Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The almost-finished product and title

After hearing my composition, I'm not sure what to think.  As I said in my last blog, there are some things I like about it and some things that i don't.  The other thing is that I don't have a lot of time to make it perfect... there is a due date after all!  And a concert!  I was happy with how the performance went in the concert.  My piece ended up being kind of hard to put together... there are lots of tricky rhythms, especially in the piano, and the circle of fifths progression touches almost every key.  Despite that, I'm really happy with how my performers played, and they even inspired some changes in my piece.  there was one point in the performance where there was a huge pause.  I think that my pianist got lost... one of the pages was in the wrong order, and it took him a minute to find where he was.  Luckily, all this occurred within a pause which was written, making the long pause even more dramatic.  When he finally found out where he was, the whole group came back together, accompanied by a few chuckles in the audience.

I decided on a title: "Too-Fives".  I think I mentioned earlier that, like an ending of a piece, when you find the perfect title, it just fits.  This title has a sort of double meaning: first, it refers to the "two-five-one" progression the piece is based on, and it also in reference to measures of 5/4 time which are found throughout the piece.  If I had to pick my favorite ideas in the piece, they would be my main melodic thematic melody, the ending of the piece, and the title.  Each one fits perfectly!

Developing my cliche

As I develop my piece, I'm not quite sure where to go with it.  I have a couple of ideas which I think are pretty good, but my composition isn't turning out to be quite what I expected it to be.  First of all, I initially decided to base my cliche on bebop.  I've recently discovered that what I have isn't quite bebop... or its not quite everything that bebop is known for.  It turned out to be more of a swing ii-V-I progression.  More of a standard "jazz-swing" cliche.  Secondly, when we first got this assignment, I envisioned my piece quite differently than it looks now.  Before I even decided my cliche, I thought I would write the music as loosely based on a cliche... more like a "weird" version of whatever the cliche was based on, like an atonal march, for example.  What my piece is actually becoming is a quite typical piece of jazz music which takes unexpected turns in its development.  It starts out almost perfectly in the cliche and then grows outside it.  It is ok, I guess, but isn't what I was planning.

Now, what I piece is actually turning out to be: it seems to be sort of a rondo form... maybe a sort of short sonata rondo, as the theme keeps coming back, but with developments in the 'B' and 'C' sections.  One of the main contrasts in the "development" sections is that it goes from swung eighths to straight eighths.  The first section contrasts rhythmically.  It is less melodic, with a lot of rhythmic calls and answers between instruments.  In the return of the 'A' section, the bass stops walking, making it more unpredictable.  The 'C' section contrasts in key... it shifts to a minor mode, after a double chromatic mediant harmonic shift.  The melody also shifts to the double bass for much of this section, with a countermelody in the saxophone.  In the final return of the 'A' section, the bass starts off with the melody before passing it to the saxophone, and then to the piano for the finish.  

I don't really know how to feel about my composition so far... I kind of like the way it sounds sometimes, and I like the ideas I'm using, but I'm not quite happy with the way its turning out.  Its definitely a learning experience, and I like seeing how ideas sound when they actually get down on paper after being conceived in the head.

Cliche Composition Update

In my previous blog, I was unsure about what instruments I was going to write for.  I've decided on piano, alto sax, and double bass.  I think I will be able to achieve rhythmic interest in my piece without the drums, and the double bass will give me some different interesting ways to expand my composition.  The first thing that I wrote was a circle of fifths progression in the piano.  I've decided to write a brief walking bassline for an introduction, and continue it through most of the piece.  I'm very happy with the melody I've come up with.  It mentioned in my previous blog that I could draw melodic material from existing jazz standards, but the melody that I have isn't drawn from any of that, and I'm happy with it.  

After I performed my piece in class, I received the comment that the piano part in particular needed more rhythm.  I decided to add rests and make the rhythms more interesting.  This set up a contrast with the steady walking bassline, and I like the way it sounds.