Week 7 - Composing music

On the first lesson of week seven we added all the recording of the voice snippets on our music piece. then we mashed everything up together and listened to see if the music sounds good. We had some minor errors that we fixed. We then asked if Ms.Cross could have a listen and pint out what we could improve on. She said that the music sounds good except that some of the instruments such as the xylophone had to stand out more. She also mentioned that the voice recordings could have a better Rhythmic pattern and the instruments could blend more and balance out each other. So first we decided to used the xylophone in the beginning to make it stand out. Then we could play a voice snippet of Donald Trump saying something against feminism. The we had a short pause in between. Finally the music started to go slow and then build up as it goes. In the background there were works and quotes that represent feminism. We used Michelle Obama a d other famous feminists for the voice recordings. We named our composition Out of the Blue, This is because the music is very abrupt and shocking. 



Here is our Final Composition:

Week 6 to 7- Composing our music

We decided to change our type of music. e thought that serialism would be a bit too challenging and we decided to do minimalism.  After that we immediately started to discuss our ideas on our piece of music. When we were doing serialism we were sort of confused on  what to add because we had limited options. Whereas, in minimalism we had many options and we also were clear with what we were doing. On Wednesday, we decided that i would go over to Ari'a house to work on our music because we had to catch up. In her house we decided to use the guitar. Aria played the guitar chords. Then I played notes on the piano. Then we decided to add voice snippets about feminism. Sow we looked at speeches and quotes said by many inspiring and famous people. Then we put all the recordings together to crete our music. I think our picture could relate to the music because of the colours and pattern used. 

Composition task in Music- Week 5

During this week we looked at three different artworks by kandinky and analysed them. We discussed as a class about what they meant. When we were discussing we also talked about how it could relate to real life scenarios. We also discussed about what type of music the artwork would suit. Then we had to choose 1 of the artworks and talk but why we choose it and what it personally meant ot us. This would lead to our main task. Ms. Cross told us to go in pairs or threes with someone who has the same opinion and thoughts that you do. So Me and Aria were together. We decided to create a pice of music one the first artwork and we used serialism for this artwork. We decided to do something challenging and different from the others. So then we decided what editing software we would use to create our music. We choose garageband, as it was the one we knew how to function. on the second lesson we stated to play our music on the piano. We decided to only use piano and not any other instruments. We decided to add many different layers to make a complex texture. We decided this art work because we thought that it suited our music type. Later, we stated to record us both playing chords on the keyboard and it was kind of hard since both of us didn't have that much experience with a keyboard. 

Serialism in Music- Week 4

It is a type of compositional technique in which a fixed set of notes,particularly the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, are used to produce the harmonic and melodic basis of a piece and are subject to change only in specific ways. The first fully serial movements appeared in 1923 in works by Arnold Schoenberg. The notes used are c, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B. It had roughly been used since WW1. A serial pattern in music is merely one that repeats over and over for a significant stretch of a composition.

In class we first looked at a powerpoint that talked about serialism. After the powerpoint Ms. Cross also explained how serialism works. Then we received a sheet that helps us create our own serialist music. Ms. Cross explained to fill in the worksheet. 

From the first bar we had to pick the same notes but arrange it in an order that you wish. Then you fill in the table by first writing you order on the first rows then write inversion or reverse on the first column. then using the serialism method we had to fill in the table. At first, I was confused but then I got then hand of it on the second lesson. I used the help from Ms. Cross and some of my fellow classmates to fill out the table. First I used a keyboard to fins the position of the note. But then I used the bar on top of the worksheet. It think the keyboard was not very helpful because you could mess up easily or make silly mistakes.

Minimalist music - Week 3

Minimalism is a style of music which originated on the West coast of America in the 1960s with composers such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass.

 Features:

• Layers of ostinati ( a rhythmic, melodic that are repeated a lot)
• a complex contrapuntal texture
• Constantly repeated patterns that are subjected to gradual changes
• Interlocking repeated phrases and rhythms
• Diatonic (using notes that belong to the key rather than notes which are outside the key) harmony

We listened to 3 different pieces of music that are played by musicians known for minimalism and they are Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

2nd Piece, It's Gonna Rain, Steve Reich:

This pice is very different from others it's repetitive and very catchy because its the same thing throughout the whole piece. There is a bit of layering of texture but is is not very noticeable since all your attention is on one part of the layer. So this piece is less harmonical. However, using the phrase "It's gonna rain" adds a whole new vibe to the music piece since it represented in different formats or ways. This also symbolizes freedom and shows that music doesn't always have to go by the rules. Instead its about thinking outside the box.

3rd Piece, Different trains, Steve Reich:

This piece of music was my favourite, it utilized many sorts of texture to give it a capturing visualization. as you listen to the music you can identify that many sorts of rhythmic patterns have been layered to create a complex texture. You will also hear a phrase that sounds like "From Chicago to New York". This means that he has recorded snippets of train announcements and added that to his music piece. This not only is catchy but also gives a good rhythm and beat. The background music to go with that compliments the voice recordings. This shows that you can use real life scenarios and  apply that into music. This also gives an insight of your personal life and it also has a meaning. 

Ciphers in Music- Week 3

A "cipher" is a method of transforming a text into a secret code. The idea is to create a code system using letters of the alphabet and the notes of a scale to create melodies from words and phrases. (See diagram below).  In class we learnt about different methods of using morse codes to create a pice of music. You could use morse codes for music depending on the notes played on an instrument. It is a unique and different way of representing music.

Each dot, or short sound, will be played as an eighth note.

.

dot

short sound

eighth note

Each dash, or long sound, will be played as a quarter note.           

-

dash

long sound

quarter note

My Cipher using morse Codes: