Tutor report Student name Amy Balcomb Student number 510035 Course/Module Composing Music 2 Assignment number 5 Feedback on Assignment 2 Your arrangement of the Charleston for dance band makes effective use of the instrumental resources as illustrated in Project 13. Your strong, characteristic melody line and creative harmonic movement is effectively supported by the orchestration, though more radical variation to the arrangement, possibly by excluding the piano, which is heard throughout, could help to create stronger contrast between sections A&B. In the same way, more contrast in the instrumentation of the principal theme in its reappearance at bar 41, could help to create more contrast with the final repeat, thus strengthening your intention for it as a reminder of the original theme’s first appearance. In terms of notation, be careful to notate dynamics accurately. At bar 40, for example, dynamics should be added to the beginning and the end of “hairpins” for the performer to judge the rate of crescendo, and the dynamic level at the end. Be careful to be accurate with your instructions – in bar 5, it would be clearer to use staccato dots, rather than a written indication - both are not required simultaneously. At bar 40 (and elsewhere, including the 1
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Tutor report
Student name
Amy Balcomb
Student number
510035
Course/Module
Composing Music 2
Assignment number
5
Feedback on Assignment 2
Your arrangement of the Charleston for dance band makes effective use of the instrumental resources as illustrated in Project 13. Your strong, characteristic melody line and creative harmonic movement is effectively supported by the orchestration, though more radical variation to the arrangement, possibly by excluding the piano, which is heard throughout, could help to create stronger contrast between sections A&B. In the same way, more contrast in the instrumentation of the principal theme in its reappearance at bar 41, could help to create more contrast with the final repeat, thus strengthening your intention for it as a reminder of the original theme’s first appearance.
In terms of notation, be careful to notate dynamics accurately. At bar 40, for example, dynamics should be added to the beginning and the end of “hairpins” for the performer to judge the rate of crescendo, and the dynamic level at the end.
Be careful to be accurate with your instructions – in bar 5, it would be clearer to use staccato dots, rather than a written indication - both are not required simultaneously. At bar 40 (and elsewhere, including the last bar) replace staccato dots over long note values with shorter note values and rests (i.e. crotchets). Notate bar numbers at the beginning of staves only.
In bar 17, bear in mind that with all orchestral instruments that employ them, time needs to be taken for the performer to apply and remove a mute. This bar is oddly preceded by the use of four trumpets (you have access to no more than two) at bars 15&16 (and bars 55&56). When this chordal arrangement is placed elsewhere, enough time is left for mutes to be “applied” in trumpets 1&2, before bar 17. In bar 28, the open instruction appears in trumpet 1 – if trumpet 2 remains muted, a reminder in the score, after breaks (i.e. at bar 32) is advisible.
In your explanation of the composition, in the section: Creativity, it would be helpful in paragraph 5 to name the “major tonality” at bar 117 (i.e. D major) and to explain how the new theme differs from the principal theme. It would be helpful to sketch out your design of the harmonic construction of the work. Please review the last paragraph, which contains inaccuracies in your description of the work.
Critical Review: How the harmonic techniques of Faure, Barber and Rutter have inspired me as a composer.
Your critical review would benefit from being more substantial in content. Explain what you mean by the three composers creating “exceptionally simple” music. The opening of Barber’s Adagio, in its arrangement for strings, is a good example of his use of a suspension over changing harmonies IV and V in Bb minor, but the A natural appears in bar 2, not bar 1. Further analysis of the work, possibly continuing from bar 2, could help to validate your case. It might also prevent you from describing it as “startlingly simple”!
In order of presentation: In the quotation from your own work Woodland Burial, explain how you have added more emphasis to the descending chord movement. In Faure’s Requiem (Mve. 3), it could be helpful to illustrate how Faure’s “inverted chords” are used in his harmonic construction.
Without clefs and key signature, Idyll for Strings is impossible to analyse, though the Bb chord appears to be in bar 17, not bar 18. The same applies to the quotation from bars 39-41 of Rutter’s Requiem. All quotations must include the instruments, clefs and key signatures at the beginning.
In your quotation from the opening of Woodland Burial, be careful how you describe the harmony. The harmony of B minor includes F#, where you use F natural, which creates a diminished chord. In bar 4, the harmony moves from chord IV (D minor) to chord V (E major). A “perfect cadence in E major” (consisting of two harmonies: V & I) does not appear and must be shown in the quotation if it is described in the text.
Concentrate on your review of the Critical Review as well as your review of the composition for Assignment 5. Before submitting your portfolio for Assessment (by June 15th), please send copies of reviewed Assignments and your listening/learning log to me.
Well done! Congratulations on completing the course. I hope that you feel satisfied with your achievements and that you are suitably rewarded in the assessment of your work.
Tutor name
Douglas Seville
Date
8/5/14
PAGE
1
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