Byron's blog — A CDNIS Student Blog

Composition Summative Part I

by Byron Chow on March 6, 2013

Did you use feedback from peers during the creative process? Give examples of when you did this.

I asked different people for feedback, as I can get a large varied range of comments regarding my composition piece. All of my feedback were melody-related because I specifically asked comments regarding that, as I was struggling to figure out by myself, whether or not an obvious melody was present. I received were regarding melody, some said there was an obvious melodic line but some said no melodic line was present in certain or even most parts of the composition. To be on the safe side, I decided to devote more of my time on the melody then the harmony because once I have the melody I can use different instruments to accompany it. After experimenting with different rhythms and notes, I decided to just change my whole composition because I figured that my initial composition focused more on harmony, as I need all three instruments to be playing at the same time to give out a warm mood. Therefore, before starting on my new piece, I planned on which instruments to specifically use for my melody. For example, in part A, I used the treble clef of the piano to be my melodic line. As for part B, I changed it to having Cello being my melodic line. After addressing that and discussing with a peer, I determined that NT’s and PT’s are the best non-chord tones to use, when trying to create a classical music piece so I incorporated a lot of Neighbor Tones and Passing Tones.

Did you evaluate your work against the marking criteria? Give examples of when you did this.

Unfortunately for me, I started the music composition before the instructions sheet and marking criteria was published onto Moodle. Once it was out on Moodle, I read over the marking criteria and as I composed, I always referred to the criteria. Examples of myself checking against the marking criteria would be section A, with the 1st phrase ending with imperfect cadence, and the 2nd phrase ending with a plagal or perfect cadence. Also, my ‘B’ section maintains some sort of similarities with the ‘A’ section. For example, my part ‘A’ is played in Concert B flat major but my part ‘B’ is played in the key of relative minor. Unfortunately, I could not distinguish the two parts from dynamics because I used the dynamics for subtlety changing from section ‘A’ then to part ‘B’. In addition, I used NCTs (non-chord tones), such as passing tone, neighbor tone, Appoggiatura, Anticipation, Retardation, Suspension, Neighbor Group Tones. Throughout my composition, unfortunately, more than half of my non-chord tones are using passing tones and neighbor tones because it is best to use neighbor tones and passing tones when trying to compose a classical song. My third most commonly used non-chord tones is appoggiatura because all I have to do is raise a certain note by three intervals or more, with it being a non-chord tone, then being resolved by a step up or down.

Did you reflect critically on your work during the creative process? Give examples of how you responded to your own reflection.

Throughout the creative process, I constantly reflected on my work by always looking at the marking criteria then at my musical composition piece. I did this by constantly listening over the music piece, from start to bottom, to see if the completed bars link together. If not, I will listen to those bars specifically, then change the notes around or the notes value itself. Sometimes if it does not work, it is because of the notes, notes value or rhythm of the bars surrounding that problem. I also learnt that when trying to change the rhythm of certain parts, I will have to do it slowly, cleverly and subtlety. For example, I can slowly decrease the notes value, meaning the notes will be played faster and the vice-versa works. Furthermore, a main problem was too incorporate all three of the instruments into the musical piece, while having a melodic line to it. Reason being, sometimes when all three instruments are being played, it sounds amazing and gives out the ideal warm feeling that I would like the piece to achieve. However, sometimes it gets real messy so in some bars, certain instruments do not need to be played, in order to strike a balance between the three different instruments and to give out a real nice, clean and gentle impression of the music piece to the audience.

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3-Note Composition

by Byron Chow on February 3, 2013

in Criteria C, Grade 10 Music

Having to do a reflection regarding methods to make the composition sound catchy prior to this three-note composition, I think that Mr. Dacho would like us to use those methods and apply them. Although composing a music piece by only using solely three concert notes is a fun task but it is hard to make it interesting. The constant use of the three notes can result in the audience getting annoyed with the repetition so I will have to use methods, in order to avoid that. My intent of this three-note composition was to make it sound pleasant and to use a range of methods to achieve that goal.

I picked three notes, B, G and D because I thought they sounded great together but only discovered that they fit perfectly because they are actually a music triad. I then tried out the following methods:

1) Have different changes in ‘speed’. For example, I started off with a whole note, then it became one half note, one quarter note and quarter rest in the following bar. The next bar was even faster with smaller valued notes.

2) I used rests in certain bars so that there will be a contrast for the two different instrument staves. For example, if a rest is present in a bar for the Clarinet, the horn will have a certain note being played at that certain time. Rests are one of the most underrated methods to making a melody or a composition interesting. It gives out a certain edge or a stop-and-think kind of feeling.

3) Articulation was also used throughout the music piece. I used mostly staccato and accents. I like using staccato because it gives out a cheerful and jumpy feeling, which can help set up the mood of the music piece. Most of the staccato that I put in, were used on the notes that have a very short note value so it makes it even shorter and can actually empathize the note value too.

4) Repetition of melodic phrases. I tried this out once at around the middle of the music piece. I had to adjust the notes around because it did not sound too great initially. The use of this was to empathize the phrase but to also make it sound catchy. As long as the phrase sounds decent, it will automatically sound interesting.

The musical difficulties that I encountered would be to make it sound interesting. It really is hard to make a composition with only three notes but through the different use of listed methods and experimentation, I finally pulled it off.

Throughout this composition exercise, I learnt that one does not need all the available notes to make it sound good but by just using the few methods listed above could do the trick. There are also a few more methods but I did not use them much or at all, which would include dynamics.

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What Makes an Interesting Melody:

January 31, 2013

What makes an interesting melody: NCT’s also known as non-chord tones, which include passing tones, neighbor tones, appoggiaturas, suspension, anticipation, retardation and so on. Proper use of NCTs will make an interesting melody as they create a certain tone. Occasional use of dissonance sometimes might be appropriate but if a constant use of dissonance [...]

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