Assignment 3
1. Listen and discuss
Listen to these three pieces. Partial scores were handed out; complete PDF scores below.
composer score audio Bartok Messiaen Feurzeig
Go to this Google doc to comment on the music.
As before, you need to comment at least twice, once initiating and once in response to another person's posting.
Make your initial comment before the end of the weekend (Sunday midnight) so others have time to read and respond.
You may say whatever interests you about whichever piece(s) you choose.
2. Compose
For Tuesday, complete your duet for two melody instruments. Don’t fall prey to masterpiece complex or perfectionism, but do write a complete movement, with (whatever your form) a beginning, middle, and end, a double barline, and expressive indications including tempo, articulation, and dynamics.Come to class with performance-ready score and parts in hard copy. Parts and score can be notated by hand or with notation software, but in either case need to be clear and easily legible.
On Tuesday, we will distribute the parts to everyone to take at least a quick look at before we start reading them on Thursday.
Parts: Parts must be appropriately transposed. If your piece is not too many pages, you could have the players read from the score and not make separate parts. Playing from score is sometimes helpful, particularly when reading or when time is short, as it shows each player how the parts fit together. But the parts still need to be large enough to be easily read at music-stand distance; usually this means a staff size of about 0.3 inches. And of course, if players are reading from the score, any transposing instruments must be notated transposed.
Score: If not also being used by the players in place of parts, the staff size on the score may be smaller, and you may choose to write a score in C (concert pitch) rather than a transposing score—it’s up to you. One advantage of notation software—maybe the biggest one—is that you can automatically generate parts, and parts update when you update the score. On the other hand, there are perils to over-relying on software too, especially at the sketching stage.
Whether the players are to read from score or individual parts, each one of them needs their own copy. You need also to have a separate score for the class to see.
Important: If you write by hand, make photocopies for your players and for the class. People lose music—never give out originals.