Unfinished March

The name says everything :)

Unfinished March

Well, this really isn't enough to comment on. I do like what you have posted here. Any way you can post a score for us to peruse?

Well dude, mostly my unfinished pieces dont have a score cause I dont like to make a half-job so I dont post it. But you can see my Lord of the Castle score if you want. However its a mess - for example I changed the Viola from alto key to Bass clef since I cant read the alto clef, and when I'm finished I didnt change it back. And many other little things. So the score wont help you much. The dynamics are misleading since I use a sound library and not a real orchestra. Why is important that: Some instruments are recorded more loud than others (for example trombone, and violin, while oboes are very silent at the same lavel of dynamics etc.) so it takes a lot of time to compensate these things. Of course if I want that to play with a real orchestra I would change a lot of things in it. That's why I like not to post my scores.

I think you have some nice characteristic writing going on here. It fits the march style well. I would suggest developing themes and establishing a longer form structure. You have two cadences in this short clip that sound like they are leading up to the big finale. The first one occurs a few seconds into the piece. Not saying this is a bad thing..Could be an interesting idea to have it sound like the ending is coming in the first few seconds and then developing the piece. But I think there is good writing here. Just start elongating your themes, varying them. Try to write two contrasting main themes. Then post back. Nice start.

Thanks for your comment! :)

Hello Norby:

Well, it's kinda a silly cute thing... I can see it in a movie with a clown at a circus or something

I wish I could give a more detailed description, but it's so short how could you? It might have been nice to at least have a bit more than 26 seconds...

Yeah, I start something than its get boring, than I start a new one :)

That's odd....

How often do you complete a work, then?

I have very few finished pieces. When I compose I focus on quality, I dont write a 15 minutes work in 5 minutes. I work on a piece a lot. But lot of times I get bored of a theme and than just dont want to finish. For me development in composition, and to learn new techniques and gain new sounds are more important than finish a concrete piece. When I have motivation of course I finish my pieces, like when I write for a flash game or something like that, as I did for Siege Master (Lord of the Castle).

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in fact its a lame excuse, I just dont have endurance to finish something if I dont have to :D

The most likely culprit of becoming bored with your theme is that you're not developing the theme enough to come up with more interesting ideas. That's why I like themes, not because they anchor my ideas but because they give me a template from which to bring about new ideas I wouldn't have even thought of without having the theme to work from.

There are at least four approaches to development I use on a pretty regular basis when I write:

Melodic - The linear approach simply changes the pitches, segmenting the line, transposing segments, then combining them again. There are so many ways you can develop melodically.

Harmonic - Substitute more obscure chords for common ones to feel through different harmonies. Play with the voicing of harmonies to see how you can create new contrapuntal lines, perhaps even a compliment to your theme or even to create a subject/answer kind of idea. Take the harmony of the theme, pull it out, write a new melody from the harmony that isn't the -theme- you began with... who knows, you might like it better than your original. These are just a few of the ways you can use harmonic development to come up with more ideas.

Temporal - This involves augmentation and diminution of the pitches in your theme. Augment the notes of your theme and use it as a bass line to create a new harmonic progression. Or, shorten the value of your pitches to come up with a vamp or ostinato figure for faster sections (if you want a faster section). What kinds of expressive elements can you implement? Accelerando or Rallentandos come to mind... there are several other things I'm sure you could probably do with this approach.

Dodecaphonic - This uses a 12-tone matrix approach. Convert your theme to a 12-tone line (doesn't really matter how you do this, whether you add tones to the end, at the beginning, or interspersed within the theme) to generate a complete 12-tone matrix. From this, you can segment the line into different gestural ideas that you can transpose, invert, retrograde, or retrograde-invert to come up with granular "tissue" that you can later combine into longer ideas. You can also use this to come up with harmonic progressions that don't fall within the traditional canon of western music which you can then develop further through harmonic and temporal approaches.

So, you really shouldn't be getting bored with your themes if you use some of these approaches to come up with more interesting ideas.

Hope that helps.

-AA

Dude, I KNOW how to make variations of a theme, how to make interesting, transposition, variation, there are many techniques. You mentioned a lot of ways. I know them. You didnt understand me. I DO NOT WANT to make a theme interesting when I get bored of it. When I get bored of something I dont want to deal with it. Let us say I start a March like that, than my band we play for example the "Phil Collins Collection", and than I'm not interested in writing a March anymore, now I want to write something popular. I know how to develop a theme, if you dont believe me listen to my Twinkle song. Its a five minute piece based on "Twinkle,twinkle", many variations, transposition, different context/styles. The problem isnt that I cant develop themes, the problem is I dont want to develop and dont want to deal with something that I get bored. so I stop writing it.

Thanks for your comment anyway! :D

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EDIT: Most of times I dont develop a theme not just because I get bored of it, most of times I'm afraid of that the listener will get bored of from the many variations. I dont like when something get predictable. For example a Disco "music" is very predicatble: Tucc--tucc-ttuccc....I hate when a music is predictable, but you're right that doesnt mean that someone dont have to develop the theme.

EDIT 2: I have so much different ideas, that I cant use in the same time, so when I start to write something I easily get bored since I have other 10000 ideas that I want to use just these ideas maybe dont fit with the previous one so I start a new work...and unfortunatelly thats why I rarely finish my pieces. I finish only the most interesting ones.

Dude, I KNOW how to make variations of a theme, how to make interesting, transposition, variation, there are many techniques. You mentioned a lot of ways. I know them. You didnt understand me. I DO NOT WANT to make a theme interesting when I get bored of it.

Okay, Norby. If you're bored with something, instead of working with it to make it more interesting to you, you throw it out. I get it.

Thanks for your comment anyway! :D

Sure.

EDIT: Most of times I dont develop a theme not just because I get bored of it, most of times I'm afraid of that the listener will get bored of from the many variations. I dont like when something get predictable. For example a Disco "music" is very predicatble: Tucc--tucc-ttuccc....I hate when a music is predictable, but you're right that doesnt mean that someone dont have to develop the theme.

Disco music is meant to be danced to, though. Are you writing dance music? No? Then stop pre-judging your ideas and give them a chance to work themselves out.

EDIT 2: I have so much different ideas, that I cant use in the same time, so when I start to write something I easily get bored since I have other 10000 ideas that I want to use just these ideas maybe dont fit with the previous one so I start a new work...and unfortunatelly thats why I rarely finish my pieces. I finish only the most interesting ones.

Hey, if you don't develop the ideas and work with them, then you won't finish your works. I get it. I have the same problem, and that's how I deal with it. Maybe you aren't understanding what I'm saying?

"Disco music is meant to be danced to, though. Are you writing dance music? No? Then stop pre-judging your ideas and give them a chance to work themselves out."

Okay I wont reply to all of your comments, but just one, perfect example how you misunderstood me. The point was its predictable , not was I write dance music or not. I could have say other kind of music like pop/rock.. OMG