Wednesday, December 3, 2008

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.

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