Cadenza
Every step of this project has been hard but now that the basics and beginning has been figured out, the actual composing is the hardest part. Since last week, I have written two more melodies for my piece and played a little bit with the melody. I am not sure if either motif is something quality that I want to keep but for now, I will settle for tweaking and playing around with it. I have a little more than 2 pages of music now but I'm still hoping to make the piece longer.
An aspect of this project that I have neglected until now is the performing side of things. The reason this is part of my project is because I've always had trouble performing in front of others. Call it stage fright or shyness or butterflies. It's a serious challenge I've faced as a musician who's ultimate pleasure comes from playing music. I wish I could be more comfortable in front of others. Over the years I have given more and more performances, not only with large ensembles but also with smaller string quartets and even duos. This week, I will be playing with a quartet for the Sophomore Academic Letter ceremony. This coming Saturday will also be the night of the school orchestra's annual Spaghetti Supper. I am playing in a quartet there as well as a violin duet with one of my friends.
I'm nervous because my nerves have always lowered my performance during these types of events. Still, I have pulled a lot of inspiration from others around me and learned tricks and tips from past performance experiences. I'm trying to channel the feelings of adrenaline and pending doom into my performance and use them to play with more alertness and stamina, rather than have them affect my mindset negatively.
In the long term, I want to work so that by the end of this semester, when I play this piece for my project presentation, I will be able to own it with confidence, and play freely, without worries.
Reading Ahead
Continue to compose
Take the composition to my mentor and to peers for review and critique
Get used to the performance atmosphere: eyes on me, everything quiet except the sound of my music.
*PS I named this blog entry Cadenza because a Cadenza is designed to reflect the performer's virtuosity and offer more insight on his or her interpretation of the piece. I am working towards showing off these qualities of myself as well.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Difficulty Level: Advanced
This week, I had a shocking realization about the project that I'm taking on. This is hard.
But I have to finish what I've started, so I can only continue on.
Last Wednesday, I once again visited my mentor and he took a look at my composition. He made some suggestions to my piece. We talked about changing certain harmonies, as well as making the two violin lines match. He encouraged me to try to fill any dead space there was in either part, to avoid having any boring part. The rhythm that I currently have is also pretty average and easy. I will definitely need to experiment more with the rhythm this coming week and create more difficult passages. I'm currently working on a faster passage following the relatively slower beginning. I'm still undecided as to exactly how long I want this piece to be. I am thinking it should be about 4 pages long or perhaps 6-ish minutes, but I suppose time will tell. I will be limited by the deadline for this project.
During the class time we had on Friday, I looked back over all of my past blog posts and the work that I have done up to this point. I was surprised to find that it has been almost two months since the start of this project. This kind of shows how difficult and time consuming this project really is. Albeit I have been somewhat distracted through those months by school work and extra curricular activities, I have at the very least dedicated an hour each week to doing composing (definitely more than that). I predict that in order to finish this composition by the deadline in December, I will have to start working quicker and more efficiently.
Reading Ahead:
Something my ASYO conductor used to always say: "Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm."
Draft the rest of the piece/ the other melodies that I would like to have.
This week, I had a shocking realization about the project that I'm taking on. This is hard.
But I have to finish what I've started, so I can only continue on.
Last Wednesday, I once again visited my mentor and he took a look at my composition. He made some suggestions to my piece. We talked about changing certain harmonies, as well as making the two violin lines match. He encouraged me to try to fill any dead space there was in either part, to avoid having any boring part. The rhythm that I currently have is also pretty average and easy. I will definitely need to experiment more with the rhythm this coming week and create more difficult passages. I'm currently working on a faster passage following the relatively slower beginning. I'm still undecided as to exactly how long I want this piece to be. I am thinking it should be about 4 pages long or perhaps 6-ish minutes, but I suppose time will tell. I will be limited by the deadline for this project.
During the class time we had on Friday, I looked back over all of my past blog posts and the work that I have done up to this point. I was surprised to find that it has been almost two months since the start of this project. This kind of shows how difficult and time consuming this project really is. Albeit I have been somewhat distracted through those months by school work and extra curricular activities, I have at the very least dedicated an hour each week to doing composing (definitely more than that). I predict that in order to finish this composition by the deadline in December, I will have to start working quicker and more efficiently.
Reading Ahead:
Something my ASYO conductor used to always say: "Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm."
Draft the rest of the piece/ the other melodies that I would like to have.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Doloroso to Gioioso
This week was rough for me, with academic and emotional stress. I won't lie - it did hinder my progress in virtually everything I was doing, simply because I couldn't control my mental state. But I still made some progress with my composition. More than that, this week, I reflected on the reasons I want to compose this piece, and what I want this piece to mean to me.
First, I realize that some of this may be a reiteration of previous posts, where I discussed my motives for taking on this project. Still, I fell as if these reasons are so important that they deserve to be repeated multiple times throughout the course of this semester.
I want to improve my musicality, in all aspects: as a musician, as an interpreter, and as a performer. This project may also improve my improvisation abilities on violin. Moreover, I want to utilize my creativity (Use it or lose it). This is an opportunity for me to create something out of nothing, completely on my own. I want it to be good, and quality work - something that I can display to the public and be proud of.
Shifting focus to the composition itself... I feel like insofar, the piece has just been melodies that I have constructed, with no real inspiration, emotion or message. I feel that naturally, a lack of lyrics makes classical music harder to use in communicating the feelings I harbor.
Of course, many elements contribute to a piece of music's sense, style, feeling, and mood. I just need to identify those characteristic elements.
So ultimately what is the feeling that I want to convey through this piece? Well, there are many paths that I could take. But I want to be able to connect my own personal experiences (which there are not many) to this music. Reflecting on the recent emotions that I've experienced, I want to play with elements of both sadness and happiness. I want the listeners to be able to connect with a sense of melancholy, yet I don't want that to be the only thing they take away. I want this piece to transmit some sort of happiness, whether it be silly, funny, or just plain cheerful. Even in the saddest of times, there can always be something to smile about, and it's part of what keeps us all from going under, I think.
Reading Ahead:
I don't know exactly how to do any of this. All I can do is think of sounds that elicit these specific emotions. Even then, if you asked me what those sounds were I couldn't tell you. But this is supposed to be a learning experience, and I plan to learn.
This next week, and probably many weeks to come after that, will be about learning.
This week was rough for me, with academic and emotional stress. I won't lie - it did hinder my progress in virtually everything I was doing, simply because I couldn't control my mental state. But I still made some progress with my composition. More than that, this week, I reflected on the reasons I want to compose this piece, and what I want this piece to mean to me.
First, I realize that some of this may be a reiteration of previous posts, where I discussed my motives for taking on this project. Still, I fell as if these reasons are so important that they deserve to be repeated multiple times throughout the course of this semester.
I want to improve my musicality, in all aspects: as a musician, as an interpreter, and as a performer. This project may also improve my improvisation abilities on violin. Moreover, I want to utilize my creativity (Use it or lose it). This is an opportunity for me to create something out of nothing, completely on my own. I want it to be good, and quality work - something that I can display to the public and be proud of.
Shifting focus to the composition itself... I feel like insofar, the piece has just been melodies that I have constructed, with no real inspiration, emotion or message. I feel that naturally, a lack of lyrics makes classical music harder to use in communicating the feelings I harbor.
Of course, many elements contribute to a piece of music's sense, style, feeling, and mood. I just need to identify those characteristic elements.
So ultimately what is the feeling that I want to convey through this piece? Well, there are many paths that I could take. But I want to be able to connect my own personal experiences (which there are not many) to this music. Reflecting on the recent emotions that I've experienced, I want to play with elements of both sadness and happiness. I want the listeners to be able to connect with a sense of melancholy, yet I don't want that to be the only thing they take away. I want this piece to transmit some sort of happiness, whether it be silly, funny, or just plain cheerful. Even in the saddest of times, there can always be something to smile about, and it's part of what keeps us all from going under, I think.
Reading Ahead:
I don't know exactly how to do any of this. All I can do is think of sounds that elicit these specific emotions. Even then, if you asked me what those sounds were I couldn't tell you. But this is supposed to be a learning experience, and I plan to learn.
This next week, and probably many weeks to come after that, will be about learning.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Humoresque
So a funny thing happened this week. As of right now, I have about 20 measures of music composed for both Violin I and Violin II. Using Musescore, I can play it back and it'll synthesize the sounds, but that doesn't give a representation of the feeling and the difficulty level of the music, only the notes and the rhythm. During orchestra one day, Richard and I took to one of the practice rooms and played what I had and I realized that some of the parts I had written were maybe just a little too hard and awkward to play. Okay maybe more than a little. So I realized that this was probably due to my use of virtual piano and vocal recordings to compose most of this, and not an actual violin itself. I'll have to take this more into consideration from now on, because the playability of a piece is pretty important. I'm not saying that I'm going to write very simple and easy music, just that I should consider things like fingerings (which finger to use to play a certain note) and bowings more when writing.
It has also been a pretty hard to make alterations on a certain theme or melody that I've already composed. Initially I thought this part would be pretty simple. I already had the base, I just needed to make a variation of it. But it's surprisingly difficult (for me at least) to think of something that's different yet the same.
Looking Ahead:
- I'm bringing what I have so far to my mentor this week and I'm hoping he will critique what's there so far and maybe give me some insight on how to move forward from here.
- There's nothing to do but keep pressing on. I'm going to try to start composing more at home with my violin than just during class with other tools. That should give me a better feel for what's plausible and what's not.
- I'm going to try to find a direction for my piece. Up until now, I think I have been composing just to compose, with no real emotion that I want to convey through this music. I've treated things so far as a project or an assignment, to be done merely to be done. So now I want a different purpose and direction.
So a funny thing happened this week. As of right now, I have about 20 measures of music composed for both Violin I and Violin II. Using Musescore, I can play it back and it'll synthesize the sounds, but that doesn't give a representation of the feeling and the difficulty level of the music, only the notes and the rhythm. During orchestra one day, Richard and I took to one of the practice rooms and played what I had and I realized that some of the parts I had written were maybe just a little too hard and awkward to play. Okay maybe more than a little. So I realized that this was probably due to my use of virtual piano and vocal recordings to compose most of this, and not an actual violin itself. I'll have to take this more into consideration from now on, because the playability of a piece is pretty important. I'm not saying that I'm going to write very simple and easy music, just that I should consider things like fingerings (which finger to use to play a certain note) and bowings more when writing.
It has also been a pretty hard to make alterations on a certain theme or melody that I've already composed. Initially I thought this part would be pretty simple. I already had the base, I just needed to make a variation of it. But it's surprisingly difficult (for me at least) to think of something that's different yet the same.
Looking Ahead:
- I'm bringing what I have so far to my mentor this week and I'm hoping he will critique what's there so far and maybe give me some insight on how to move forward from here.
- There's nothing to do but keep pressing on. I'm going to try to start composing more at home with my violin than just during class with other tools. That should give me a better feel for what's plausible and what's not.
- I'm going to try to find a direction for my piece. Up until now, I think I have been composing just to compose, with no real emotion that I want to convey through this music. I've treated things so far as a project or an assignment, to be done merely to be done. So now I want a different purpose and direction.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)