Analysis and Development

These are things that I usually struggle to find patience to do properly, choosing instead to go with my ear and my gut with very little understanding of the mechanics of what I am producing as if it is some mystical and incomprehensible fluke of the universe. Recently I have pushed myself to be more disciplined in this regard, and its already getting easier!

I'll begin this week's post by addressing the feedback I received upon presenting my work in progress to the class after my last post. Like me, the class seemed far more interested in what the piece had become since the last week, which was very encouraging. 

There were some suggestions concerning the piano part that I immediately implemented, such as some additional damper pedal and clearer notation. It was also noted that passages where cello and piano were playing together were rare, so I focussed on trying to increase the interplay between the instruments throughout the past week. Dr. Ross suggested that I analyze my motivic material to come to an understanding of what it was comprised of (ie modes, scales, etc) since I had written almost everything so far without these systems in the foreground of my thoughts. I found that my favourite motive, one that I'd hoped to expand on, was essentially built from an octatonic scale minus one note. Taking note of this, I elaborated on this section of the music by sequencing and rearranging the motive in the piano and loosely basing a cello line on the corresponding octatonic scale. 

I also continued to develop the aggressive groupings of 5 that open the piece, the contrary motion idea from the end, and a couple of chords that I had already used throughout such as cell (0, 1, 4, 7), and (0, 1, 4, 5). I only began to learn set theory on Friday, but I attempted to put it to use in the analysis of my existing material to help me expand on it, and it seemed to work well (although I'm not entirely sure I'm doing it right, so the previously mentioned numbers may be totally off). 

In all of these developments, I inadvertently addressed another piece of advice from Dr. Ross: the theoretical "61.8%" climax destination. I haven't done the math, but the climax now seems to come right around then! And although it was suggested that I bring a more gradual slow down to the pacing instead of an abrupt halt, I found that with some reworking of my ending and the later climax, the abruptness seemed to suit it well, so I kept it. We'll see tomorrow if my decision was an agreeable one!