The literature of this "portfolio" is a combination of music journal entries and DAPHA Projects journals done by Daryl Ali.
It is a digital account of his life experiences, works of many and accomplishments.
Showing posts with label DAPHA Projects 2019. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DAPHA Projects 2019. Show all posts
Date for Entry: (Friday 1st – Saturday 2nd November 2019)
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 22nd March 2022)
Dear Diary,
The dance department at DCFA had
their “Festival of Movement” concert. It was a two-day event from seven in the
night. Everything was done twice on both nights. The Indian Classical Ensemble
was supposed to perform our piece of “Aigiri Nandini” but I saw on the program
that they had labeled the piece as “Ardhannarishvara”.
Only on Saturday night, I was
able to go into one of the dance studios to see them dance to the composition I
had done called “Dance of Nature”. In one of the dance rehearsals, I got to
meet Ms. Paul who was the teacher for the class I did the music for. She had
realized who I was when I gave her a copy of the “Aigiri Nandini” that I had
done for the Ensemble. Also, another group I am playing music with for another
of her classes. We were given an extra assignment as an option to write
something for the dancers and I did it. Since I was the only person to complete
the full song, it was taken immediately. There was one student attempting music
for the earth dance.
The coordinator Mrs. Olivier did
not want us to enter. I snuck in to hear the music of my own composition
that night. I was not pleased with the ‘collage’ effect they did with recorded
dances. It felt like all the hard work was in vain because I had sat down and
calculated each step. The others in the Indian Classical Ensemble found the
crowd took forever to enter the room so they left and went back downstairs
before I got in.
In composition class, Mr. Sharma
would have said almost the same when he asked me how I found it to be. I was
congratulated by Mr. Reid when he met me in school in the week leading up to
the event. He said he had heard the composition I did. As I chose to ignore the
visual and look down to the ground, I took in the sound. For me, it sounded
like there was too much bowl gong in use. I did some adjustments to the piece
over some time. This was a good experience hearing the piece on a loudspeaker
for the first time.
The Indian classical ensemble
performance was done after the Intermission. I met Mr. Sharma and Miss Karen on
Saturday night after entering the dance studio and some of the others from the
composition. Our performance was done first after the intermission. It did
sound a bit weird as Miss Priyanka was telling Miss Paul after the first night.
I agreed. The rest of the show went well on both nights. Mr. Maharaj was not
there. I think he was out of the country for that weekend.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Actual
Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 22nd March 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Mr.
Maharaj was the teacher for my individual harmonium class. I decided to follow
in the footsteps of Mrs. Neaves and Mrs. Ramlal, who were allowed to do
a new instrument in their final year.
My
chosen instrument was the harmonium because it was one that papa always wanted to
learn and it was an instrument I liked from small. Unfortunately, papa passed
in the same 2015 summer before I got into UWI but if he could see me, he would
be able to see what happens in the classes. Possible Monday Indian Classical
Ensemble too.
This
semester I was given a few pieces of music to do along with some alaankars
(exercises) of scales. I was asked by Mr. Maharaj which scales I would feel
comfortable playing so for a while guess, I chose C as the tonic for the scales.
I would have had to stop to pencil in the pitches to help me understand the
music throughout the classes until the next when I would score out the music
and include his Sargam for both of us to understand it.
HARMONIUM ALAANKARS.
* Unknown Date *
There
were three exercises given to me to practice very early at the beginning of the
individual harmonium classes. Since C was my scale of choice, that would be the
tonic for all three. They were like technical patterns from the steelpan book I
had to use from Mr. Sharma’s class.
I
had no need to amend these scores. The moment Sir gave me two or three measures
of the exercises, I knew what I had to write out. They followed the same thing
we had to do in Monday night class but just different patterns now.
This
was the first piece of the semester to be given to study. I was shocked when
Mr. Maharaj picked a piece using one of the three most difficult scales of
Bhatkhande’s ten thaats (scales). I still went along because I wanted to learn
as much as he could teach me and I felt strongly that I might never find
another teacher to guide me on this path of music. There was no need for
amendments. It was
This
piece also did not need amending. It was used the same way it is for
assessment. There was not much difficulty with it. I needed some time to get
accustomed to the finer placements on the keys of the instruments. I was still
wondering how come sir was going on the harder scales with me. On the other
hand, I still appreciated it.
This
one required a few amendments. We had missed some classes in
between. There was one class. The date inserted above for this piece was the date
when Mr. Maharaj had given me the entire song straight. I did not mind at all.
I wished all the classes were like that so I could transcribe them when I got
home. This piece was used for the end-of-term recital also.
This piece took only two sessions to complete by both transcription and playing. At the end of the second session, Mr. Maharaj suggested the way the piece should end. This piece was also played at the Indian Classical Recital at the end of the semester.
The video recording was recorded on Saturday 6th August 2022 and became a DAPHA Project.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 21st March 2022)
[WRITTEN AS REPORT]
RAAG MALKAUNS.
* Monday 9 September
2019 *
The course began with a classical
piece called Raag Malkauns. Mr. Maharaj showed us a recording of an Indian
Classical class in the degree program playing the piece for a Music of the
Diaspora Concert. If I had been able to get a copy of that recording, I would
have been able to write out the entire song.
I would not have minded if we
were going to play the full thing but I would have loved to have this for my
archives. The transcription for this piece did not need any amendments. Only
two to three classes were taken to complete the song.
On this day Mr. Maharaj gave us a
new piece of music to do. It sounded like another classical piece and I was
excited. Only the verse and chorus were given for that first part and it was
notated on the Sunday before the next class. There was a class where a dance
lecturer came to class that night and we learned that this piece was going to
be played for her dance group at one of their performances
Version 2 was done
and that was used upstairs in the Cheeseman Building on a Tuesday afternoon at
1 PM in the dance studio. I took my tenor pan and went there to play the music.
Mr. Maharaj did not have our individual harmonium class again so I waited to
play with the dancer. Not many people were there for that first rehearsal. It
was only me and then Brandon came late. I met Anil with the harmonium lady (Miss
Priyanka) who sang so beautifully.
When I took my first play with
them, I did not know all the things I had to wait for and no one told me
exactly what to do. It felt as I they would expect me to know those things and
improvise if needed as if it was like in some of the performances on YouTube.
It was a very long piece of music. I did not even look at the dancers yet
because I was trying to get what the lady was singing and playing. Apparently,
there were some different things that Mr. Maharaj gave us that she was not
doing. So, I took out my pencil and began to make notes and corrections to my
score.
I knew that by the night came I
would have plenty, plenty of things to do over, and I was right. I got Anil to
send me a recording of the whole piece. It took me from 7 PM to 3:30 AM
straight to write out the entire song as a melodic line. I was so tired I
wanted to fall down. I had to wake up early on Wednesday and get the music
printed.
Version 3. A bigger
number of students were there present today. Everyone got the score from me by
email. I did not want to do that yet because I wanted to make sure that it was
suitable and corrected. I knew all that hour of work the night before was too
much and that I WAS going to miss out on things. I let happy with version three.
The pages were filled with
systems and it was better for me. I did a run-through of the piece on the Tenor
pan. Anil was playing at the table and Miss Priyanka was on her harmonium. Some
of the others were behind me looking into the score. Sir came in later with his
violin to join us. We were not in the brighter studio but the darker one. Mr.
Maharaj didn’t take any look into the score versions this time but I was glad
to have something like this being able to work out. Versions four and
five came and the fifth one was then used for the “Festival of
Movement” concert.
Link(s):
Versions 1-3 [Including Sargam].**[Request by Email.]
Not much time was spent on this
piece. It was learned faster and we were able to move to another piece. I
cannot remember why I did not write in the Sargam to the Western notation
score.
Link(s):
“Ve Maahi” Handwritten Sargam PDF.**[Request by Email.]
The nice thing about this piece was that it was fun and only took two classes to put together. I liked how Mr. Maharaj added the African Drum. The sound of the instrument made it even better.
During the vacation time, I met up with Mr. Maharaj in Studio Four to help him transcript a piece of music.
He had the whole piece written out. I did ask him to play it out on the piano
and recorded it on the phone. It did not take me more than half an hour to work
out on Musescore. The piece was used at the Recital for this semester.
Unfortunately, Sir did not remember to do this piece all semester long and had
then asked me to play it as a solo and I took the offer.
This piece began as a transcription that Mr. Maharaj shared with the class. I got a copy online but had to write it over for some other reason. This piece was completed within one class session because the notation was already done and everyone was reading the online description from the projector. It was just a matter of arrangement based on what Sir would have liked repeated from the music and how the class would end.
In the last two classes before the ensemble's recital, we were given a listen to another piece done by Ms. Mahadeo from the "Aigiri Nandini" piece. I was not sure if the entire class was going to have to learn it so, I took a recording of the song and tried my best to have a score done for the other students.
These two pieces of music done by Ms. Mahadeo provided the opportunity to be creative in producing 'score guides', which was an adoption of the listening map lesson from a teaching course in the Music Certificate. The notation will not be one hundred percent accurate but gives the reader an idea of what is to come in further sections.
This was the end-of-semester recital for the first semester of the academic year. All pieces done and uploaded via a link in the entry were performed. There were also individual pieces done by myself were also done from my Individual Harmonium class. Other available recordings from this event would be presented in their special section above.
This was my first time playing the Harmonium in front of a live audience. It was scary because I had to prepare an introduction to "Yaad Kiya Dil" and I did not remember to do it. Instead, I started with the verse and continued with the rest of the piece. Other accompaniments for this piece were done by Anil on Tabla and Brandon on his keyboard. From the recording, I saw a nice little drummer was helping too.
The second was a tenor pan item to play "Backpan Ki Mohobatta Ko". This was a piece that Mr. Maharaj had to meet up with me in the summer in DCFA to write out. We did not get to that piece for the ensemble to play so he gave it to me as a solo for the recital. Mr. Maharaj joined the three of us on another Harmonium for the tenor pan song.
The Ensemble also played the "Aigiri Nandini" that Ms. Paul's dancers did for the "Festival of Movement" concert earlier in the semester. They started off the recital. The 'Hey Shiva Shankar" piece was performed in the second half of the recital. I did not go to play the tenor pan part after working so hard on the transcription because I did not find myself confident enough. I still gave Ms. Mahadeo a copy of the music that I made for her.
We did not have an official programme for the recital but I kept a copy of the list that Mr. Maharaj wrote out before it started. On this Night Nadara and Dad came to the show. They said that they enjoyed it and Mr. Maharaj told me that the tenor pan piece went really good.
The video recordings were recorded on Saturday 6th August 2022 and became a DAPHA Project.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 13th August 2022)
Dear Diary,
I was asked by a very special
friend, Nella to create a Grand Staff chart for her classroom. This was done
during the week leading up to Friday's Indian Classical Music final examination.
The Diaspora concert ‘exam’ had already taken place and concluded.
This project required several
cutting and sticking because of the note-heads for each line and space. I also
decided to craft text on the chart for the student’s use and to point out
important tips. Doing this same activity gave me ideas for the same grand staff
topic in my steelpan book.
On
this day, I was able to complete the “Our Father” song for the steelband. I see
that Mr. Sharma really liked this and had asked me to start working on it for Sunday School. I started the evenings in Curepe trying to work it out and
then I went up to Tunapuna to print out the parts for the members on my way to
practice the Sunday.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 15th March 2022)
Dear Diary,
This piece was a random selection
for the Sunday School band in church. I don’t remember if it was one that Mr.
Sharma had asked me to the door I had chosen myself. I was glad that the
introduction worked out. However, my intention for the ending was to have a
grand symphonic sound. It did not work and it blew up in the middle of a
rehearsal.
This piece was presented in
church after the Sunday practice that it was put together. Sir was not there in church but we had a final rehearsal on a Saturday evening and I had decided
to recycle the introduction to end the piece.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 15th March 2022)
Dear Diary,
Another examination event came
and I was involved in three groups: the Indian Classical Ensemble, the Indian
Classical Music class, and the Intermediate Ensemble. As customary, the two Indian
Music classes and Ensemble went in the first act of the show. The Ensemble did
three pieces and the class did two pieces we were working on for the whole
semester. There is a copy of the programme saved for public viewing.
During the early parts of the
semester, I had left the Intermediate Ensemble. I was not doing it for credit
and just like Youth Group, I did not want it to take up time that was only going
to suffer me. However, I was still invited to come back and play with the band for
the show and I took the offer. There would be other students brought back on the
final night to pay for more support. The songs played for this ensemble were
Bailando, Diamonds, Iron Love, Allez, Smile Jamaica, Pegate, Obeah Wedding,
Redemption Song, All Aboard and Bacchanalis.
There was a lot that went occurred this day. Mommy was sick and I had to be wakened to rush out in the road to
stop the ambulance for her. Sometime after, I had to get ready and go down to
DCFA to help with the instruments and then down to Dagga for the rest of the
evening. I had to go home to change into Indian wear and come back down to the "Big UWI" (Main
Campus) with my book bag and a separate bag of other clothing to change for the
groups. I did walk with other clothing to change when returning to school for
the packing.
I had to sit with Mr. Maharaj
after he had consulted with his certificate students for us to see who was present
and absent. That was part of the awarding for the final marks. Got verbally
stabbed in my back twice for the night before going onto the stage and then someone
I called a friend sent a verbal sword through my heart that night while
trying not to scream through the pain in my legs. There are still other hurtful
things that would be left anonymous in the Indian Classical Music course. I thank God that I was able to make it through
another torturing night for the Music of the Diaspora exam’.
The edited video recording was created Friday 5th August 2022 and became a DAPHA Project.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 15th March 2022)
Dear Diary,
It was a weekend in the same
month that I was contacted by a Hillview acquaintance of mine. He asked me to
do some work in music for a friend of his but the task/challenge given to me
was from the perspective of songwriting. The goal of the challenge was to take
the song Congo man and create new lyrics and use the same melody. I knew I was
not good at songwriting but I was still willing to make try.
For this individual challenge
given me to do, I had to study “Congo Man” for a proper first time listening
to the entire song. Next, I tried to take the first verse and come up with
something. I decided that I should focus my attention on one specific topic
because I kept the idea of how calypso can discuss any topic. I was not sure if it
was a good idea to do different topics for each verse., or if I should have
done one overall topic for the entire composition.
The chorus was done over as well.
I was asked to do three verses but instead, I had given eight verses to whoever was to get this creation of mine. I also am not sure if this was used for some
competition, pastime, or may be part of some course assignment for UWI.
A lot of this had to be based on
my experience doing sonnet writing. Some of it seemed to be uneven to the
rhythmic structure of “Congo Man” but I’m sure the person(s) would have been
able to fix it if they did that or had someone else move the words around.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Monday 14th
March 2022)
RAAG BHIMPALASI.
** Monday 4thFebruary 2019 **
This was the first class of being experienced in the piece called Raag
Bhimplasi. The chorus and the verse were given and it seemed to be quite catchy
and attractive. We were given all of the music to learn because I had all of
the music written out by the second version. The piece was used at the Music of the Diaspora concert.
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