Notational Alternatives: Beyond Finale and Sibelius. “Finale or Sibelius?” Is a question that composers love to ask other composers. It’s often taken as a given that if you write music professionally, you’re already using one of these popular notation software packages. This may be about to change—with the news of Sibelius’s development team being unceremoniously dumped by Avid and subsequently scooped up by Steinberg, we may have a third variable to add to that equation. ThinkMusic, another newcomer, promises an iPad app in the near future, but has already generated controversy for seeming to use Sibelius in its video mockup. In the meantime, there are a variety of other, lesser-known options for notation software already lurking out there. None of them may have the same clout with professionals as Sibelius and Finale—yet—but many are gaining ground. MuseScore: Open Source Upstart MuseScore started out in 2002 as a spinoff of MusE, an open source sequencer created by German developer and musician Werner Schweer.
The Future of Notation? Learning the Rules. “You have to learn the rules before you can break them.” I have no idea where I first heard this phrase. I may have heard it so many times, in so many different contexts, that it’s lost all meaning. I’m sure I’ve uttered it myself without giving it much thought. But lately, what once seemed like an innocuous adage has started to feel more and more like a poisonous platitude, something completely inimical to the actual methodology of artistic practice. I’ll try to explain why.
Regardless of where I first heard it, for me the phrase is inextricably bound up with undergraduate music theory courses, specifically related to learning four-part voice leading in the style of the J.S. Bach chorales. The first problem with this statement is that it isn’t quite true. When I’m composing, I often find myself negotiating between many different, often contradictory sets of rules. The question of “which rules?” The point of all this, by the way, is not to slavishly imitate Monk when playing his music. Undertone series. Methods for producing an undertone series[edit] The overtone series can be produced physically in two ways—either by overblowing a wind instrument, or by dividing a monochord string. If a monochord string is lightly damped at the halfway point, then at 1/3, then 1/4, 1/5, etc., then the string will produce the overtone series, which includes the major triad.
If instead, the length of the string is doubled in the opposite ratios, the undertones series is produced. Similarly, on a wind instrument, if the holes are equally spaced, each successive hole covered will produce the next note in the undertone series. In addition, José Sotorrio showed that undertones could be made through the use of a simple oscillator such as a tuning fork. Comparison to the overtone series[edit] Notes in the series[edit] The pattern occurs in the same manner using the undertone series. Triads[edit] If the first five notes of both series are compared, a pattern is seen: Resonance[edit] Minor as upside down major. Category:Musical techniques. Composing for film essay. When Johann Sebastian Bach Goes Open-Source He Goes All The Way. Ravel| Mother Goose| New York Philharmonic| Arbie Orenstein.
The principal bassoonist at the New York Philharmonic got some good news recently: The bassoon part in Maurice Ravel's "Mother Goose" ballet ("Ma Mère l'Oye"), which will be performed on the orchestra's program for three consecutive evenings beginning Wednesday (and reprised Jan. 4), just grew by four full measures.
"She was tickled pink," says Arbie Orenstein, the Queens College musicologist who, while examining the work's original manuscript, came across a musical line that, strangely enough, had never made it into the score that has been performed for the past 100 years. Ravel originally composed "Mother Goose" in 1910 as a set of duets, for one piano and four hands, for the children of friends. A year later he orchestrated that piano suite for a small orchestra, subsequently expanding that orchestral transcription into a ballet based upon the same children's stories he'd previously adapted. Mr. Mr. Plus ça change. . . Ms. The Science of Mysteries: Leave Us the Counterpoint | Cocktail Party Physics. Note : Last November, a Twitter exchange revealed that certain members of the small subset of science writers who were humanities majors (including your humble cocktail party blogger), also have a shared taste for classic murder mysteries.
They thought they would co-post, on their respective blogs, various takes on the science of classical mystery writers. And they had so much fun, they decided to do so again! A full list of links can be found at the end of this post, but be sure to check out the new offerings in particular: Deborah Blum on Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles , and Ann Finkbeiner on Dorothy Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club . “This kind of thing is the body and bones of music. Every great literary detective needs his muse, and for Dorothy L. Eventually she calls upon Wimsey for aid, despite some awkwardness arising from the fact that she’s spent the last four years rejecting his many marriage proposals.
What does he mean? Ahem. Scales and emotions. See also a post about making chords from scales. So maybe you want to write a song or an instrumental in a particular mood or style, and you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the scales. Here’s a handy guide to the commonly used scales in Western pop, rock, jazz, blues and so on. Click each image to play the scale right in your browser with the aQWERTYon. These scales have a major third (E in the key of C), which makes them feel happy or bright. Major scale Happy; can be majestic or sentimental when slow. Mixolydian mode Bluesy, rock; can also be exotic/modal. Lydian mode Ethereal, dreamy, futuristic. Lydian dominant mode Also known as the overtone scale or acoustic scale, because it is close to the first seven pitches in the natural overtone series.
Phrygian dominant mode Exotic, Middle Eastern, Jewish. Harmonic major scale Majestic, mysterious. These scales have a flat third (E-flat in the key of C), which gives them a darker and more tragic feel. Natural minor scale (Aeolian mode) Dorian mode. John Winsor, Composer. List of chord progressions. Second-Guessing Satie. Composition resources. Getting Off the Assembly Line. Your generous responses to my little outburst about being tired of blogging certainly made it clear what most useful direction this blog can continue to go in.
I may be out of ideas I haven’t expounded, but my file cabinets and hard drives are still chockablock with music that’s not in general circulation, and listeners are eager to have their experience widened. If I do no more than satisfy that longing, I will have felt that my trip to this planet was not in vain. If I become in the process sort of the Dick Cavett of avant-garde music, so be it. One of the themes of my life has become something I never expected. I’ve based some large part of my career around documenting recent music not adequately represented by its score notation. It started with Nancarrow.
Since then I have stumbled upon a wealth of music whose score notation, if it exists at all, doesn’t adequately represent it. The whole score is a fascinating document of Meredith’s working method. The music is worth analyzing. John Adams: Hell Mouth: On surviving a first rehearsal. Oct 20, 2009 You go into a nervous sweat to finish the full score and meet the deadline, feeling resentment at those famous architects and painters who have entire armies of assistants to whom they can hand over the tedium of small decisions. The composer always seems to work alone. Has to. Can’t trust anyone with any aspect of the piece. (Or maybe it IS possible? I’d never seriously thought of that. As the D-Day approaches and you have to deliver the score and parts to the orchestra you feel yourself overwhelmed with the burden of a millions fussy little decisions.
These decisions are of the devil-in-the-details sort, but they can’t be put off or approximated. Nine months of this piece with only yourself to mumble to, working in more or less total solitude, and then suddenly it’s a public event, a birthing with cameras rolling and critical ears pricked to the ready. I still use a pencil (Turquoise 5B) and heavy 24-staff Judy Green manuscript paper for the final draft. PSNY. Introducing the PSNY Greenroom by Ted Gordon on April 21, 2014, 11:24 a.m. We're thrilled to announce the launch of the PSNY Greenroom; a new series which makes it easier than ever to discover new music and see what ensembles across the country are listening to and performing.
The Greenroom highlights the ensembles and artists who are defining the landscape of contemporary music. Each month, an ensemble or artist will select works from the PSNY catalogue that they are excited about performing, listening to, or both. The Greenroom is your backstage pass into the ears and creative minds of your favorite artists; a place of discovery for anyone interested in contemporary music, driven by artists, for artists. Our first visit to the Greenroom is with Present Music, and features director Kevin Stalheim's favorite selections from the PSNY catalog.
New Works from Evan Ziporyn, Lei Liang, René Leibowitz, Christopher Cerrone, and Hannah Lash April 21, 2014, 8:54 a.m.