Shades of Darkness

[Rykua]

I don't have much music theory knowlege, so whatever music techniques here were just done by ear.

It took 2 weeks to get the rough version, and an extra month to smooth it out (like, how the piece has key changes, adding a timpani and chimes part, adding those little trumpet parts around measure 25 or so, and making an ending).

I'm not good at endings... so, I don't write one until I start critically looking the piece over... critical stuff, like how spaced out are the instruments for each other... how close I want the tenor sax/baritone to play with the baritone sax/tuba, how much do I want the trombones to mirror the baritone parts before I feel it is getting too hard for them.

I've also only been composing for less than two years, so... I don't have much experience.

This is probably one of my better works. The school concert band is playing it, and even though we lack the instruments (I mean, we only have one trumpet aside from me, and I'm conducting), it still sounds nice to hear it played live... mistakes and all. >.<

I guess I'm supposed to talk about what inspired me here. Umm, well, see, this piece takes the best themes I've made over the years, and put two of 'em in one piece. I originally made the first twenty measures, didn't know what to do, but I knew I wanted a speed change there, so, I looked through my older songs, took a theme I liked, and used it.

The .MUS file.
The .WAV file. (1.26 M

[MaestroX]

Hey Rykua,

Overall quite a solid work. There as some well composed themes and the accompaniment writing works well.

As for areas to improve, I think some of the progressions you use could be made a little longer and a bit more interest added. They all seem to build up to the dominant and then they start again. As you've mentioned you don't know a lot about theory, I would suggest having a look at some techniques to prolong the build up to the dominant by using devices such as secondary dominants and "coloured" chords.

I like your modulation at 2:55 it works well in the context as the music is built up

Good stuff. I've composed the odd thing for concert band so its good to hear how other people write for the ensemble.

[Rykua]

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Hey Rykua,

Overall quite a solid work. There as some well composed themes and the accompaniment writing works well.

As for areas to improve, I think some of the progressions you use could be made a little longer and a bit more interest added. They all seem to build up to the dominant and then they start again. As you've mentioned you don't know a lot about theory, I would suggest having a look at some techniques to prolong the build up to the dominant by using devices such as secondary dominants and "coloured" chords.

I like your modulation at 2:55 it works well in the context as the music is built up

Good stuff. I've composed the odd thing for concert band so its good to hear how other people write for the ensemble.

Thanks for the help. The modulation at 2:55 is nice, though the alto saxes in my band are quite upset at seeing F-double sharp, and five sharps in the key signature (it modulates from A-minor, to B-minor... so for the alto-sax, that's G# minor or something).

I'm a bit confused what you mean by "secondary dominants". Do you mean, like use a B7 chord, which leads to the E7 chord, which would lead to the tonic of A minor? I'm also confused about what you mean as to the "coloured" chords. I really only know minor, major, diminished, and augmented... and the only real theory I know is that the dominant 7th leads into the tonic, though in a minor key, it is preferrable to use a diminished leading tone such as a Bdim in a Cminor setting. The diminished chord for a minor key, however, I learned a week ago... from an old piano book of mine.

Aside from that, I don't have any music theory knowlege.



I also need help writing percussion. It seems to be a major weakness. That and the fact I can't really write music too well. I can usually write a theme, but I don't know how to develop the theme, when to introduce a new theme, etc.

[MaestroX]

I'm a bit confused what you mean by "secondary dominants". Do you mean, like use a B7 chord, which leads to the E7 chord, which would lead to the tonic of A minor? I'm also confused about what you mean as to the "coloured" chords.

You've got the idea with the secondary dominants. Coloured chords are what we refer to as chords such as the Neopolitan 6th, Augmented 6th (comes in 3 flavours; Italian, German and French) and any other chromatic chords such as: #II⁷, #IV⁷ and #VI⁷ etc.

The term coloured chords is based on the meaning of chromatic (chromatic = "Coloured"). I hope that cleared a few things up

I also need help writing percussion. It seems to be a major weakness.

I thought your percussion writing was quite good actually. Good writing for the snare.

That and the fact I can't really write music too well. I can usually write a theme, but I don't know how to develop the theme, when to introduce a new theme, etc.

This is the hard part that comes out of hard work and experience. As far as I know, there are no books that teach you how to this effectively

[Rykua]

*nods* It kinda clears a few things up. I don't know what any of those chords are. I only know major, minor, diminished, and augmented... and 7th chords. Anything outside of that, I don't know... so, all that theory stuff about those Italian chords or French chords, or what people mean by counterpoint and color of the orchestration... I don't understand any of that stuff.

I've only been composing... this'll be my second year now... mainly everything has been self-taught. Most of my teaching comes from analyzing the conductor's scores of other band pieces, as well as trying to analyze piano pieces into trying to figure out why they work the way they do.

[reith]

It seemed a pretty good piece, the rhythmic variations were interesting, the scoring was basically sound and the sudden key change around 1'35 worked well.

I agree with Maestrox about the harmony - however, I also believe it's possible to develop a good sense of music and compose without a huge knowledge of theory. Some basics are useful - you've grasped them even if you can't put technical names to the harmonies. Analysing scores of works that strike your curiosity is one of the best ways to learn.

As for chromatic/coloured chords, these are just chords with notes that don't exist in the current tonic key (i.e. the home key for the passage in question). So if you're in C major (C/E/G/C) and use a chord of D major 7 (D/F#/A/C) the F# doesn't exist in the scale of C major, so the chord is "chromatic".

Minor keys are more complicated because of the problems of the "leading note" being raised a semitone which incurs other complications while putting more possibilities in the harmony.

Chromatic chords are useful to change key in a convincing way (modulation). You don't need to know about too many to get some very good effects including building up a climax. Probably the best thing is to study/look out for the more conventional key changes (you'll hear others talk about modulating to the dominant, relative major etc); learn to write scales (using the standard templates of where whole tones and semitones appear) - then you'll be able to find the dominant (note 5; 5th degree up the scale)easily and work out what its dominant is, etc, which you use to modulate.

I hope you don't mind me writing this - you may already know it in which case please disregard. Compliments on your couple of surprise modulations (where you just change key starting a new motif/phrase).

Good luck.

[Rykua]

Thanks. Yes, I knew a little bit about key-changing (though I didn't know they were called modulations. I didn't know anything about dominants and secondary dominants or anything. I just knew that the dominant 7th lead to the tonic chord, though a diminished leading tone of a harmonic minor was better suited if working in a harmonic key.

I mainly figure this out by reading the scores of songs I like, writing material that's similar in style, and figuring out what sounds good in what I wrote, and why it sounds good to me. Then I take it before my theory teacher and ask him about it... and he tries to explain it.

Although there was a time in analyzing a Bartok piece (called Bear Dance) for piano that was just... weird.

Like, the songs I listen to are Phantom of the Opera, Incredibles, Final Fantasy, Pirates of the Caribbean... and most piano songs written by Chopin. So, I take parts of those songs I like the most, figure out what makes that part good... and analyze it.


I know very little about theory, technical stuff... but I try everything by the ear and see how it works. That's kinda why I'm slow in my compositions and stuff... I guess.

EDIT: Out of curiousity, I assume in that example of putting a D7 chord in a key of C is so that there can be a key-change into the key of G (or G minor)? Is that what you mean? Is that the practical usage of using chromatic chords?