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Challenge: Kitsch Music, Or Lemons Into Lemonade


p7rv

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Challenge: Kitsch Music, Or Lemons Into Lemonade

 

 

 

First take a look at these pieces:
 

 

 
 
Here we have a couple of decent pieces which take source material from from something which appears at first glance to have negligible cultural value. 
 
This is by no means a new phenomenon, cf.
 

 

 
just to show a couple examples.
 
 
 
This challenge is to write a piece incorporating musical byproducts of mass capitalism in interesting ways. Pop songs, commercial jingles, car alarms, internet memes, computer os sound effects, brand mottos (like Intel or NBC 'chimes', etc.), or whatever appeals to you. Genre, style, instrumentation, length, etc. are entirely open, but all entries must include a score and an audio realization of some kind. The score will constitute the entry proper, and the audio will merely be an aid.
 
Merely post your work in this thread before the deadline in order to submit. All submissions must be made before Feb. 15 2013 12:01AM EST 
 
 
Evaluation rubric:
 
-Style
-Originality
-Choice of source material (a text explanation or a notation in the score may be helpful in pointing them out)
-Recontextualization
-Compositional technique
-'Does it pop?' fudge factor
 
There will be two 'winners'-- one selected by me, and one selected by the forum, where anyone can submit his reviews after the deadline (will post instructions for this after the deadline). Sockpuppet votes will be ruthlessly averaged.
 
Good luck!
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I have some fugues on themes like that (Harry Potter, Zelda, Pokemon). Are they examples of this? Do I have to write a new one, or I can use these 3 as entries?

I guess it's not against the rules as stated. My intention was to get new works, but too late now I guess. Only the last two would be valid, though, because the first one has no score. Had to google "jigglypuff" (sounds like a rap thing or something), so context is always appreciated

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  • 4 weeks later...
Umm, isn't this more a case of turning lemonade into lemons?  :sick:

 

Or is that also an option?...

I think his aim was to do the opposite, ironically-- to reduce the significance of its source material. You're quite right, by the way. That piece is unintentional kitsch, and leaves one's opinion of Beethoven unaltered.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to show some examples of musical recontextualization of existing material. Feel free to borrow from the classics, if you're feeling bold.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a cool challenge, but I didn't have time to come up with anything. 

 

I did, however, post something along these lines on December 24th, although I would call it taking individual lemons and making a basket [of rotten ones], or something like that: 

 

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/3875/merry-christmas-charlie-ives/

 

I won't enter it, but if anyone is curious to hear another one of my stupid musical jokes, it's there.

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Alright, so my reviews are on the way. 

 

In the meantime, I will be accepting reviews from the forum by PM. Please provide a real-valued rank between 0 and 10 for each heading in the rubric, additional comments and notes under each heading are encouraged, but not necessary. I will post results around Friday ish.

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