SOME+RECOMMENDED+PROJECTS

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The following are ideas for small projects useful for developing compositional technique. Compositional activities of special interest to the students, and/or special opportunities that present themselves are certainly worth pursuing. **Sometimes //motivation// helps creative solutions emerge!** One of the best motivations, and therefore something pursuing, is a guarantee of a concert performance. If an excellent artist or ensemble with whom you have a relationship has expressed an interest in you writing something for them, and if the scope of the project is reasonable, you should consider it. **Outstanding readings of your music can move you forward as a composer in several ways.**

Before listing the project ideas, **//here are some general, overarching concepts I believe are helpful to composing music//** that have application every time one literally or figuratively puts his/her pen to manuscript:

1. **__Composing involves taking the listener on a narrative journey.__** This does not mean literal "story-telling" (though it may), but certainly offering "characters" and "events" for the listener to follow. If the idea presented initially never changes, the listener can tune out: he's already heard everything. If an idea is followed immediately by a second idea, then another, and then another the listener is confused and has no idea what the piece is about. Instead ideas must be mined for potential and possibility. The introduction and development of sonic events must be gauged carefully and deliberately to keep the listener involved, both satisfying, and alternatively surprising, their expectations. There are many "devices" that can be used to (pardon the term) "manipulate" the listener in this way: this is deft composing!

2. __**Composing is creative problem solving.**__ Whether its the small scale decision of "what do I do next in this piece" or the larger scale concern of meeting the requirements of a particular commission, completing a composition involves solving one problem after the next using creative solutions.

3. **__Consider self-imposed parameters or limitations to help you move forward with your writing.__** Try pre-planning the form of what you will write. You can always change as you go, but the "plan" may help you write in a way (and solve the problem of accomplishing the form) you otherwise would not have. Try writing a short, but strict canonic passage. Decide you will begin a section using imitative counterpoint in three layers. Time is one of the most motivating limitations; when you have to finish a piece, you get it done.One of my favorite "limitations" is using a fabricated scale (i.e. diminished/octatonic scale, or whole tone scale, black/white key scale, etc.). Use one or two of these at one or two pitch levels for variety.

The following is an apropos excerpt from my book, //Using technology to Unlock Musical Creativity// (Oxford University Press):

"While you might think that rules would always restrict creativity, I’ve found that well-thought-out guidelines actually foster it. One of my favorite 20th-century composers, Igor Stravinsky, actually spoke to the subject of the benefits of parameters when composing in a series of lectures he gave during the 1939-40 academic year at Harvard University:

What delivers me from the anguish into which an unrestricted freedom plunges me is the fact that I am always able to turn immediately to the concrete things that are here in question…in art as in everything else, one can build only upon a resisting foundation: whatever constantly gives way to pressure, constantly renders movement impossible. My freedom thus consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings.

I shall go even further: my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self…and the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

As a composer writing in the first half of the 20th-century – a period in time when many conventions of musical composition were being discarded for more progressive approaches – I’m sure Stravinsky was very cognizant of the pros and cons of having rules in place when writing. And yet, examining his music reveals self-imposed constraints that focus his ideas and give it cohesiveness. A case in point is the opening (the first “tableau” or scene) to Stravinsky’s ballet, //Petroushka//. Considering the extremely chromatic music being composed by his 20th-century contemporaries, Stravinsky greatly limits the number of pitches he uses in this magical, but harmonically static, passage of music. In fact, the controlled collection of notes and the way they unfold incrementally, with repetitive rhythmic ostinato, foreshadows the Minimalist movement. Yet the piece sounds fresh and modern, building from a pastoral, dream state, then moving forward purposefully to more weighty statements"

=And now......THE PROJECTS!=


 * __Organic etude for solo instrument.__** Instrumental writing takes time to develop. Each instrument has its own possibilities and idioms. An etude for a solo instrument helps discover and gain comfort with these. A former composition teacher, Cliff Taylor, used the term "organic" to mean "that which naturally emerges or follows." In writing music, an initial motive contains the potential for an entire etude. Decide upon a motive and work this "germ" naturally, organically in which every note seems a logical consequence to what has come before. EXAMPLE: Debussy, Syrinx and Stravinsky, Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet.

Assobio a Jato "The Jet Whistle" I. Allegro non troppo (check out the other movements of this piece on YouTube as well).
 * __Duet for two different instruments.__** Writing for two instruments allows the writer to explore and work with texture in dynamic ways. Approaches to texture include monophonic, homorhythmic/homophonic, heterophonic, and various polyphonic styles (imitation, canon, etc.). Interactions between different instruments allow for practice and experiments in timbre. The two parts may blend as one, or be pitted against one another starkly using rhythm and range. Any number of arrangements (i.e. conversational back-and-forth, hocket, moving in unison, or in thirds, etc.). EXAMPLE: Villa Lobos,


 * __Set of Piano Miniatures.__** Piano writing can be many things! Melody (right hand) vs. Accompaniment (left hand) is just one obvious way to use the instrument....think of Mozart and his "Alberti Bass" writing. Writing a //set// allows the student to work with several contrasting textures, "figurations," programmatic moods, tempi, and much more. Keeping each movement short (miniature) - say, one page - means the whole process doesn't need to take long. Part of the challenge is the discipline of wrapping up one movement so one can move on to the next! EXAMPLE: Schoenberg, Six Little Pieces for Piano.

__**Small ensemble based on evocative, programmatic title.**__ Create a title packed with rich imagery, then work out that title in a brief work for brass quintet, mixed trio (flute, 'cello, and piano), flute ensemble, string quartet, etc. EXAMPLE: Watson, //Dark Chase//.

__**Scoring a Text for Narrator.**__ This activity helps the composer confront all sorts of compositional problems: Should the music support the text (but "stay out of the way")? When should the music "take over" and tell the story itself without text? Should the music parrot any of the words/text (what film composers call "mickey mousing")? If the text is anchored to a time in history, should the music reflect this? What are some musical ways of conveying the imagery of the text? NOTE: Finding the right text is critical. For the purposes of this exercise, select only brief texts (short poems, a few Bible verses, a good narrative joke, etc. Leonard Bernstein famously set several recipes for piano and voice!