YoungComposers-Blog

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**Monday, March 19, 2012** We haven't met AND recorded our works in a long time. Today, we did something pretty special. We explored Minimalism and created our own unique atmospheric compositions. Click HERE to learn more and hear our amazing work! Today's Listening Examples: "In C" by Terry Riley, "In Bb" compiled by Darren Solomon, and "1:1" from //Ambient 1: Music for Airports// by Brian Eno.

**Monday, November 7, 2011** Ostinatos: Repeating musical patterns. Today we discuss how repetitive patterns can add a great deal to our compositions. We learned about melodic ostinatos (short melodies that repeat), rhythmic ostinatos (one pitch or non-pitched patterns), and borduns (open 5ths in either chord, leveled, broken, or crossover forms). We listened to two excellent examples of famous compositions that are either built upon one ostinato or that include a clear example of sectional ostinatos.. Then, we improvised out own ostinatos and found how quickly playing ostinatos that are too similar can become boring. So, we discussed how it is important to add variety to our ostinatos as we add them together. We broke up into small groups to create a "Ostinato Surprise" (Hickey, 2009) compositions. Take a listen:

Today's Listening Examples: "Dido's Lament" composed by Henry Purcell and //"//Spirits in the Material Word" by the Police

media type="file" key="Ostinato Surprise 1.mp3" width="240" height="20" Listen to: Group 1 "Ostinato Surprise"

media type="file" key="Ostinato Surprise 2.mp3" width="240" height="20" Listen to: Group 2 "Ostinato Surprise"

media type="file" key="Ostinato Suprise 3.mp3" width="240" height="20" Listen to: Group 2 "Ostinato Surprise"

Then, we worked on our own on the iPad using Garageband to create some overlapping ostianto compositions.

media type="file" key="Sammys ostinotos.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to: Sammy's Ostinato

media type="file" key="Alexanderosinoto.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to: Alexander's Ostinato

media type="file" key="Willie's Ostinato.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to: Willie's Ostinato

media type="file" key="Otae ostinato.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to: Otae's Ostinato

media type="file" key="Mr. Rathgeber ostinato.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to: Mr. Rathgeber's Ostinato


 * Monday, October 24, 2011**

Found sounds: Composing a symphony from the sounds around you. Today we listened for sounds from any source. Trecking around the school, we found so much usually unheard music that it was astonishing. After we collected the sounds, we make us of the Sampler on iPad's version of Garageband to edit them into new, and even more interesting sounds. Finally, we recorded multiple layers to come up with our own sound collages.

Today's Listening Examples: //Night on Bald Mountain// by Modest Mussorgsky and //November// by Mark Herbert.

media type="file" key="Otae collage.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to Otae's collage

media type="file" key="Sammy colualage.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to Sammy's collage

media type="file" key="Willie's colleaeg.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to Willie's collage

media type="file" key="Mr. Rathgeber collage.m4a" width="300" height="50" Listen to Mr. Rathgeber's collage

**Monday, October 17, 2011**

Leitmotivs: Creating a sense of character and setting using small rhythmic and melodic leitmotivs.

Today's Listening Examples: //In the Hall of the Mountain King// by Edvard Grieg and //Peter and the Wolf// by Sergei Prokofiev


 * Monday, September 26, 2011**

Creating music with multiple layers:

Today's Listening Example: //Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite// by the Beatles