Date for Entry: (Tuesday 10 September
2019)
Actual
Date of Online Entry: (Monday 21st March 2022)
Dear
Diary,
I
had been looking forward to this course for several semesters since my first
year of the certificate program. It was finally here and I happily took my
first-row seat as usual. There were several pieces of homework to be done as
assignments for marks and a lot of other activities that had made this semester
SUPER interesting.
Link(s):
ASSIGNMENT #1 (FIVE IDEAS).
* Tuesday 10 September 2019 *
The
first assignment was presented in class tonight. We were asked to find a
partner and play one of their ideas for the class. The person I teamed up with
was Tinesha. We got a tenor pan to the empty Pan Theatre to try out the ideas.
Hers was simple to sight-read out but she seemed surprised when I got them
correct.
When
I gave her some of mine, she couldn’t manage so in class I ended up playing all
the ideas instead. It took a lot of time to go through the assignment. I might
say the whole class when feedback had to be given too. I apologize for the
condition of the document. It was chipped up into pieces to save on paper to archive.
Link(s):
ASSIGNMENT #2 & 3.
* Tuesday 17 September 2019 *
We were asked to develop at least one idea (from assignment 1) and one of his partner’s ideas. Instead, I took one of my idea for assignment one and created another of my own.
It was very late in the night before class was over. I was not that well. Mr. Sharma and two other students tried the piece out when I could not make it to play it. It seemed as if the assignment itself was not good enough. My idea was to make something simple. I was thinking of a preliminary piece that might be done for an exam. In the portfolio will be a further discussion on this failed attempt.
Link(s):
- Assignment 2&3 - First Attempt: Score.
- Assignment 2&3 - First Attempt: (Recording).**
ASSIGNMENT #4: FORM
“GORRATA VOCALITO: HUMMINGBIRD MEADOW”.
* Tuesday 1 October 2019 *
I took about four days doing over something from scratch to meet the requirements of assignments two and three to use it as required in assignment four. I was able to make an introduction, the first section, and a second section.
Section C was not ready because the time was spent/expired and the class was about to begin. That night, only Mr. Sharma, Brandon, Milano, and I were there in class. Not many were present. Everyone else was not there. They seemed to appreciate and support the long runs in the song. Mr. Sharma supported the piano part and commented on the 'slim' use of writing in it to "make it real easy". This gave me the confidence to continue with the rest of the piece.
This piece was presented to the class on another date later in the semester. At that time the entire class was present. I was able to get some comments from Anton mentioning the key changes and the pauses at the end of a section. He compared this piece to the "Dance of Nature" piece for the same comment. It seemed as if all the runs in the piece had made everyone speechless? No one else commented again.
Link(s):
- Score.**
- Recording.
ASSIGNMENT #5: MUSIC WITH TEXT – “LOVE IS
ALL I NEED”.
* Thursday 17 October 2019 *
**pick of score
There
was an assignment that asked us to use a poem and create music for it. During the
summer vacation that went, it was a Friday evening after the second ‘Law and
Gov’ class that I heard to sound of a different lady singing in my mind. The
music given to me was Rehearsal Section A. I did not have a manuscript paper
with me in the car, so I took a copybook and wrote out the lyrics before typing
to figure out the correct rhythm. I had a lot of hard trials trying to connect
back with that lady in my mind for the rest of the music. It was not so easy.
I
did not know what Ella Fitzgerald looked like in real but the sound of the lady
in the light silk blue coat sounded like her standing on the club’s stage. The
setting for me seeing the woman was in a dark club with a music band. I
could not see the woman’s face but from the five seconds I got from hearing
Ella’s voice on YouTube, it matched. It seemed scary but I continued to see if
I could get help.
My
experience playing the piece in class was a silent one. I did not have many
words. I was hoping that Anton would have been able to teach me something. Mr.
Sharma had met up with me after a thesis meeting on a Friday evening to help me
change measures 78-79. I added it to my journal and did the entry for it.
Link(s):
- Score.**
- Recording.**
ASSIGNMENT #6: “DANCE OF NATURE”.
* Unknown/Forgotten Date *
Mr. Sharma told us about a collaboration composition that the DCFA dance department wanted to do with the composition class. He began to explain that the dance was divided into three sections to represent the elements of Earth, Water, and Fire. We were allowed to work in groups of three doing one element each or to attempt composing the entire piece individually.
Just by the options being given to us, I knew immediately a group attempt would not work. I knew if I had to come up with this composition (or if I chose to), I had to do it all on my own and work out the obstacles. Because it was now a piece of music to be done for a dance. I was not sure if the dance was a group performance or a solo.
Some weeks after, some of us in the class were introduced to Ms. Paul who was the teacher for the dance group for this composition project. This was the first time experience for me where music and dance were done. She had three ladies in the dance studio. Each one of them did an individual element. Some of the class students were recording the dances. I took the time to look at the dancers one after the other and special attention to Ms. Paul when she counted in the dancers and the instructions or corrections to the dancers.
There was a dark and rainy Sunday after coming back from steelpan practice at church, I began working on the composition. I could not rely on anything but what came to my mind and my own discoveries in composing. After three and a half hours of starting, I had thirteen instruments in use. This work continued for some more time, about less than three weeks. After completing the water, I had a medical challenge that became worst and I had to go to the doctor. I could not walk well for two weeks but had to force the pain in school for those weeks.
Sometime after I was better, I was able to complete the piece. I went to Isa to get two copies of the full score. One was for Mr. Sharma and the other was mine to keep for personal archives. We had a short hour meeting in the office to review the composition with Sir. He had the composition played on the loudspeakers in the office and told me that there is a big difference between hearing the music from the computer and in a large area. The music was then emailed as an MP3 to Mr. Sharma and he sent it off to Ms. Paul since she had already left for the day.
The piece was also presented in class by Mr. Sharma on the next class we all had to meet. Something about the composition happened but it was fixed and ready for the dancers to use. We had the idea to have the composition done as a live performance but it did not work out. I had all of the parts created and even an Indian music notation score for the sitar in case Mr. Maharaj was to join us. Challenge arose in the process of that score since the key changed so many times. Also, I had to face the occurrences of empty measures. I recalled Mr. Maharaj telling us in class that Indian music is not intended to have any rest for long in between. At some points notating rests was a challenge since sustained pitches also used a dashed line and different rhythmic patterns brought up several challenges.
The class listened and someone else from class had done music for the earth element. He had shared his creation two weeks before but the other two from his group didn't start. Mr. Sharma told us after playing my composition that he had decided to use my composition because the time was "getting close to the "Festival of Dance" concert and [it] was the only completed piece."
The Indian Classical Ensemble had to perform for the same concert on both nights (Friday and Saturday). Only on Saturday night, did I get to see the performance with the composition. It was not done exactly as expected. I saw that they had taken the MP3 and made a 'dance collage'.
The three elements were videotaped and then scrambled into pieces while the music ran in the recording. I felt cheated in a way because I had calculated each step that the dancers moved in the studio on the day of our in-class recording. Every turn, every move, every step or articulation done by the dancer was timed accordingly so that it would suit the dancers one after the next. In class the week after the concert Mr. Sharma shared a similar comment based on what he was expecting after asking me in front of the class how I found it was. I am still very grateful for the opportunity.
Link(s):
- "Festival of Dance" - Concert Program.
- “Dance of Nature” - Score.**
- “Dance of Nature” - (Recording).
EXTRA ASSIGNMENT.
* Unknown/Forgotten Date *
There were five different exercises given to use by Mr. Sharma and it was labeled as Extra Assignments on the UWI's My-E-Learning platform. He said that we could do all five to replace one of the assignments.
I personally did them all because I wanted to have the extra fun. However, it was a lot of hard work involved. I also needed to have a good strategy. I decided that since there were five different worksheets to complete for this assignment, I would complete one worksheet a week.
Each worksheet per week would be worked on each night on the piano. By each Saturday, the pieces would be reviewed in their entirety and then scored out on Musescore by the Sunday evening. I knew it would work and I felt very proud that all five worksheets were completed by the sixth week of class. Presentations for these worksheets could have been done in class at any time.
Link(s):
- Extra Assignments: Worksheets.** [Request By Email Only.]
- Extra Assignments: Scores.** [See Final Portfolio.]
- Extra Assignments - (Recording).
FINAL PORTFOLIO.
* Unknown/Forgotten Date *
At the end of the semester, a portfolio was required to be submitted. This project would be marked in place of a final examination. In the completion of the assignment, I was proud of all the accomplishments throughout this course.
My "Dance of Nature" composition was taken by the DCFA dancers for their "Festival of Dance" concert. I was also happy that I was able to break the page record in portfolios. Mr. Sharma said that the most amount of pages he had to grade was 80 pages. I presented 126 pages for marking. All pieces were introduced with a short description and a reflection.
Link(s):
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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