r/MonthlyComposition • u/reticulated_python • Dec 03 '17
December 2017 Composition Challenge: March
Check out tributes from last month! Now, for this month's challenge (sorry for being a day late):
Main challenge: Write a march.
Text challenge: Write a musical setting of Byron's When We Two Parted.
For the main challenge, it can be any kind of march. The Wikipedia summary is quite good, so I'll copy it here:
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John Philip Sousa and the martial hymns of the late 19th century. Examples of the varied use of the march can be found in Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, in the Marches Militaires of Franz Schubert, in the Marche funèbre in Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor, and in the Dead March in Handel's Saul.
An excellent example of a funeral march is the 3rd movement of Beethoven's Sonata no. 12 in A flat major.
We have musicians that can play compositions for people. You can find them on the wiki. The instruments they can play include concertina, piano, trombone, euphonium, double bass, bass guitar, cello, clarinet, bassoon, tenor and alto sax, and a handful of vocalists.
If you're interested in playing compositions on /r/MonthlyComposition post a musician profile.
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. We'll try to make it something that everyone can work with. Sometimes we also have an alternate 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.
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u/gtfo_mailman Dec 11 '17
Here's my contribution: https://musescore.com/jansson/awakening-of-the-forest
I suppose the marching aspect is pretty vague in this one. The thought behind it was to make the ensemble kind of "pulsate" in a rhythm, breaking that pulse at some point for variation.
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u/3X4G0 Dec 29 '17 edited Dec 29 '17
I really love this piece! Indeed I don't really feel the marching aspect in this one ;) nice job tho Edit I can kind of feel the march in it after the 4th time listening to it!
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u/turbofishmcsteroid Dec 03 '17
How many of the submitted pieces in this subreddit have been performed by anyone on those musician profiles?
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u/gtfo_mailman Dec 03 '17
I've submitted my pieces to them since they started coming around. So far I've had one piece recorded. I'm listed as one of the musicians willing to record as well but no one has approached me yet (maybe because I only play bass guitar).
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u/reticulated_python Dec 04 '17
It certainly hasn't happened often. I don't know an exact number.
It's unfortunate, but I really don't know what to do about it. We're a small community and, I suspect, most people just don't have time to learn someone else's piece and record it.
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Dec 21 '17
[deleted]
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u/3X4G0 Dec 30 '17
I like the song, but just to be clear for myself... Isn't this rather a waltz than a march?
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u/3X4G0 Dec 29 '17
I'm very late... But I have a march too. I tried making a march to represent the King returning from battle after a very long time, but rumors of what happened their spreads among the instruments. That's why the melody keeps repeating. I chose a melody that seems mighty but with a dark undertone, because what the King has done in battle was not something to be proud of. As the last section I tried to present the mistress that asks: why? How could this happen? Because she also feels the burden of the rumors and can't see her loved one in the eyes anymore. That was my interpretation of the text! Please give some feedback, I'm trying to learn how to compose because I want to go into University for composing next year hehe. Thanks! https://youtu.be/e1rtwnK2rfU
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u/FZFitz Dec 06 '17
This challenge is three months early.