Notes on Music (Big Blog pt. 1)

Hey everyone,

Took a break for a while, but today I'm back at it. I've found that the perfect time to blog is when I'm making dinner. That usually happens every night. But like my friend Josh Auer says, blogging means I'm not out experiencing the city, so I'm trying to have balance. I don't know how many of you know my buddy Josh. He produced Trav's album. You can check out his blog on my friends list to the right, or you can see his acting career here.

Got lots of fun things to tell and I decided that it would be way more fun if I broke it into smaller blogs. Like lots of little presents instead of one big one. Sure, everyone wants a car instead of 10 trinkets, but still. I know you're busy people. This is me trying to help you out. Also, have a bunch of fun titles for things, so I wanted to try them out. Be forewarned, this blog is for the music nerds.

In the pursuit of balance, I hung out at the school Saturday night practicing counterpoint and keyboard harmony and trying to start writing a new piece.

A lot has happened since the last blog, so I'll try to give highlights.

Keyboard Harmony class. Love to go into detail, but the basics are that this class is gonna kick my tail, just like most of the others here. Dr. Boyle explained the two motions of harmony: Sequential and Cadential. Sequences are the presentation of cells (consisting of two chords) that are then transposed. There are two types of sequences, cells of the 4th, with 3 types of motion, and cells of the 5th, with two typ. The numbers describe the motion of the bass note. Bass motion can move either up or down. Each sequence has a specific way that it must be treated. This then leads into the concept of proper voice leading in sequences (the higher bass note must be accompanied by the third of the triad in the soprano). Coupled with the rule that there must be minimal voice motion, that means that there are specific ways that all the voices can move. Fairly straightforward.

However, applying this is a monster and is really pushing me musically. We have to be able to sing in solfege (related to fixed do, this means that the syllable that you start on will change for every different key that you do a sequence in) every voice. When you think of combination of five types of motion and their inversions it's forty different options that we have to know. Plus the twelve keys so basically 480 options Add to that the bass exercises that we have plus the all cadence and it's pretty overhelming! Somehow this will all become ingrained.

I also had a comp lesson with Lane Harder. He has been assigned to me for the 3 lessons that I get while I'm here. A great teacher. Extremely encouraging and offered some great advice on a choir piece that I'm submitting for the choir contest that's due on Friday. Encouraged me to write a piece for the student concert at the end of the program.

Saturday morning had me and Tom in our species counterpoint lab where we went through the two counterpoint examples that we had done since Friday's lecture (Species Counterpoint - 1 to 1, whole note to whole note). We also learned about 3 part species 1 counterpoint in the lab. Not for the faint of heart. Spent a considerable amount of time last night trying to get that finished. It's been a long time since I've done this stuff. Kind of like musical Sudoku.

Master Class with Robert Beaser on Saturday had us all listening to his music. A great guy and great music. Very organic and emotional. Reminded me of music that would happen if Copland met Bartok. Tom and I sat on the front and we were able to look on at his scores. Such a benefit to getting there early!

I've asked him if I can have a lesson with him sometime this week. Please pray that I can get that chance. He was totally open to it, but it remains to be seen if that will work because of his schedule. I'm praying that that would work out. Other than that, gonna try to start on a new piece. I'll write more about that later. This is one that's been brewing for a while and I think it might be time to try and get it out.

Enough about music. More blogs above. Like scripture says, "Those who have ears to hear, let him hear."

BC