Assignment 1 week 2

This week, I presented the unfinished, rough draft of my first piece in composition seminar. I was glad that I got mostly positive feedback because I was rather unsure about how it would be received. Despite this however, there are some things I want to work on / some sections I would like to improve for next tuesday. I will now list some of the comments I received followed by my thoughts and interpretations.

1.) When one instrument, either piano or cello, has an idea or motive, the other instrument seems to fairly inactive/boring. (This is definitely true and is sort of what I was aiming for. My plan was to have these different "motives" in a call and answer style between the two instruments but then have moments where the two join together in unison. Mitchell suggested that maybe I add some variation instead of having just whole notes on one pitch. I agree with this and will give it a try, although I don't want to stray too far from my initial idea.)

2.) Difficult for the piano player to interpret whether a section requires one hand or two. (As Vanessa suggested, I will definitely use the "md" and "ms" for indication of which hand plays which line.)

3.) Too many running 16th note figures / no rhythmic variation (I like the idea Dr. Ross suggested which is to break up the sixteenth note pattern with eighth notes or rests. Wherever this occurs, add notes in the second instrument to add color and interaction between the instruments. I will definitely play around with this idea.)

4.) Very percussive (It's who I am :D   )

5.) Avoid repeating a section / using repeat signs. Instead, write out the section again but with variation and possibly elaboration / extensions. (I like this idea very much. I put in the repeat in in the first place because I felt the section needed to last longer. I found out that the way the section ends and the way it begins ties together nicely. Therefore, I felt that a repeat was necessary. If I had left it the way it originally was, including the repeat, the listener would latch on to the fact that there is an exact repeat happening and lose interest. Therefore, I like the idea of adding variation, extensions etc. in order to change things up a bit but still keep the basic idea of the repeat.)