Priya:
For this project, I composed a song entitled “Song in A Major” in the A Major key. I didn’t really compose the song based on a story or experience, but I mostly just developed it by playing around with some chords on the piano. When I first sat down on the piano I just started with a plain A Major Chord, and then I played some other chords that went along with it. I decided to have the left hand just play a repeating progression of broken chords, and I allowed the right hand to play the melody. This pattern of repeating chords in the left hand and a melody with the right hand stayed constant throughout the song, although there were a few moments in the piece where I switched keys to make it a bit more interesting. Once I had the notes for the piece down, I started embellishing it with some dynamic and tempo changes, etc. While during the composition of this piece I wasn’t particularly inspired by a concrete experience or story, I do listen to a lot of other musicians and so my style develops from them. For instance, I listen to a lot of music by Sara Bareilles, Ed Sheeran, and Ingrid Michaelson, and much of their music consists of a simple, repeating pattern of chords that features a distinct melody, so this is definitely where a lot of my musical influence stems from. |
Matthew:
For my Sibelius Composition Project, I created a Sonatina, or a short Sonata. It was loosely based on other Sonatinas I have heard, especially with the idea of a more classical, slower piece in the beginning and then moving to a Tarantella piece at the end. Between the two pieces there is a change in key signatures, time signatures, and tempo. I started to compose this piece by choosing a key, and then setting up a repeating progression in the left hand. |
Kaelyn:
When composing this song, I wanted to give listeners an upbeat, happy feeling while listening to it. In order to do this I thought of things that made me joyful; I settled on the sunrise. I started playing around with different keys and notes on the piano until I found notes that I thought worked well together. At the end of my piece, there is an eighth note to finish it off, that note is symbolic of the satisfaction of when the sun finally rises. I hope that people feeling happy and relaxed when listening to this. |
Lauren:
Many things inspired me to compose this particular piece. I wanted to make this song sound lively and happy, which is the feeling I get when the sky is blue. I didn’t really think too hard about the notes I was inputting, they just came to me while I was writing it, and eventually created a nice sounding piece. My main purpose of this song is to evoke happy feelings to the other listeners and make them feel the same way I do when I see a blue sky. |
Ramya:
I was inspired by a few different pieces. I recently played a Schubert Impromptu, and I really liked how the melody stood out, so I tried to do that in my piece. I also really liked Rachmaninoff’s tone and buildup in his Elegy. I tried to create a deep, dark tone, but my piece ended up being a lot lighter. The third piece I was inspired by was a Chopin Nocturne (op. 9, no. 1). I really liked its dreamy feel, and how the polyrhythms helped create the effect of it flowing without pause. I have a short section in my piece that tries to mimic this technique. To compose the piece, I used my laptop (GarageBand, MuseScore) and one or the lager Yamaha Clavinova pianos (CVP-210, 88 keys) along with a USB cable. The Clavinova piano has weighted keys and is relatively touch sensitive, so I was able to execute the dynamics and articulation. I started out by using GarageBand to get my ideas down. GarageBand also has a sheet music feature, so I played out my ideas, and the program recorded them on sheet music. Then, I went through the recording to see what ideas I wanted to keep, and I came up with a melody using this method. Then, I refined the melody a bit more and added harmony to it. I added another phrase and then decided that I wanted to add some chords to the right-hand part. After the chords, I changed key signatures to d minor. It took a long time to create the transitions between the two keys and to create melodies that stayed within the mood of the piece. I repeated this process to create the rest of the piece. At school, I notated the piece using Sibelus 7 and saved it as a PDF. I also recorded it using GarageBand on my laptop and the Clavinova CVP-210. |
Celeste:
For my composition I originally began creating a melody line through trial an error. After, I went through and created a harmony throughout what title I know about chords and trial and error. Once I was finished with that I noticed that my piece had two very distinct sections that sounded very different because I had created them on different days. I decided I liked the second section better so I repeated it so that it was played twice. I noticed also that the send section sounds ver mush like the song “Danny Boy” but I decided that the differences where plentiful enough and the addition of the beginning had made the song differently enough that any ideas drawn from the song where only positive. |