So, I wrote a piano piece a while back. It was based on a canon at the 5th, but then I monkeyed around with it. I liked it, so I sent it to my aunt, who is a piano teacher, so vet it for me, check if I got the voiceings right, or if I wrote it as if you'd need 6 fingers on each hand to play it.
Well, she freaked out on it. Was absolutely floored. So much so that she sent the score to a music professor at Hood College named Noel Lester, who (so she says) is constantly looking for contemporary composers.
We're waiting to hear back from him, but I just wanted to boast and posture for a minute.
explain "canon" in musical context pls. I always thought it was just the name of a tune but the way you used it there it's type of tune? Oh, and congrats for being the oldest child prodigy in existence :D
A canon is basically a melody that begins in one part, and then is repeated by another part a few measures later. A perfect example is two people singing "row, row, row your boat". The second voice starts from the beginning when the first sings "Merrily, merrily..."
So, the second half of the melody is written to harmonize with the first part.
Now, consider the melody for "row your boat" to be 3 minutes long, rather than a 2-line ditty.
A canon can be "at the unison" which means that the melody that follows begins on the same note, like "row your boat". But it can also start at different intervals, like you took the entire melody and shifted it up (or down). So you can have a canon "at the 3rd", or "at the minor 4th" or whatever.
You can also "invert it" so when the initial melody goes C - D - F, the following melody goes C - Bflat - G (that is, if you go "up a whole step, then up a step and a half", the following melody goes "down a whole step, down a step and a half").
And there are other things you can do to it.
tl;dr - It's like a permanent 1-measure delay pedal on a melody.
Quote from: LMNO on March 18, 2009, 12:50:51 PM
A canon is basically a melody that begins in one part, and then is repeated by another part a few measures later. A perfect example is two people singing "row, row, row your boat". The second voice starts from the beginning when the first sings "Merrily, merrily..."
So, the second half of the melody is written to harmonize with the first part.
Now, consider the melody for "row your boat" to be 3 minutes long, rather than a 2-line ditty.
A canon can be "at the unison" which means that the melody that follows begins on the same note, like "row your boat". But it can also start at different intervals, like you took the entire melody and shifted it up (or down). So you can have a canon "at the 3rd", or "at the minor 4th" or whatever.
You can also "invert it" so when the initial melody goes C - D - F, the following melody goes C - Bflat - G (that is, if you go "up a whole step, then up a step and a half", the following melody goes "down a whole step, down a step and a half").
And there are other things you can do to it.
tl;dr - It's like a permanent 1-measure delay pedal on a melody.
My favourite way to play guitar is running it through 3seconds of delay. Never knew they had a word for it before :D
Actually, what you're doing is called "wanking".
My favorite way to play guitar is with drumsticks and screwdrivers.
Also, I hope eventually we get to hear the canon. Good luck with your endeavour.
I'll post it to the earfatigue site when I get home.
Quote from: LMNO on March 18, 2009, 01:00:19 PM
Actually, what you're doing is called "wanking".
In my dreams. What I do is more along the lines of unzipping my fly and fondling my nuts a bit.
WOOHOO!!! When you're famous we can all say we knew you when....
And you taught us how to cook...
That is really cool for you. I'm impressed!!
Now I have to follow up.
I'm thinking a duet with cello. I like cellos. They're sexy.
i wanna hear!
That's really cool LMNO!
Can be downloaded here.
http://ifile.it/79gfmz2
Sounds very pleasant. Don't really know much about music to say anything... Would like to hear more.
it sounds a bit ... random to me. in which i mean, it sounds a bit like my own experiments with random note generators, except better (i did together with a friend who actually knows a lot about musical theory btw). so, random not in a bad way :-)
IMO, this should go together really well with some IDM-ish, aphex twin (drukqs) or autechre style beats. Maybe Squiddy's husband or TLU can help with that, they know how to make that kind of sound.
check out aphex twin's drukqs album, if you haven't. (be prepared for some crazy insane breaks though)
I like it a lot.
I like. It's got an odd quality to it, like you're on the verge of recognizing part of it, but it never QUITE goes where you'd expect the it to. Not quite active or sedentary like some music, this strikes me more as music to think to. The way thoughts flow and jump is the easiest parallel I can draw.
Yeah, it has a main "idea" it keeps coming back to (the first 8 notes in the upper register), but it never exactly repeats itself. There is always a bit of variation somewhere.
The cello piece isn't coming along too well. I need some sort of framing device.
niiiiice
I get a bit of a jazz-cum-classical feel from it. I can also imagine it sounding pretty neat on a harpsichord.
You wouldn't get the dynamics, but I see where you're going.
Yeah, that's true.
A lot of tension/dissonance, which makes a seemingly light simple piece actually pretty dark and dramatic all told. Lovely work, LMNO. I hope it takes you places. :D
Quote from: LMNO goes back to the Big Blue Cock on March 18, 2009, 12:31:54 PM
So, I wrote a piano piece a while back. It was based on a canon at the 5th, but then I monkeyed around with it. I liked it, so I sent it to my aunt, who is a piano teacher, so vet it for me, check if I got the voiceings right, or if I wrote it as if you'd need 6 fingers on each hand to play it.
Well, she freaked out on it. Was absolutely floored. So much so that she sent the score to a music professor at Hood College named Noel Lester, who (so she says) is constantly looking for contemporary composers.
We're waiting to hear back from him, but I just wanted to boast and posture for a minute.
Congratulations
if I had access to a piano I would love to see and play it
But wont have access till July
:)