SYLLABUS

Music 106 - BEGINNING COMPOSITION

(timings are tentative)

Spring 1997

Rhythm

January 21.Get acquainted. Write in class a short rhythmic piece, free. Sound parameters - list them. Divisionary and Aksak rhythms.

• Listen to:
  • Varese - Ionization
  • Bartok - Dances in Bulgarian Rhythms
  • Ben Johnston - Knocking Piece
• Assignment:
  • example of continuous pulse with accents
  • example of aksak - single streams

  • listen to:
    • Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre
    • Cage - Amores

January 28. Use of rests. Maximum diversity/complexity and complex subdivisions. Motoric rhythm and minimalism. Juxtaposition of short and long durations.

• Listen to fragments from:
  • Webern - Variations for Piano Op. 27
  • Boulez - Le marteau sans maitre
  • Ravel - Bolero
  • Steve Reich - Four Organs
  • Debussy - Canope
  • Cage - Amores
• Assignment:
  • example where rests are structural
  • example of complex rhythms - one or more streams
  • read Boulez's analysis of the Rite of Spring

  • listen to:
    • Xenakis - Psappha
    • Stravinski - Sacre

February 4. Comment on Boulez article. Sieves, mod. m; Rhythmic sieves. Proportional notation. Messiaen on rhythm.

• Listen to:
  • Stravinsky - Sacre - the Sacred Dance
  • Xenakis - Psappha
• Look at:
  • Earl Brown - Folio and 4 Systems
• Assignment:
  • extended example (piece) using sieves
  • short(er) example using shifting accents.

  • listen to Die Meistersinger (fragments ?)

PITCH

February 11. Write a short melody in class (free style). Basic principles for writing a melodic line. Particular styles and general concepts. Small cell generating longer lines/songs.

• Listen to:
  • Bach - from Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin
  • Beatles tune
  • Gregorian Chant and Troubadour songs
  • Wagner - Die Meistersinger (Sachs advice to Walter, the prize song)
• Assignment:
  • 5 melodies as different as possible from Bach
  • identify differences/similarities with Bach
  • listen to the Musical Offering: melodic lines in canons/imitation.

  • read Hanslik - The Beautiful in Music

February 18. Modes: church, octatonic, East European/Bartok, Messian's modes with limited transpositions. What is a mode ?

• Listen to:
  • Iranian traditional music
  • Cage - The Wonderful Widow
  • Debussy - Syrinx
  • Varese - Density 21.5
  • Chopin - Nocturne
• Assignment:
  • 16 bar melody using a (pre)pentatonic scale
  • modal melodic lines (church, Messiaen mode, octatonic).
  • non-tonal, non-modal melodic line

February 25. Fractal melodies. Pitch sieves. Random melodies. Lines with undetermined or not strictly determined pitch.

• Listen to:
  • Dodge - Roundelay
  • Berio - Sequenza for voice
  • Marcel Duchamp - The Bride Stripped Bare
  • Tristan Tzara - Le general cherche une maison a louer
  • Kurt Schwiters - Ursonata
  • Xenakis - a r
• Assignment:
  • read Boulez - Schoenberg Is Dead

March 4. Show-and-tell session.

DYNAMICS

March 11. Write a short piece in class making good use of dynamics. Antiphony. Concerto grosso, pinoforte - Baroque contrasts. Romantic use of cresc/decresc.

• Listen to:
  • Gabrielli
  • Haydn - Creation, Surprise Symphony
  • Beethoven - Egmont
  • Liszt - Petrarca Sonet 104
• Assignment:
  • use contrasting dynamics over large areas opposite dynamics to characterize 2 or more streams; smooth transitions between loudness levels

March 18. Whole pieces using one dynamic level only. Maximum variety and structural dynamics.

• Listen to:
  • Feldman - King of Denmark
  • Chopin - Piano Sonata in B minor (finale)
  • Webern - Op. 27
  • Tipei - ANL-folds
• Assignment:
  • larger piece, one or more lines, where the dynamics are more important than pitch and rhythm; explain why is it so.

  • read Stockhausen - ...how time passes...

SPRING BREAK

TIMBRE and ARTICULATION

April 1. Write a short piece in class where timbre/color is the most important element. Redundancy between timbre and form. Orchestral colors. Mixed timbres.

• Listen to:
  • Beethoven/Mahler - fragment of a Symphony
  • Debusy - Jeux
  • Rimski Korsakov - Sheherazade
  • Wagner - Parsifal prelude to first act
  • Cage - Aria
• Assignment:
  • obtain maximum variety of color/timbre/ articulations from one instrument/voice imagine a few mixed timbers and exemplify them in class

April 8. Extended techniques and special effects.

• Listen to:
  • Messiaen - Livre d'orgue
  • Enescu - Sonata III, for violin & piano; second movement
  • Xenakis - Nuits
  • Stockhausen - Stimmung
  • Penderecki - Threnody
• Assignment:
  • find out all you can about extended techniques for one instrument/voice (but not piano) and use them

April 15. Prepared piano. Klagfarbenmelodie. Structural use of timbre.

• Listen to:
  • Cage - Sonatas and Interludes
  • Schoenberg - Five Pieces Op.16
  • Webern - Ricercar
  • Messiaen - Mode de valeurs et d'intensites
  • Boulez - Le marteau sans maitre; Structures
• Assignment:
  • invent the most "colorful" music you can using the forces available in this class.

STRUCTURE

April 22. Composition as an organizing activity: puting it all together. Integrating sound parameters (complex dynamic systems). Possible systems for composing in the present.

• Listen to:
  • Cage - Music for Changes
  • Tipei - Many Worlds
• Assignment:
  • start final project which should include control over rhythm, pitch, dynamics, timbre/articulation

April 29. The necessity of pre-compositional work. More on systems: Musique spectrale. Discuss Stockhausen's article. Discuss final projects.

• Listen to:
  • Xenakis - Nomos Alpha
• Assignment:
  • work on final project

May 5 Show-and-tell: final projects. The composer's world view. Composer's responsibilities.

May 13, 1:30 - 4:30 Final: Projects presented, performed, and discussed.

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