Our class is full of super stars!
When Composition Project 1 was initially assigned I thought it would be somewhat similar to shopping at the mall in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL (my hometown); sure, there are are few (~3...woohoo!) different clothing stores, but realistically, everyone's still going to show up to the junior high dance in the same outfit. This analogy may be a bit of a stretch... but let me explain.
Even though we were given relatively open guidelines for creating our chord progressions/pieces with millions (or probably more) possibilities, I figured that because we are all following the same assignment restrictions and getting the same guidance in class, there would be some inherent similarities. Don't get me wrong here, there are some similarities, but on the whole, it's like comparing apples to steaks!
After people would play their in-progress works, I was floored by how different their pieces were from mine and from each others. I always felt like I was saying "Man... I really like that!" or "That was awesome!" or "That's sick b'y!". I tried to switch it up here so I wasn't monotonous.
That said, one of the things I found extremely beneficial (and remarkable actually...) was the balance the class has already found with complements, comments, and constructive criticism. If everything was all-fabulous-all-the-time we would already be *insert relevant composer name here*. The thing is, we're students. At MOST we've taken maybe two composition courses in the past at Memorial. Of course, people compose outside of a classroom setting, but the bottom line is there is always something for us to work on. I guess that could also be said for *insert relevant composer name here* but here, in our small little class of 7 people, we have had different experiences and have different ideas that the composer may just not have thought about before. I'm sure some suggestions will be made that the composer will not change in their piece; however, as I emphasized in my last post, I really feel like composing is about the process. Deciding not to change something is just as important as deciding to change something.
Anyway, I haven't really delved in to many specific details about my piece or my classmates' in this blog entry. Just some general comments for now I guess! And a reference to GF-W... which I'll make at any given opportunity.
I agree!
ReplyDeleteI was somewhat skeptical - though I should never have been - that we would all come up with our own original music. I thought we might all come up with something in a similar kind of style. I've obviously spent some time with my own work here and on Thursday I was so amazed that something like your piece could come from the same prompt. I look forward to see how everyone's work turns out.