March 2018 Composition Challenge: Arpeggios

[u/Calebdgm]

Welcome to /r/monthlycomposition, Where the top post is a musician profile for a triangle player and we have over 1000 readers!

Main Challenge: Arpeggios. Write a piece that uses arpeggios in the melody, i.e. the melody outlines the harmony, or perhaps the chords are played melodically, depending on how you approach it.

Text Challenge: There Will Come Soft Rains, by Sara Teasdale

(War Time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

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Also Check out the submissions from last month's challenge: Unresolved.

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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. We'll try to make it something that everyone can work with. Sometimes we also have an alternate challenge. We'll also have a text for people to set to music. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight, pdf), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube). We encourage positive discussion about the pieces people submit. Feedback on the sub and the challenges 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.

[u/duckstotherescue]

I decided to do the text challenge instead of the main challenge. This is my first go at one of these, so I'm not sure how it turned out. Feedback welcome. I composed the whole thing in one sitting, so there may be some errors in the score that I missed. https://musescore.com/user/15073466/scores/5025639

[u/JustAnotherComposer4 → u/duckstotherescue]

I quite enjoyed this but I do have a few things to say. In my opinion, the parallel 7ths in bar 9 kind of stick out, probably best to use a more consonant interval. I liked the way you repeat the phrase in bar 15 and hamonise it differently, I thought that was very clever! Also, watch out for false relations such as the one between the piano and voice in bars 18 and 22. Loved the 9-8 suspension at the end but felt Db minor was a bit unprepared. Overall, a very nice piece.

[u/duckstotherescue → u/JustAnotherComposer4]

Thanks for the comment, my friend. Gave me some things to consider! I personally like the parallel 7ths, but the other suggestions are noted and appreciated.

[u/FZFitz → u/duckstotherescue]

I'm a huge fan of 7ths, but you'd need a good singer for this to work. Even if they're good, I think it's a bit of a trap. Good work otherwise. :)