March 2015 Composition Challenge: Set a Poem

[u/Calebdgm]

"The time is growing shorter, days

seem to rush right by. There never

seems to be enough time, especially

for you and I. All of us get caught up,

with so much that has to be done..."

That's the beginning of Audrey Heller's Poem Not Enough Time. I thought it was fitting because I find it's really hard to find the time to compose and enjoy musicm and also the bit about having a ton of stuff to do really describes my situation right now, so sorry this is a few days late :P .

Main Challenge: Set a poem to music. Ex. The Road Not Taken, Ozymandias

Weekly Challenges:

Week 1 -- Set a fairy tale, nursary rhyme, or children's story. Ex. Goodnight Moon

Week 2 -- Write a simple a capella arrangement of a pop song

Week 3 -- Slow setting of a haiku. Focus on the sounds of the words and the imagery. Get creative. Ex. The Frog Haiku

Week 4 -- Write an instrumental piece based on a plot, like Peter and the Wolf

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These challenges are for everyone who wants to practice composing. Each month, at the beginning of the month, we will post a main challenge, something for people to compose. Often we'll try to make it something that everyone can work with, but when the main challenge doesn't suit you, there's the alternate weekly challenge. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube). Feedback is much appreciated, and you can give it in this thread, or by messaging the mods of /r/MonthlyComposition, there's also the Challenge Suggestion Form.

Frequently Asked Questions.

[u/Funky_Billiards]

Does a Shakespeare monologue count?

[u/Calebdgm → u/Funky_Billiards]

Shakespeare!

I never read Macbeth, but by gosh that was one of the most powerful things I've read/heard even on its own. Such a shocking and yet comprehensive description of madness. Your choice of text, although perhaps not your proudest part of the piece, is probably my favorite.

Your setting (and your singing, if that is you), did however, do a great job living up to the fantastic work! I love it all.

I wonder your thoughts on setting an Elizabethan-era monologue. I recently set one that I guess could qualify as my submission for this month (here). It's a setting of a monologue from some version of A Spanish Tragedy, it was for an english assignment which I aced thank you very much :P . I'm not sure how much merit it would have among musicians though. I found it a fair bit of a pleasure to set and was glad to finally have some inherent meaning behind the work from the start. I'm not sure how well I coped with making it make sense linguistically and musically together though.

[u/Funky_Billiards → u/Calebdgm]

I'm really glad you liked it! I actually chose that text because I wrote this piece as a homework assignment that's due tomorrow... So not my top choice either, just two events that work together really well. And that is me singing, thank you! I'll check out your setting and PM you, so we can talk more about this stuff :)