Hello Theory people!
Our part writing project for the "Caribbean Mass Project" is now under way. How have you used your knowledge of theory and aural skills to create parts which work with this setting? Please comment here.
My main influence in composing this Mass was the desire to incorporate Afro-Cuban style music into the contemporary Catholic Mass. I am fortunate to work with a parish which encourages creativity and with a talented choir who enjoys a challenge. The use of syncopation reflects my percussion background heavily, and the tenor voice parts get all the great suspensions at the end of each piece (guess which part I sing?) while the alto parts (also usually sung by second sopranos) are laden with suspensions within the cadential six-four areas.
So, post your comments on what drove you to write the parts you wrote during this project. The goal is to publish this material, and you will receive part writing credit for your work!
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Well, I chose a very typical fanfare-like approach with the trumpet part, but I had it rhythmically repeat the syncopated melody so that it reflected the Afro-Cuban style of the vocal parts. The flute parts are similar, but I took a little more liberty with the rhythm while centering mainly around the chord tones of that particular measure. Since it was not a lengthy piece, I strayed away from too many non-harmonic tones because there was not enough space to redeem them before the resolution at the end. Signed- The Mysterious Ninja Squirrel
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ReplyDeleteGreat job! You are right - with only four measures, it would not leave much time to resolve NHT's gracefully enough. I am looking forward to editing and revising today!
At first, I tried to write down whatever I heard in my head when first listening to the written parts. This resulted in some cluttered sounding stuff that sort of covered up the melody, so I took what I had and tweaked it, mostly removing notes, until it fit. Eventually I started to focus on using parallel thirds between the flutes, and having them mainly fill in the rhythmic gaps in the vocal parts. I found the results more pleasing than my initial approach and if time allowed, I might redo the first few measures with that in mind.
ReplyDeleteHello, Stephen~
ReplyDeleteYou have a very interesting blog and I am very impressed with what you are teaching (and being Catholic myself, appreciative). Your blog seems wonderful. While I realize that this blog is for AP music theory students and teachers, I have one suggestion that arises from a small concern. Would there be a way to make the blog more accessible to all music students, by perhaps posting definitions, theories and other ‘musical-bridging’ educational material on it? In my youth, I played two different instruments (one for the school band), but your blog is beyond me. However, if there would be other posts that could help me ‘catch up to speed,’ I might be able to comprehend your blog better. Perhaps another way is to have links to sites that could help laymen like me. Other than that, I can find too much to improve on what you are already doing.
Theo
MB2 - Interesting method you chose. I am glad that once you whittled down some extraneous notes, you found some clarity and devised a method to writing the flute parts. Parallel thirds work very well with parts of similar timbre (i.e., two flutes, clarinets, voices, etc.) In fact, many basic duets are written using this strategy. Great work!
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