This is a rather weird minimalistic piece I had to compose (in three days thanks to my teacher's wonderful non-ability to keep track of coursework deadlines) for GCSE Music - it's a strange fairgroundish theme that's quite short and naff but I thought I'd stick it on here to see if anybody had some fresh ideas on how I could change/expand on it.

Enjoy!

Originally posted by madmazda86@May 30 2004, 09:17 AM
This is a rather weird minimalistic piece I had to compose (in three days thanks to my teacher's wonderful non-ability to keep track of coursework deadlines) for GCSE Music - it's a strange fairgroundish theme that's quite short and naff but I thought I'd stick it on here to see if anybody had some fresh ideas on how I could change/expand on it.

Enjoy!
hrm... it was pretty good until :25 or so, but then there are WAY too many clashing notes :)

good start though... I like how it feels light and airy at the start

I don't like the chords either ;) Alas that's how minimalism is supposed to sound, apparently! (I wouldn't have a clue, our teacher was so useless that I had to teach myself out of the study guide which is horribly technical.) They wanted me to try and do phase shifting with it (where you move the bass line along by one rest each time to make it really clashy) but it sounded really horrid so I tried adding some flats to make clashy chords and it wasn't much better ;) I don't really like the minimalist style but you're only allowed to do one composition from each area of study and my serialist piece turned into a complete disaster. I like my ground bass piece (Anlach) much better because I had so much more freedom. I do like the beginning of this piece though, hence I was thinking of ditching the latter half that I put in for the sake of conforming to the mark scheme and just focusing on building on the original light tone of the piece.

Thanks for your feedback!

after a while it just sounds... false X_X

Um, I may have been prejudiced against your song from the start since I don't like minimalism, but at least I tried to stay open. :sweatdrop:

My personal preference would be that your 1st and 4th bars (I'm assuming that's what they are) of your first phrase are too similar, so when you repeat them in the second phrase it ends up not being a good chord progression. But this is coming from a guy who hates modern music, so the choice of chords is totally up to you of course!

The main fault your song has is that it lacks direction. Sure, you start off with the bare minimum, and then you add on more stuff, but you should try doing more. I know, with minimalism, you're limited in how you can play with your material, so it's hard. By direction, I mean that you should give it a purpose, and make us feel that it's not just a bunch of notes. Like, is there a way to put in emotion? Can you make it flow like the rise and fall of waves? I don't know, stuff like that, so that your song doesn't just become an intro repeated over and over again with new stuff placed on top.

Hope I wasn't being too rude and that you take it as constructive criticism. :lol:

The composition itself was good, it's just that you over did it with the instruments. Remember, instruments don't need to play at the same time, in most famous pieces, each instrument house has its own shot, eg: string, woodwinds, brass. Take your time next time, try to avoid noises that make your ears strain and create a better octave system with an alto and saprano. It was a good composition, just ruined by too many instruments at the same time. 8/10.

Originally posted by Alphonse@May 31 2004, 10:49 AM
My personal preference would be that your 1st and 4th bars (I'm assuming that's what they are) of your first phrase are too similar, so when you repeat them in the second phrase it ends up not being a good chord progression.

By direction, I mean that you should give it a purpose, and make us feel that it's not just a bunch of notes. Like, is there a way to put in emotion? Can you make it flow like the rise and fall of waves? I don't know, stuff like that, so that your song doesn't just become an intro repeated over and over again with new stuff placed on top.
Thanks for your feedback - I don't actually like minimalism either, funnily enough ;) I like serialism much better because it's more structured, even though it is more rigid than minimalist style - it's such a nightmare to compose though. You're dead right - my song doesn't really have any direction or even that much empathy in it. I didn't really feel connected with it like I did with my ground bass piece - I felt so restricted by the three day deadline and the structure the piece was supposed to be conforming to that I just ceased to enjoy composing it.

The rubbish ending was tagged on because the mark scheme required it to be longer, and yet the result you see here scored full marks. Odd, isn't it? ;) It does sound really mundane, but then minimalism does a lot of the time (though spoon's minimalist clock composition on the main site contradicts that!)

I would like to play around with it a bit more - I did very little to the dynamics of it and I shall greatly relish losing those horrible chords. Now I'm not restricted by it I can take the bits of it that worked and do something more versatile with them ;) That's a good point you've made about the 1st and 4th broken chord sets - I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do for the 4th one but what I put in there fitted with the melody line on top, so I left it. I might try something different with it though!

Anyway, cheers for the points you made - constructive criticism is always useful! :D

Originally posted by BlackMage@May 31 2004, 06:39 PM
Remember, instruments don't need to play at the same time, in most famous pieces, each instrument house has its own shot, eg: string, woodwinds, brass. Take your time next time, try to avoid noises that make your ears strain and create a better octave system with an alto and saprano.
Yeah, it does sound a bit rushed and cobbled together, doesn't it? :( The piece does become a bit of a sound mire at times @_@ I will work at trying to separate out the instrumentation and see if I can fit some solos in - I might try using different instruments as well. I used flute and oboe because I originally scored it for our school chamber group, but varying the instrumentation might build it up a bit as well.

Thanks for your advice!

Well, I liked it at first but then it just clashes a wee bit too much. :( I do like what you're doing with minimalism, though! :D