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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/17/2022 in all areas

  1. I think the line between a new composition and an arrangement can be blurred in many ways. For example, you could harmonize the original material in a completely new way or orchestrate it completely differently. As @ConfusedFlourBeetle mentioned new melodies or countermelodies may be added or sometimes the new arrangement can take on the form of a final draft of a more sketchy and not fully realized composition. I once re-orchestrated (and like I mentioned, re-arranged) a composition by a composer from Ecuador, Sergio Guerrero. He came up with the idea for an orchestral Pasillo that combined the Minuet form with Pasillo rhythms (the Pasillo is the Ecuadorian national dance). I thought it was a great idea and asked his permission if I could arrange my own version of the work. It took many drafts where I constantly had to refine the material in his original composition multiple times. It turned out really well I thought but there were also many original harmonic ideas that Sergio's version lacked or at best only implied. I think that it could definitely be called a successful collaboration though. Then there's also the potential for writing variations of a work which have much more potential for original ideas. Or you could orchestrate a piano piece for full orchestra which definitely also requires ingenuity. Or a combination of all of these: re-arranging, re-harmonizing, re-orchestrating, or variations.
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  2. Context for my answers: I have been having composition lessons in the pre-college department of a conservatoire from a professional composer who is also a tutor at that conservatoire's senior college composition department. 1. Does my teacher have a big influence on the way i compose? Yes. They were the one who encouraged me to start my pieces on paper at an instrument (I first used viola for this but now I mainly use piano as harmony has become much more important for me than it used to be). They have also encouraged me to think more about form and overall structure which I do to some extent but not much. 2.Do i consciously change the way i compose to satisfy my teacher? Sort of? My music has become much more chromatic since starting lessons and I think that could be due to my teacher's influence but I think it is more from how I have developed in my understanding of harmony with them exposing me to things like Riemannian theory and us discussing pieces of music that both they and I have chosen. My rhythms have started to change and become more complex, likely from their influence as that is the area they typically identify as most lacking in my pieces. 3.Does my teacher force his/her musical ideology upon me or am i free to discover my own ideology? Not at all, they guide me in discovering what I like and applying that to my own ideas. 4.Do i see a problem with my teacher adjusting my work and thereby not allowing me to express my own identity as a composer? My teacher has never really done that aside from when we were doing orchestration and my orchestration was horrifically unbalanced. 5.How does my teacher evaluate my compositions? (open question). They have to grade me for the pre-college so they do it using that which looks at understanding and use of: melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, form, & musical style, notation skill, originality, and musical sense. In terms of feedback they mostly comment on what they think worked well in my work, what they think hasn't gone well, and how that can be addressed. I think my composition lessons are quite good and my teacher is excellent for me but other teachers may not be so good if, for example, students are forced into particular styles or techniques of composition and discouraged from exploring outside of that. I have 3 separate composition classes in the pre-college, my principal study lessons where I bring in a project that I am working on (what I have mainly discussed above), a seminar which is mainly on techniques, methods, and peer criticism, and a workshop class which is a project over 1 or 2 terms - the last one has been a piece for SSA and harp trio where each of us in the class (3 of us) wrote a movement and one before that was based around serialism. The principal study lessons and seminar are with a the same tutor and the workshop has a different tutor depending on the project but the same can apply to the tutors for that.
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  3. I think they are related but different things. Composition is coming up with the music itself but arranging is a reorganisation of that music, whether it be structurally, harmonically, orchestrationally, texturally, or some combination. I do think the lines are blurry though for example when arranging it is common to add new lines that were not present in the original or even cases like masses based on hymn tunes (e.g.; requiems) and pieces based on folk tunes (e.g.; Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy) that use the original material as a lose reference.
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  4. I think before setting out to orchestrate something you should make sure that you have enough raw data to warrant the orchestration. Right now you just have some melodies without any accompaniment. I'd say you should first try to write a piano partiture (I mean like where you put all your ideas into a piano staff even if it's not playable by one person), filling out the bass, harmonies and any contrapuntal voices you want to include and dropping those things when they're not necessary which will help you prevent the piece from sounding too overwhelming. Variations technique can be really useful in finding a version of each idea that you like. You can play with how high or how low you set the melodies, what kind of different possibilities you want for harmonies and bass. And then as a last step assess whether you want to arrange the idea for a different ensemble. Your ideas as they stand kind of seem like run-on phrases or sentences. Your third and fourth ideas have more of a traditional structure. Anyway - I hope some of that was helpful and I wish you luck in finding something to do with these ideas. Peter P.S.: I think choosing the accompaniment will be a big deciding factor in influencing the rhythmic character of each idea so you should really decide for yourself what kind of accompaniment you prefer. That's my 2ยข.
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