'Scenery' Challenge - School of Composition

 Date for Entry: (Saturday 5th May 2018)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 26th January 2022)

Scene 1

Dear Diary,

    This month the composition challenge was to select one of three photographs that would inspire you to make the music. My decision was painting number one. I felt something calm and easy. I wanted to do something with the harp and soon my mind began to call for the flute. Playing back all that I did, it sounded empty and that was the reason why the tambourine was inserted. 

    Seven pages were gone in three to five hours after church. I was really proud of this piece because it was a wish to make something soothing. I took that opportunity through this challenge. The question remains in the effectiveness of the piece and if the assignment met what was asked for. I must mention the difficulties of trying to paint over the same image.

Link(s):

• May Composition Instructions. ** [DOCUMENT LOST.]
• “Erasing Inner Conflicts” – Score. ** [DOCUMENT LOST.]
• Recording of “Erasing Inner Conflicts”.

[UPDATE #1]

Scene 3

    Over some days, I wanted to have some sort of steelpan going in the song. Unfortunately, that ended up as a nightmare. Another painting was created for this separate operation. I wanted to have the one I did before. Both of these compositions were submitted.

Link(s):

• “Melodious Forest” – Score. ** [DOCUMENT LOST.]
• Recording of “Melodious Forest”.

[UPDATE #2]

The review came back and was posted on YouTube on July 1^st 2018. I really appreciate the lesson on the harp being able to play only seven notes at a time in the way they are set up for a piece. Comments on the second piece made me wonder if Matt knew about steelpan. Other important messages from the feedback were:

“Six-four allows for a lot of melody especially for in a really slow tempo. An ensemble in lutes is only limited in the possibility for colour, at least when it is for a wind quintet or chamber orchestra and because of this we would have to create some contrast and variety. Otherwise, this sound gets tiring… Flutes in a very high register often tend to stress the ear.”

“On our Facebook group, I recall Joshua saying that he didn’t have much time to composing this. I think we wish we all had more time to dedicate to composition but when the time is really limited, why not try a piece with fewer resources. Having so little time and so many instruments on the scores, and having so many empty bars in front of you, is bound to get overwhelming.”

 

Link(s):

• ‘Scenery’ Challenge – Feedback & Critique. (Feedback 11:27)

Daryl Zion M. Ali