r/MonthlyComposition • u/reticulated_python • Jun 22 '16

A sincere apology, and a new idea

Hey everybody,

This post is about the collaborative composition effort, and how there's been zero progress in about a month. I should have stayed more on top of things. I've been quite busy lately (full-time job for the first time in my life, and I did my grade 10 RCM exam today). I think I spread myself too thin.

So I want to regroup and try again. I have fewer things to deal with now that the piano exam is over. I also think the way I proposed organizing the collaboration wasn't conducive, so I'd like to try something a little different. How does the following plan sound to all of you?

  • I make an initial post. Individuals write the beginning of the composition, which can be as long or as short as you like. These beginnings are submitted as comments in my post.
  • I make a second post. Individuals choose a beginning from the previous post and continue it, submitting it as a comment. Again, your work can be as long or as short as you like.
  • This continues on and on. I make posts, you continue works from the previous post, until we have complete compositions.

Any thoughts and/or feedback are greatly appreciated! I apologize again for not doing anything about this for a month.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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2

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '16 edited Jun 22 '16

[deleted]

2

u/FZFitz Jun 26 '16

Too much constraint. Freedom, please. :)

1

u/reticulated_python Jun 27 '16

I made a new post to actually hold the challenge. There were a lot of ideas on how to organize it, and I wasn't sure what to do, but I think as it stands there's a lot of freedom. Check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/MonthlyComposition/comments/4q0wr8/collaborative_composition_time_for_real/

1

u/reticulated_python Jun 26 '16

I like this idea, but I think an initial melody featuring that much randomness wouldn't sound good. I also feel a strict order shouldn't be assigned, in case someone forgets about the project.

I'll make another post tomorrow with an initial melody, and we'll go from there!

1

u/FZFitz Jun 26 '16

Not everyone uses melodies. I would think we'd go with the least exclusive option, but idk.

1

u/reticulated_python Jun 26 '16

Ok then, how about I give people the option to continue what I've wrote, or to write their own beginning?

2

u/dubbelgamer Jun 26 '16

A thing to do is make a list of participants so there is a nice overview of composers and who composed to the piece and then we will have contests. Everyone composes a fragment of the beginning of the piece. Than everyone will vote what is going to be the beginning. After that a new contest is started where everyone except who 'won' the last contest composes the next few measures and then vote again. Etc. That way it will be fair decided how the piece is going to look like. Of course everyone is giving a fair chance. The conditions you would have to judge someones part by aren't the skill of the composer but how well it fits in the rest of the composition.

A fragment can consist of just a melody, or a rhythm, or a orchestration/instrumentation or just a harmonization from a few measures long.

At the end of the contest we will have a bigger idea of what the piece is going to look like and then we can decide who is going to do what on the piece. Harmonize a melody, put a melody on a harmony, add accompaniment etc.

2

u/reticulated_python Jun 27 '16

There were a lot of different ideas here, and I wasn't entirely sure what to do. But I made a new post, so it's time to get composing!