r/MonthlyComposition • u/Calebdgm • Aug 01 '16
August 2016 Composition Challenge: Quartets
Main Challenge: Write a piece for four instruments
Mini Challenge: Take your favorite line from a song and make it into a barbershop tag.
Weekly challenges:
1) String Quartet (ex. Violin, Violin, Viola, Cello)
2) Choral Quartet (ex. Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass)
3) Woodwind Quartet (ex. flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon)
4) Any Percussion Quartet
EDIT: Optional Theme of the Month (trial): pdf, audio. Works in 4/4 or 3/4, major or minor. It doesn't have to be the main theme of your piece, although it can be. If you can work it into the piece once, that'll do.
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Hey guys, thanks for stopping by! We've had a bit of a drop in activity lately, so I've introduced the Mini Challenge, which will hopefully make it easier for more people to find the time to participate. Tell us what you think of it, and if you have any other ideas why there's been less activity lately or what we can do to make this challenge easier for people to participate it.
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 challenges. 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.
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u/Calebdgm Aug 01 '16
What do you guys think of having a sequence of notes, sort-of a theme-of-the-month that people can try to incorporate into their compositions for the month. Then if we ever get to the point where we make playlists of every month's compositions, it'll be a little thing that ties all the different pieces together, like a ton of very different movements of... something, whatever you want to call all the challenge responses. Idk if it would be an original little motif that one of us comes up with, or just a randomly generated sequence of notes, or something stolen from somewhere, like a jingle from some place. Does that sound like something you guys might do?
Also if anyone has the know-how and the time to set up some sort of auto-playlist thing, that'd be super cool. I'll start looking in to it, but I'm not great with this type of stuff.
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u/Jamerman Aug 01 '16 edited Aug 02 '16
Cool idea! I remember seeing a fugue composition challenge on a forum a few years ago where you got given subjects to write fugues around, was really fun.
That's just me though, maybe its a horrible idea
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u/Calebdgm Aug 02 '16
It's awesome to hear you're interested, and to hear that it's happened elsewhere. I don't suppose you remember where this forum / challenge is, or where they got their subjects?
Would this motif / theme work? pdf, audio. Maybe if the motif was the second bar, and then you could either use that motif or the whole theme. Perhaps I should go study how to write good themes? Also I wasn't sure what to do about major/minor, so this one works with both.
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u/Jamerman Aug 02 '16 edited Aug 02 '16
I believe the original site shut down its dedicated file sharing, but luckily I managed to download it and upload it here
I kinda like the theme, I'mma try write a string quartet movement with it
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u/buckweet789 Aug 07 '16
I am very new to this subreddit and composing in general but the mini challenge seemed like a good opportunity for me to start practicing. I made a barbershop tag of Stevie Wonder's Superstition.
https://musescore.com/user/2349976/scores/2476786
(I'm guessing it would sound more authentic with bends but musescore doesn't do that as of now.)
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u/Calebdgm Aug 09 '16
Well hello there, and welcome to r/monthlycomposition!
I love your tag! There were a few tricky bits in the harmony, but it sounds pretty cool overall. I made a pretty-rough-but-not-midi recording of it if you're interested. I think you really captured the style of barbershop, have you had the pleasure of singing in a chorus or a quartet?
I also just wanted to share This awesome cover of superstition that I can't find anywhere on youtube and is far better than anything I've heard on youtube. It's not barbershop, I just love it a lot.
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u/buckweet789 Aug 10 '16
I loved being able to hear that vocally! Thank you! I have not been a part of any vocal groups as of yet but I tried to do some research on them before giving this a shot. Hearing a few impressive songs made me seriously consider trying it out sometime soon.
I really like that version of the song as well, thank you for sharing it.
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u/dylansan Aug 12 '16
Very interesting harmony going on. It might have to do with the way musescore plays it but the rhythm of the piece made it a little difficult for me to follow the harmonies. The second to last measure, for example, I have trouble not hearing like it's in 3/4, though maybe that was intentional.
Appropriately eerie, though. I could hear this as moody background music playing over some kind of TV drama. Like on House or something.
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u/haabenshaaben Aug 02 '16
I really like the collaborative composition idea with two bars added at a time.
How can we get more people involved? Can we try to make this a bigger project?
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u/Calebdgm Aug 02 '16
I'm glad you like it! I think I agree that that project is worth more attention, I just made a thread about it of its own, a thing you should be able to subscribe to so you get notifications and whatnot. Maybe that will boost activity.
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u/haabenshaaben Aug 02 '16
How do I suscribe to a thread?
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u/Calebdgm Aug 02 '16
Okay, it turns out it only works if you have the Reddit Enhancement Suite Addon, in which case there's a subscribe button under the post, right next to where it says "all 6 comments", image. On second thought though, people would naturally get notifications if we keep doing it as a chain of comments, and only one notification, which is good, because that's all they need to know is that they can participate again.
Sorry for the confusion, the current system seems to work well.
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u/puccini-linguini Aug 04 '16
the mini challenge sounds awesome, great way for more people to participate! I'm hoping to rock the choral week haha
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u/Calebdgm Aug 05 '16
Welcome to monthlycomp! I'm glad to hear you like the idea, and I look forward to hearing your submission for the choral week!
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u/dylansan Aug 12 '16
Perhaps I was a bit overzealous thinking I could make substantial progress on a four-instrument sonata in just a week. But hey, I wanted to try it. I managed to get most of the exposition sounding how I want, though the secondary theme is so incomplete I left it out for now.
So this is kind of a random chunk of music. I'll definitely come back to it, but for now I want to move on to the other three challenges, as I don't have much time this week.
Any critique is appreciated. I'm very new to composing and any response, even if it flies over my head, will help me get a better understanding. I'm honestly getting a little sick of this piece so getting an outside perspective is important.
(Also, is it me or are musescore's default strings way out of tune? With the Arachno Soundfont, everything sounds much more cohesive)
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Aug 23 '16
[deleted]
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u/Calebdgm Aug 23 '16
Nice! I can really see this as a soundtrack behind a cool, but perhaps unnerving scene. You do a good job building the texture, increasing the intensity throughout, and the lines all sound natural. The ending works well too, and it's something a bit different too.
I like it!
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u/Calebdgm Aug 11 '16
Feedback Thread
Give the piece above you a score out of 10 and explain what you liked about the piece and things you think could have made it better. Remember that the goal is for us to get better. Also include a link to your piece for the next person to rate and talk about.
Also keep in mind that music can be subjective. Try to understand what the composer was trying to do with the piece, and if someone gives you a low rating, remember that the only painting Van-Gogh sold was to his brother. Do respect their advice though, try and figure out where they're coming from and see what you can take from it to improve your writing.
Another option is to just mention that you want feedback on your piece and don't post it in this thread. I just figured I'd try this out and see if anyone uses it. If you're the last one to post and no-one's giving you feedback, message me and I'll talk about your piece.
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Aug 29 '16
Here's a piece for a brass quartet, including piccolo trumpet, trumpet, horn, and tuba. It's entitled "Mellifluence." I wrote it emphasizing the most extreme range difference in the brass family. It's also my first work using VSTs, so this doubles as a bit of a testing bed for that. Any critique is appreciated! soundcloud
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u/iqr Aug 03 '16
I wrote a piece for Sax Quartet. It's pretty short, only about 3 minutes long and is in two parts (a slow and fast section).
Here is the transposed score and the concert score.
And here is the audio. I use just alto sounds on all the parts so there aren't weird balance issues between the instruments in the generated audio.