I have to say, I am really looking forward to this course...although all of my compositions to date have been very tonal, I am excited to explore writing music in a different way, and pushing myself to expand my compositional abilities. I really think that the initial exercise we were instructed to complete was definitely a beneficial one. For someone like myself, I suppose the best way to explain this, is to say that I am unsure of a starting point for writing atonal music. Designing our own atonal chords and deriving a scale from those chords, to me, was an excellent activity to begin opening my mind to another musical world. I actually made 2 attempts at completing this activity.
My first end result, were chords that sounded pretty 'wonky' to me, but the scale that came out of these was very chromatic - almost too chromatic, and not original enough. I also had 14 notes! So, I said, "no, this can't be what Dr. Ross is looking for..." and decided to go back to the drawing board for a second time. This time, I came up with an interesting scale that started out with semitones, and ended with whole tones - this time with 9 notes in total. I was more pleased with this one, and came up with a melody with accompaniment that I initially really liked. However, I now think that it may not sound as atonal as it could. If someone were to hear the melody alone, I think they may wonder where it's going, but I don't think it would strike someone as being completely atonal. When the accompaniment is played with this melody, it sounds a little more towards being atonal than not. I am experimenting with sound, and timbres of instruments, and hoping to include this melody/accompaniment in my first piece. I'd like to play with counter melodies in either the flute or clarinet to work with this as well.
One of my fears with composing atonal music is that there won't be a coherent sound world - everything will seem like it has been pulled from other compositions and thrown into one. I know that this may not be the case, but once I have a clearer idea of what I want and get deeper into my piece, I'm hoping that fear will go away!
Happy composing everyone! See you all on Monday!
-Jenn
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Great journal entry, Jenn! I understand your concerns about embarking on a journey to possibly strange, unfamiliar musical worlds, but I appreciate your openness to the process! I am sure you will get a lot out of the course with a positive attitude like that.
ReplyDeleteOne thing you wrote that caught my eye was: "However, I now think that it may not sound as atonal as it could."
Something that many students struggle with is the concept that "atonal" does not necessarily mean "harsh," "unpleasant," or even "highly dissonant." It just means "not tonal," i.e., not based on major and minor scales and the harmonic structure that grew out of those scales. So don't try too hard to make it sound atonal; if you're using a non-tonal scale, it will by default be non-tonal.
Good luck!