music, me and composing

i've been wanting to post this for a long time... so here it is!!

http://cliffauyong.multiply.com/

if you like to know what i've been up to in school during the past two years, please do listen to my very own compositions :P *ego boosted!*

i like the last 3 parts of "chicken rice" (starts from about 1:5 i think) haha... the first movement was heavily quoted from one source (some would know right away). quite proud of my little achievements in the 2nd movement (1:50 to 3:18), never mind the poor rendition - we the recording 'artistes' didn't practise hard. anyway, i thought of the chord progressions and melody myself leh!!! :P:P 3rd movement is quoted from many places, heavily influenced by contemporary pop. actually, i wanted to compose pop music for the portfolio submission haha.

if my music illiterate cousin (who only listens to canto and mandopop) and chenjie the critical, classical-only guy both love my second movement, i think my music rulez! *MUAHAHAHA*

i like my clockwork a wee bit more, because i spent so much time on it to fine tune so many parts... this is where notation softwares rock! copy-pasting, transpositions, augmentations/dimunitions, parallel 5ths and 8ve checks etc... can even playback the song to test things out!

learnt so many things about composition by fiddling with it for so long (imagine spending entire afternoons + nights just sitting down at the computer screen, wondering what to do with the composition)


***START OF BRAINY STUFF***
*TIPS for A level music students from a noobie post-A level music student*

1. SAVE all your drafts! what you threw away 1 year ago may make a comeback in a different composition, in the form of direct quoting, or inspiration for something else

2. do it in YOUR style. do what you most enjoy doing and what you do best. no point forcing yourself to do a 4 part polyphonic piece when your voiceleading techniques suck etc.

3. listen to more music by other composers. copying bits and pieces is alright, in fact, good! when i say copying i mean copy interesting harmonic progressions/melodies/textures/rhythms/structures etc.

4. be practical, esp if you want to make a live recording out of that one (i.e. players' limitations)

5. start your compositions early. i personally feel that some of them can even be composed concurrently. thing is that over time your ears get more critical towards your own piece, so the more time you have to listen to it, the more fine-tuned the piece can become.

the (inefficient) way i compose is to:

1. brainstorm of the underlying idea(s). it can start from anywhere, depending on your preference. a literary theme/melodic intervals/harmonic progressions/rhythms/overall intended effect etc.

2. get your motifs out! i'm a motif/melody/chord-oriented person, so i usually think of motifs first, but others may do step 3 first, esp. since it's so important too...

3. get your rough structure, you can represent it in a graphical/pictorial form, which is what i like to do... e.g. graph of thickness of texture vs timeline?

4. if your music isn't intended to be an amorphorus lump of sounds, it probably has landmarks where new sounds and TEXTURES are used. don't underestimate the importance of accompaniment! anyway, fill in the start of the 'landmarks', better called as 'sections'.

5. think about how the sections are supposed to link up with each other. the key/instrumentation/texture/melody/chords etc

6. fill up the middle of each section with squeezed brainjuice (i think this is the hardest part - development of ideas) i suggest a mechnical + trial and error approach for noobs like me, which is to use your known techniques (repetition, retrograde yadayada)

7. if you can link up section with section, you should be able to get something coherent. however, don't try to squeeze too many totally different motifs into too short a time, else it can be a medley of songs = less development = low score under the A level mark criteria!
***END OF BRAINY STUFF***


after looking at what i typed, i realise that what i said can be applied to other areas of life. harhar...

wouldn't it be cool to try to create a visual artwork (animation or still, whichever) based on music?? maybe not just an artwork, but entire rooms and buildings? quite cool, then can play the music which inspired the artwork on loop as people view the art...

speaking of looping, just wondering how different personalities can translate into different tastes of music. like how some people may prefer sweet stuff to sour, there could be some measurable, scientific explanation to this hm... conversely, we can work backwards to tailor music for a niche group of listeners...

for me, i love a beautiful voice, beautiful melodies accompanied w/ interesting chords and texture.
**************************

sorry if i have been sounding so boring or arrogant, just organising my thoughts online.

i think the idea of using a ledger to keep track of accounts is working! i only spent $1 (not counting pubic transport) since monday, and the one buck is for washing of clothes ;) must remind myself not to spend, especially when i've already used so much during the past couple of months...

financial 'obstacles' aside, i am rather anxious about the line-up of interviews i'm to have in the next 2 weeks :\ if i can't get into the course i want in a local uni, don't think i'll be able to handle it if i do get an overseas uni...

never mind! it's 2 weeks away! *nervous laughter*

in another 5-6 weeks i'm going to pass out of PLC, will get nervous about vocations but not until later...

ok very tired now, typed a few nonsensical phrases just now... hahaha!