Final Projects
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 9:57 PM Your final projects consist of a composition about the length and substance* of the sing-plays provided to you by your TAs.
Given the dimensions of Pitch, Time, Loudness, and Timbre, choose two that you will focus on as the bearers of some kind of technique that you learned in class this quarter.
1. For these two dimensions (your choice), plan your approach carefully using a technique described in class. These aspects of your piece should be analyzed thoroughly in the final draft.
2. Construct ways of using the other dimensions so that they are inutitive/impulsive, rather than planned. But bear in mind that intuitive/implive doesn’e keep you from making careful decisions. Examples given in class make frequent use of timbre and dynamic contrast in order to clarify relationships in the other voices?
And that’s it! Try to make your decisions based on what musically interests you rather than what you think is easy. This composition is an opportunity for you to put your learning into practice in a detailed, musical, and imaginative way.
I look forward to hearing what you come up with!
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*By the way, don’t skimp on the length of these pieces — I will grade projects down if they feel too sparse, incomplete, or haphazard! Need more length guidelines? Probably not — it’s more important to complete a full musical expression, consisting of at least 3 phrases, each of which feels well-rounded and meaningful. If you do that, my guidelines won’t matter, but when in doubt, consider the following three options:
- About 44-52 quarter-notes in length (e.g. 26 mm of 2/4) for a piece in the style of the Webern Op. 18. Think of highly active, and dynamic, ever-changing rhythms of sixteenth-note textures, dense two-handed chordal accompaniment with independent left and right hands, plus a sung melodic line. Other points of reference include Schoenberg’s pc-set saturation style (piano pieces Op. 19, songs Op. 15).
- About 60 quarter-notes (e.g. 20 mm of 6/8 or 3/4) in length for a piece in the style of the Stravinsky songs (including “Full Fadom Five”). This style consists of an 8th-note texture, with piano or instrumental lines are highly independent and contrapuntal. This is a good choice for beat-class set tesselation.
- About 80 quarter-notes in length (e.g. 20 mm in 4/4 or 27-30 mm of 3/4) for a piece in the style of the Berg “Der Wein” excerpt. This consists of a chorale-like setting of quarter notes in multiple (4-5) voices, with a few 8th-notes and syncopated passing tones. A good choice for the use of extended tertian harmony or the Hindemithian approach to harmony.
Reader Comments (3)
You might have mentioned this, but what is the deadline for the assignment? thanks
Hey ben, several other people are also having trouble remembering the due date. Hopefully you see this tonight
He said they were due at the beginning of the final