Assignment 2

Part A: Practice & Improvise

Practice improvising in the following modes. Remember, practicing “in” a scale means going beyond playing straight up and down. Learn to use it as a pitch collection that can generate all sorts of gestures. These should eventually include steps and skips, arpeggios, patterns (like alternating thirds) as well as freer gestures, and (if possible on your instrument) chords. Non-pianists will benefit from playing on the keyboard as well as on your primary instrument.

the pentatonic modes (i.e. drawn from the “standard” pentatonic collection, that is, D-F-G-A-C or any of its transpositions)
the whole tone scale (both transpositions)
the octatonic scale (at least T0; T1 and T2 if you like)

Note that the pentatonic collection (like the diatonic collection WWHWWWH)is asymmetrical or non-repeating. This means that each of the 5 notes of a pentatonic collection is the tonic of a distinct mode:

Mode I: m3-W-W-m3-W ( = minor pentatonic)
Mode II: W-W-m3-W-m3 ( = major pentatonic)
Mode III: W-m3-W-m3-W
Mode IV: m3-W-m3-W-W
Mode V: W-m3-W-W-m3

When you practice in pentatonic, play in different modes. For any particular transposition (for example the 5 black notes) the pitches you are playing will not change, but how they feel (what they “mean”) is different in each mode. They are not “the same”. You can play both “Amazing Grace” and “Wayfaring Stranger” on the black notes of the piano, but they are in very different modes.

The octatonic scale article on Wikipedia is good. Remember, the T0 collection is equivalent to the whole-half scale starting on C, but “collection” means that set of pitches more generally, i.e. unordered, not just with C understood as the tonic or starting note.

Part B: Compose

Write a duet for any two melody instruments played by members of the class, not including yourself.

Duration: 1.5 - 3 minutes

Here is the available instrumentation.

My thought is that you will write for the wind and violin and possibly voice options from among the class performers. If you are very excited about using piano, guitar, vibes, or some other polyphonic instrument, you can, but you must write for it like a single-line instrument: one note at a time, and no cheating (like fast arpeggios with the sustain pedal down).

Use a strict limitation of pitch classes for each instrument. It could be as little as a single pitch class, or as many as 9 pitch classes, or anything in-between, such as a diatonic or an octatonic mode.

Each instrument will use a different set of pitches, with little or no overlap.

Think deeply about non-pitch-class elements like register, density, dynamics, articulation, and remember to notate these elements in detail. You should also indicate tempo.

Refer to the Essential Dictionary of Orchestration for information about the instruments’ capabilities. You may also reach out to players and ask them to try different passages.

Bring in a sketch score Tuesday. It should include at least three different ideas, and at least 10 bars of music total. The ideas are not necessarily intended as beginnings. And you could bring many different ideas or gestures— this is a great way to start thinking about a piece, rather than committing to a specific idea and a specific opening. It allows you to put down ideas and then decide later whether to keep them, revise them. or throw them away, without the feeling that you are somehow stuck with them.

A sketch can also include non-note-specific ideas like “the form is ABA, with the middle section faster and louder” or “the two instruments begin this section with alternating solo ideas, which then get shorter as the alternations become more rapid, and eventually they overlap and it becomes a duet” etc. But however much you include this kind of more formal/conceptual planning, you still need to come with 3 notated musical ideas and at least 10 bars of music.

Part C: Read

Regardless of the instrumentation you choose, read this introduction to transposing instruments and to the woodwind family.