Daisy

Grace Wakeeld
8 April 2015

Composition
1) Describe in some detail the technique (METHOD) and structures
(ARRANGEMENT) you have adopted to create each of your nal pieces.
Composi<on 1

I started by thinking about the brief and what i would write for. I decided that
although we need and will always need sounds for television, lm, radio jingle, we will also
always need instrumental music simply just to listen to. Not to go with any visual
s<mula<on or associated with a radio sta<on but something to listen to and enjoy. I
selected three instruments at random that I thought would be a good combina<on, ute,
oboe and bassoon and star<ng with the ute, with trial and error started to create a
melody of some kind. Once I had a melody that I thought was quite interes<ng I then
started crea<ng a bass line that could go underneath. Again using trial and error I managed
to create something which complimented the original melody. I added in other
instruments such as a euphonium and violins so that at <mes we could break away from
the same three instruments otherwise there would have been very liMle varia<on and I
think it would have made the piece very boring and a burden to listen to as this piece was
designed to be something you could sit back and enjoy. At this point I started to think
about the structure of my piece and what i wanted to create. At rst I thought of crea<ng a
piece in rondo form, ABACA, but once I had started to create the dierent sec<ons and the
way each sec<on had been manipulated, for example rhythm and pitch, I thought that
poten<ally it would be beMer to label this piece as being in sonata form as there was a
faint outline of an exposi<on, development and recapitula<on. The only problem with this
is that there is no second subject and so it is not strictly, following the rules, in sonata
form.

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I liked having the melody repeat itself over and over again with the melody jumping to
dierent instruments and liMle counter melodies, when there was a new sec<on, there
would be slight changes but you could tell that it was very similar to the original melody
but with a <ny varia<on. I would say that my piece also has a minimalis<c approach to it as
there is lots of repe<<on and in each sec<on, there is no varia<on in that sec<ons melody
or bass line.
Composi<on 2

With my second composi<on, I wanted to create a television theme tune similar to

Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Camille Saint-Sans, the tv theme to Jonathan Creek, as I
wanted my piece to have that kind of feel, quite heavy and slightly dark in places. AZer
selec<ng my instruments, I started o crea<ng a solo for the violin which would then be
repeated by the whole ensemble. I then preceded to extend and develop the melody
using repe<<on and crea<ng new melodic sec<ons.
Then I moved onto sec<on B which is where i developed my original piece. I changed
rhythms, pitches, played with dynamics and doubled instruments which resulted in places
with two and three part textures. When crea<ng new parts for the the melody, I focused
on scalic runs, passing notes and upper and lower auxiliary notes. As i decided that this
piece would be in ternary form, I simply just repeated sec<on A extending the last note to
create a full stop indica<ng the end of the piece.

Composi<on 5

I wanted this piece to be something enjoyable but not the main focus of the
audiences aMen<on as with this piece I wanted to create something that would play in the
background to accompany something visual such as a lm or television programme. I
started by selec<ng my instruments and playing around with random chords to see what
sound i would get. I came across a light sounding ascending progression which equally had
a smooth descending paMern and so I stayed with this for sec<on A. I could hear a drum
beat in my head which I really wanted to be included in the piece. It took over an hour to
gure out the rhythm but it was worth it in the end and it helps create a a build up to the
piece.
Next I decided on taking the drum rhythm and adding it to a violin and viola. There was a
lot of trial and error with pitches but all the instruments combined created a natural build
which helps to progress into sec<on B. Sec<on B has a 4 bar chord progression and every 4

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bars is taken up an octave as when I was listening to sec<on B without having this octave
leap and it became very boring and predictable. Once the chords were picked I then
created a melody line for the rst 4 bars and then a dierent one for the chords an octave
higher to create some varia<on. To nish the piece, I added in an extra bar aZer the
repe<<on consis<ng of a chord to round o the piece.

2) What worked and what didn't work so well; how did you expand on these
ideas? Was there any inuence from other arNsts? How do they structure their
songs, and how have they emulated this?
Composi<on 1

With my rst piece, I had previously had a sec<on just before the nal sec<on, which
was completely unrelated to what I had previously wriMen. When hearing the piece from
beginning to end numerous <mes, I decided on shortening that specic sec<on by
removing the rst few bars and moving it to the beginning of the piece to create a short
introduc<on. I then added over the top of the last bar of the introduc<on the beginning of
the rst few bars of the ute from the rst sec<on, star<ng with the dynamic ppp so that
it started o very quiet and gradually got louder to give the sense that the piece was
moving on.
What I think worked was the nal sec<on of my piece where it slowly built up to the
ending with lots of repe<<on and increase in dynamics, as it gave the impression that it
was going to go into another sec<on but it created an an< climax as it did not really
progress any further and it was stopped by the ring of the tam-tam. My rst piece is very
repe<<ve with slight dierences in each sec<on. I would say that my piece has a
minimalis<c approach to it. Steve Reich is well known in the Minimalism world as one of a
handful of people who started o this type of music in the mid to late 60s. With reference
to his piece New York Counterpoint, his piece is very repe<<ve with long periods of <me
where there is liMle or no varia<on in melody, harmony, texture or tonality. I think I
emulated his work by s<cking to a simple melody and for each sec<on of my piece, slightly
changing a few notes either by pitch or rhythm and by swapping parts, for example,
switching the melody in the utes with the oboe or bassoon.

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Composi<on 2

What I think did not work so well was the transi<on between the rst sec<on, A, into
the second sec<on, B, as I felt the transi<on from Bb major to G minor could have been a
lot smoother. I also think this with the transi<on between sec<on B back into A as the
transi<on seems very sudden and i think this could have been done a lot cleaner and I feel
that the sec<ons, even though I want it to be clear that there are two sec<ons to this
piece, are two dierent pieces and not one.
What I think worked was how i developed my original short piece and created sec<on B
out of this. I changed rhythms, notes, used some repe<<on and even added in new
material to this sec<on. Even though I do not think the transi<on between sec<on A to B is
successful, Im pleased with the dis<nc<ve sound each sec<on has.
Composi<on 5

What I think worked well with this composi<on was my rst sec<on. I like how the
sec<on slowly builds with the introduc<on of a snare drum, violin and a viola.
What I don't think works is the repe<<on of sec<on A then the repeat of sec<on B (binary
form). I think it would have been beMer if it was in ternary form or through composed
instead as, despite this piece being wriMen to be background music for a lm or television
programme, when listening to the piece without any visual aid, it becomes exhaus<ng to
listen to and you become fed up and wish that it would change to something else.

3) What chords have you used and why? Are there any formulaic chord
progressions?
Composi<on 1

I have used more broken chords with passing notes and upper and lower auxiliary
notes rather than having a chord played, like in the beginning of my 5th piece, and a
melody played over the top. I think breaking away from a homophonic texture created a
chance to play around with a hetrophonic or polyphonic texture to create something less
harmonically structured or in other words, no specic chord progression, although if I was
to go through and look to see what chords are used, there could be a chord progression of
some kind but, when I was wri<ng this piece, I did not have in mind a strict chord
progression or specic chords in specic places.

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Composi<on 2

Like my rst piece, I did not set out with with a specic chord progression in mind,
for example, I,V, I, IV, V, I. Once I had created my piece and looked at the chords I found
the the chords i used were mostly I, II and V in sec<on A and in sec<on B chords I, IV, II
were commonly used with some chords inverted. I mostly focused on crea<ng dierent
melodies for dierent instruments, some<mes the melodies were doubled, to create a
polyphonic texture.
Composi<on 5

With this piece, instead of using full chords in the bass clef of the piano, I preferred
the sound of a dyad, two note chord, as they create an interval of a perfect 5th, and
comparing the dyad to a full chord, I prefer the dyad sound to the full chord. The notes in
the treble clef were the same as the bass not but two octaves higher. With sec<on A, I did
not set out with the inten<on of having a specic chord progression, but rather using trial
and error with dierent chords un<l I found a sequence I preferred. With sec<on B, I did
write out a specic chord progression that would ll 4 bars. Originally it was the following
chords;I, V, IV,I, V, Vc, II7 and I, but when this progression was played it did not work and so
it was changed to a progression that naturally oated from each chord to the next. The
nal chord sequence was I, V,IV,I, V, Vc, IIb, I. This would last all the way through sec<on B
but with bars 5 to 8 and 13 to 16 an octave higher to give it a dierent sound. I used this
specic group of chords as most of them were primary chords, being I, IV and V, and the
occasional secondary chord, II,III and VI. I also added in the 7th of certain chords and
inverted others as having the 7th and inversions breaks away from a stereotypical basic
chord progression of the primary chords with no inversions and breaking away does
slightly change the sound as if the chord progression was simply I, IV, V and I, it would give
a completely dierent sound.

4) Is there a specic scale or formula like 12 bar blues? What are the dierent
secNons to your pieces?
Composi<on 1

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 I would say that my piece is a modied sonata form but with no second subject.
There is a short introduc<on from bars 1 to 5 where we then enter the exposi<on, but with
only one subject from bars 6 to 25. We then enter the development and the rst part of
the development is from bars 26 to 37 and the second from bars 38 to 53. Lastly is the
recapitula<on from bar 54 to 81, the end of the piece.
Composi<on 2

My second piece is in ternary form, ABA, with a short introduc<on from bars 1 to 4,
sec<on A star<ng from bar 5 and ending at 20. Sec<on B from bars 21 to 35 and then
sec<on A again from bar 36 to the end, bar 52.
Composi<on 5

This composi<on is in binary form, two sec<ons A and B but as both sec<ons repeat
themselves, it is poten<ally easier to show this structure as being, AABB. I would say that
my piece has a small introduc<on of 4 bars before we get into sec<on A. Sec<on A is from
bars 5 to 16 and this is repeated. Sec<on B is from bar to 17 to bar 32 with the last bar, 33
ac<ng as a full stop or end to the piece.

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