in preparation for my first presentation in class of my 2nd piece, I had a lot of work done. I realized this was possibly a bad idea because if there had been a lot of things wrong with my work then it would have been a pain to have to fix it all. But I was pretty happy with how things went and how my piece was received.
Just to recap, my idea was to have a tonal violin duo with fairly basic melodies accompanied by a percussion duo. While the violin's play what I like to think as a cliche of what one might've heard in the classical renaissance period, the percussionists are laying down different grooves in different percussion styles pertaining to different global regions that just don't fit in at all with the typical violin duo.
There were some really great suggestions in class and most them I plan to use. I really like Mitchell's suggestion which was to build the piece to a clear climax before a resolution and ending possibly making more use of the 7/16 time signature. I think this is an excellent idea since I had already thought about using the 7/16 time signature again.
Like andrew suggested, I plan to use all four players in this section. This is because up to this point, most of the themes are heard in just two instruments. Having all four players going at the same time may help add to the climactic effect.
Lastly, in class, I mentioned the possibility of incorporating a drum kit in the climax, possibly using typical rock drum beat patterns. There were some skeptical reactions but as Dr. Ross said, it's possible to pull off if done right. I plan to give this a try for thursdays class.
Evan Harte
