Lesson with Erik

Right Erik - you're clear to post this piece.

Ok, this piece isn't that near to completion, but it is I guess a compilation of different parts/ideas as for now. It's called "The Moth", because last night when I was sitting by the piano and composing/working on this piece a moth flew by and landed on the keys, and well, I thought it somehow was a good name for the piece so yeah, that's the story bout this one :P

And as I said in the PM, most of this is done by "ear" with no deeper understanding for the harmony really, I have no idea how the intro chords relate to eachother in a progression and other stuff, but I think most of it sounds good so... Ah well, just listen :)

The Moth in C-Minor.MUS

So? Do you have something to add? Or do you think we should just go through some theory? I feel that is something I need to do, so maybe it's just right. Maybe give me some tasks or something.

Hi - sorry I haven't been around this thread much. I'm trying to take care of a bunch of schoolwork, and other such deadlines. I'm clear with most of them now though, and I should be able to be back full-time by next week.

I understand, I'm a student myself and I tend to take up all sorts of different work so I can totally relate to that. It's ok really, I'm just happy that you're even willing to give me some of your time :)

Okay. I took a listen/look at your piece. You have a few errors of counterpoint - hidden octaves and the like - which you may have wanted to do, but since for the most part your counterpoint avoids those intervals, in their current iterations, they sound out of place. I'm also puzzled by the sudden unison section in mm. 31 and 32.

How much counterpoint do you know?

To be completely honest I know nothing about counterpoint (I'd like to know though :)). And could you tell me at which places those hidden octaves are a problem? I can't quite put my finger on where you think it sounds most out of place.

And yeah, as I said in my first post I've mostly just put all the ideas I got down for the piece as for now, so I know the unison section at 31-32 sounds sudden.

And I'm having quite the problem to create the tension I want as my harmony knowledge still isn't very vast. So I'd like to have some help with this.

Nifty.

Well, my own personal belief in that "harmony" doesn't exist without counterpoint, even if the counterpoint is just the simplest set of chords - so we'll start with counterpoint.

I must leave for my call time now, but I'll be back in five or six hours, and I'll post up some reading for you, and your first counterpoint assignment.

Right - Species Counterpoint:

article: ntoll.org: Species Counterpoint

This article will be extremely helpful. It spells out basic counterpoint very clearly. Let me know when you've read it, and I'll prepare an assignment or three.

Ok, I've read it now, so you're free to give me some assignments now. I've kind of gotten the grasp of what it's all about now. Now we'll just have to see how well I will be able to put it into "action" :wub:

Assignment # 1:

First Species Counterpoint. Given the following Canti Firmi, compose a 1st Species contrapuntal line both above and below. The .pdf of the Cantus lines is attached.

Well this is what I came up with.

Counter exercise A.MUS

Counter exercise B.MUS

I'm sorry - I should have been clearer about this assignment. When doing species counterpoint, one always begins on either the unison, 5th, or octave. One always ends on the unison, and the second to last pitch is always the leading tone, if coming from underneath, or the supertonic, if coming from above.

Sorry again, but if you could do the assignment according to those guidelines that'd be great.

Ok, I've had lots I to do and still do, I'm having a very hectic period so I haven't really had the time to do this. But I found myself some time to do this now so I'll post the changes I did on the assignments.

Counter exercise A take 2.MUS

Counter exercise B take 2.MUS

Thanks - I'll look these over when I get the chance, but it's finals week, so I'll be busy.

I was wondering if you have the time to help me with this now :) I can understand if you've had/have much to do, so have I.

Because of my exams and such I haven't had much time to sit down composing myself, I have mostly concentrated on playing the piano and done all the boring homework. But now when I'm off for summer break I've got plenty of time! So if you still feel like teaching me, here I am :)

Right. I looked over this work - and it's pretty good for the most part. You have several instances of parallel fifths - which for most period music is a HUGE no-no - and you've begun the bass line on the 4th scale degree, when in species counterpoint, you only ever start on the 1st when writing lower counterpoint. There are some places where you leap one direction, and then leap another, which is not stylistically correct. You also have repeated a pitch in adjacent bars - which is not exactly kosher either.

But your counterpoint's pretty strong for all that. You've countered your parallel fifths by moving in opposite directions, or simply away from stepwise motion to generate contrast, which is nifty. And I'm not one to really care about stylistic conventions. If you ever take a theory class, I'll let THEM worry about that stuff.

I think a new exercise would be a good/fun idea. This is an exercise that comes from composer Ralph Shapey, via my teacher Amy Kaplan.

Pick five pitches, all within one octave (or so). They should not be components of a diatonic scale. Analyze them for their intervallic content by counting how many of each interval exists in the set. For our purposes, intervals larger than a tritone should be inverted (5th becomes 4th, M6 becomes m3, etc.).

Write a short melody, using each of the five pitches. You may repeat pitches, but not once you've moved on to a new pitch ("A, A, D" is permissible, "A, D, A" is not).

I'll give you further instructions when you post your melody.

Ok so I did that exercise, I chose these 5 pitches

D E G Ab Bb

I was not sure if I was allowed to repeat the same pitch an octave up as you said it should be inside of an octave, but I kept the one instance at measure 11 anyways because I felt it should be like that :) I can change it though if it isn't allowed in this exercise.

5 pitch exercise.MUS

Hmm I realise it's been a while since I did some serious composing so now when I'm in the ending phase of my summer work I want to start again. I'm very curious in what this exercise is so if possible I'd like to hear what to do next. By the way, I added a new part of melody because I was a bit bored so I'll post it here.

5 pitch exercise added stuff.MUS

Hi Erik! Sorry - I've been really bogged down lately with this opera - got to be done in a week and all. Thanks for being patient. I'll get back to you on your 5-pitch exercise really soon!