Project 1

This Folder relates to the Project 1 of Composing Music 1 - 4 contrasting short pieces in which you demonstrate the characters of some untuned percurssion instruments. Each piece should be 8-16 bars long. Below there are some of the points I considered when writing these short pieces.

Execution day

For each of these exercises I’ve always started with a graphical idea that I wanted to associate with the music. This helps me define certain tempo, mood and time signature. This little piece has three parts. The first 3 bars is the walking of the person that is going to be executed using a crescendo, the next 3 bars represent his awareness of the situation going from p to f and the last 3 bars the execution itself.

It uses an Andante tempo at 60 quarter notes per minute and a 2/4 time signature to fit well with the mood of the walking sequence.

The side drum also fits well with the purpose of the music. I’ve used some tremolos which are very common in side drum. 

Whispering Dance

Although the piece is for untuned percussion I wrote it with a melodic line in mind, which actually has developed further as I wrote this.

I chose a compound time 6/8 which fits well with a fluid "rounded" dance. During the middle section, the music changes its focus from the dance itself to the whispering of the two people who are dancing together for which I also shift to a time signature 2/4 to portray this change in the focus of the music. This is an interesting concept similar to that of filming when we look at the sequence from different angles and I suppose that it is a common technique in writing for films (I need to read more on this or wait until Music Composition 2!). By changing the time signature we can easily move the focus and change the mood of the music.

Wood blocks were chosen due to their short percussive sound and their dry timbre which fit well with the music rhythm (the silences between the two quavers during the second bar in the 6/8 and following bars) giving a staccato effect that goes back into the 3 rounder sound of the 3 quavers.

Once finished, I decided to add double voices to reinforce the accents on the 6/8 parts according to the dance (I’ve marked them on the music sheet even if not needed).

Accompaniment 1

I started the 3^rd exercise with the idea of merging two independent rhythms using two different voices. Sibelius has very useful features to deal with more than 1 voice (up to 4) in the same stave which allows you to include rests for each of the voices, swap the voices around if you insert one voice in the wrong position, etc.

The initial idea for voice 1 comes from the Tango rhythm in Flamenco which is done in a 4/4 time with accents in beats 1 and 3 and I have done variations around it.

The second voice is very simple and moves around beats 2 and 4 with the purpose of filling the silence in voice 1 in beat 4 and add a bit of variety.

The tremolo effect is alternated between the both voices using the one for voice 2 only when there is a quarter note rest in voice 1 which gives an interesting pattern which is not muddy. In this case I chose the bongos … just because I love their timbre and they are sometimes used in Flamenco.

I found that the technique of combining two independent rhythms is very useful to quickly create interesting rhythms in an easier way than if you try to build the piece as a single rhythm line with two pitches.

African Rhythm

I set out this exercise with the idea of transcribing a finger typing rhythm that I generally practise when I’m bored waiting for the metro. The idea was to play with some upbeats and triplets (demisemiquaver triplets) which I hadn’t touched so far!

By using the Congas it kind of goes into an African rhythm mood … not that I know much about African rhythms J.

It took me a while to transcribe the only beat of the first bar (upbeat).

It’s divided into 3 sections (3 lines below) with the middle section portraying the idea of an interlude on the dance while lines 1 and 3 (similar ones) have a clear dancing mode using the demisemiquaver upbeats.

The video below shows these 4 little compositions: