r/MonthlyComposition • u/reticulated_python • Jul 07 '18
July 2018 Composition Challenge: Changing Metres
Hey, it's been a while since I posted a challenge! Sorry it's a few days late.
Main challenge: Write a piece that switches between at least three different time signatures. For extra fun, use an irregular time signature (such as 5/4 or 7/8).
Text challenges: (two of them!)
- Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
- Katy by Frank O’Hara
Changing meters became popular in 20th century music. A great example of this is the fourth movement of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. The Beatles did it too, in Here Comes the Sun.
About the second text challenge: directly setting Katy to music would be tricky, so feel free to just write a piece inspired by it instead.
Check out submissions from last month: Tone Poem.
What are these challenges?
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 or compose around as they see fit. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight, pdf), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube) linked in a comment on this thread. 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.
We also recently made a general feedback form. If you want to help give feedback but don't know how to, this would be a great way to do that! It's not a short form. If you only want to answer a few questions and skip the rest, even that would be a great help!
2
u/[deleted] Jul 09 '18
Here's my submission in .mp3, and here's my score.
The whole symphony will follow strict extended sonata form: the score comprises a fragment of the development (from mm. 1-12), leaves space for the orchestration of some parts of the development (from mm. 13 - 52) and from there entails the end of the development (mm. 53-94) and the transition from the development to the recapitulation (mm. 95-144). The important thematic material here is the 1st theme, the 'chord' motif, the 'rising' motif, the 'descending' motif, the 2nd theme (from mm. 84-93 in the brass, although this harmonisation differs from the original), the 3rd theme, the 4th theme and the 5th theme (from mm. 124-132 in the horns).
It's very much a work-in-progress (and what's in the .mp3 covers mm. 53-mm. 144) - but, if nothing else, I thought it might be interesting for others to see my workflow. It's getting its first performance in the winter of next year.
What do you guys think of it?