seemed "random"
- Good use of staccato under the resonating vibraphone
- Perhaps repeating motives too soon
- Jazzy sounding few measures in the last system which could breath a few extra phrases before the end

Im not sure if agree that the piano line was "random" there is a structure that I felt i stuck to and was able ot achieve what i had initally planned.


Now on to revising my second work

This piece needed alot of work. I have many ideas but all together they lack a sense of coherency. Somethings I am keeping in mind when revising

-Delete 4/4 measures of chords during the intro
-Keep 5/8 bars
-Expand on the vibraphone line
-Try and create more of a sound scape texture. Less Random more structure