A Saturday Morning

Short piece for flute, unaccompanied- first composition for 1st year composition class. The assignment was to write a piece based on Debussy's "Syrinx". This is a completely new style for me, so any suggestions or critiques are greatly appreciated! (Also, I apologize for the slight errors in the recording...)

A Saturday Morning

Elizabeth, I'm getting a 403 error :(

There's no audio yet. I have yet to record it....basically I just uploaded the sheet music as a pdf.

It's monophonic?

well, since I'm playing Syrinx for a flute solo this year, i very much enjoyed this. I think you very well portrayed a saturday morning, the staccato eights and chromatics definitely colored a very accurate picture. My one negative, and i feel so bad for saying this, but it doesn't really remind me of syrinx *hopes you don't kill me*. One thing i noticed is that you put this in a major key, where as the original piece was in a minor key, and that right there detracts from the mystery and odd-ness of it. Like i said, this is not bad at all as a piece by itself, i just think that syrinx could've taken a more dominant role

but it doesn't really remind me of syrinx

The way our instructor had us write this piece was to construct a model of Syrinx (I drew an abstract picture with colors and lines depicting notes, pitch duration, etc). THEN We had to write a piece based off the model. So, the piece was supposed to indirectly come from Syrinx.

I met with a composition teaching assistant and he helped me dissect this piece....so I'll be revamping it eventually and re-uploading it. (when I have time)

The way our instructor had us write this piece was to construct a model of Syrinx (I drew an abstract picture with colors and lines depicting notes, pitch duration, etc). THEN We had to write a piece based off the model. So, the piece was supposed to indirectly come from Syrinx.

I'd like to hear more about this! How did your model work, exactly? It seems like an abstract picture would give rise to music with less rigid rhythms and barlines (like the Debussy piece) than you wrote, but of course that depends on the process.

I played a Telemann Fantasia in A Minor on sax a while ago (transcribed from flute), and parts of your piece pleasantly remind me of his writing, like measures 7 and 10. The glimmers of E major are interesting, but it might be more effective to either clearly go with E major as a tonality or avoid tonal references altogether.

Nice work! I'd love to see the revamp when it's done.

I'd like to hear more about this! How did your model work, exactly?

Basically I used my synesthesia to show each note, and however big each color was showed the pitch's duration. I could scan and upload it if you wanted to see.

After making the model, I used the general overal feeling the model gave me + some pitch durations + motif ideas + overal melodic contour to create this piece.

I'm thinking about actually melding the two E major and atonal sections even further. But we'll see what happens

Hi Elizabeth!

Very cute little piece here. I like it a lot. Just the right length, right amount of contrast.. really I don't have much more to say than I like it and I don't really think it needs any change. Also, do you have a composing software on your computer? It might help because although your handwriting is quite legible (way better than mine), the score would be easier to read and we could hear it on a flute sound. If you'd like I could copy it into m computer and upload it to this thread :)

Heckel

Hi Elizabeth!

Very cute little piece here. I like it a lot. Just the right length, right amount of contrast.. really I don't have much more to say than I like it and I don't really think it needs any change. Also, do you have a composing software on your computer? It might help because although your handwriting is quite legible (way better than mine), the score would be easier to read and we could hear it on a flute sound. If you'd like I could copy it into m computer and upload it to this thread :)

Heckel

Yes, I do have composing software..however we're not allowed to use it for class. Like, we get into trouble if we are caught using it for class assignments. So anything I've written for this class will be handwritten. Thank you for your comments :)