MaveshdinMantis

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the possibility of finding an armonica sample set. I mean it would seem to me that if you have access to composing software and a midi sequencer that creating a recording would be possible. And if you don't have access to the software maybe you could still write the piece and see if someone else would be willing to sequence it in. However that all depends on being able to find the sample set. I don't know if I agree with what is being said about not writing a piece that will never be performed, I mean why not keep something like that in a notebook. It may inspire you down the road as well as on the spot. Maybe you'll get into the piece and find out that it needs accompanying instruments and it turns out to be another piece entirely. Anyway, it's probably a good exercise.

Yeah I know what you mean about the rush. The choir director told me he was going to ask me to step down and bow after the piece was performed and I was really nervous about that. Before we performed the piece he told the audience that I arranged it and pointed me out. So the performance was very interesting. Here I am singing in like a 60+ person choir and the whole time I was watching the string players, stressing out because the first 3-4 measures kind of fell apart. But I shouldn't give the impression that I'm disappointed. The other 60 measures were played very well and I'm stoked on the performance.

I was asked to do the arrangement so the choir director dealt with all of that. But as for finding musicians, I would recommend just asking other music students. If you have pieces requiring instruments that no one you know of plays, then you might want to arrange it for what you have to work with. A lot of students I know are totally down to perform music written by their peers. If that doesn't work just hire people, which sucks but what can you do? Just remember that even if you think it's not a very complicated piece doesn't mean that someone else can pick it up right quick. Maybe you've had that tune running around your head for weeks but remember no one else knows how it sounds yet. So try and give the musicians ample time to learn the piece; you don't want them to just be able to get through it, you want them to perform your music. Anyway that's my two cents.

So I go to music school at a university (composition major) and last night an arrangement I wrote was performed for the first time. I've been at school here for a few years and this is the first time anything I've written at school has been performed. I've done the college rock band thing and written and performed more than a dozen tunes that were performed regularly, but I didn't even read music back then. Now I have this arrangement I wrote and it stressed me out quite a bit. I was really nervous about whether or not it was actually readable and playable. The arrangement is for 2 violins, cello and contrabass taken from a piano and 4-part vocal score (SATB). The arrangement accompanies the original score. So the first time I or anyone else heard it was at dress rehearsal for last night's show (I'm in one of the two choirs that performed the piece), and that was really cool, until the end of the piece. The choir director let me write an ending for the strings in which they restate the main theme, and I offset the rhythm a bit for variety. I really wanted to hear that ending but when the strings came to it they couldn't play it, probably because they were sight-reading it and that rhythmic change is subtle but confusing. Also we performed Mozart's coronation mass so I think the strings were a bit preoccupied. Anyway, the end was dropped and replaced with two measures of a C drone (the piece begins on a Bb drone) that fades out. Also 2 more violins were added to each part at dress. So I had to redo the ending and get those parts out to the director. Well i guess the players didn't get their parts until they were on stage and then scrambled to observe the changes. So the performance went, alright. The bass missed the Bb drone (hit a B natural) on the first measure and played pianissimo the rest of the night. The bass part really makes the drone effect stand out, so I was bummed. Anyway I learned a few things about dealing with performances and musicians and anxiety, and I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with first performances going like this. I gotta get to class but I can put the score up if anyone wants to see it.

right, thanks.

the concept is pretty cool: utilizing a pitch that only sounds in octave overtones and eliminating everything thing else, i.e. tonality, and by controlling the frequency of the volume you essentially are hearing a cluster chord. like that piece therenody for the victims of hiroshima, forgot the composer (they use it in Children of Men at the end during the battle at the fugee camp). but i think it's cool that this natural "spectrum" of overtones we hear define tonality while hearing a single frequency with only octave overtones really creates a sense of atonality.