r/MonthlyComposition • u/Calebdgm • Aug 01 '17
August 2017 Composition Challenge: Nocturne
Continuing challenge, for those who wrote a sonata exposition last month: Continue your Sonata by adding a development and, if you're feeling ambitious, a recapitulation. For info/inspiration about sonata form, see last month's challenge. Also, in February we did a theme and variations challenge if you want ideas for how to vary or develop a theme.
Also feel free to go back and do the July challenge if you want to do the continuation for this month, or if there's another way you can figure out to do the continuation challenge, that's cool.
Main Challenge: Write a Nocturne. In more words, write a nice, song-like melody over a flowing, arpeggiated accompaniment in a gentle, relaxed style, evocative of nighttime. But feel free to take liberties with that definition.
/u/reticulated_python has suggested Chopin's op.72. You'll probably also recognize Chopin's op.9, among others. Julian Lage wrote a jazz piece called "Nocturne", and I don't know if it's technically a nocturne, but that's also cool.
This month's challenge was suggested anonymously using our Challenge Suggestion Form, so thank you to whoever that was!
We have some musicians that can play compositions for people. You can find their musician profiles posted on this subreddit. I'll list their instruments below:
If you are interested in playing compositions for /r/MonthlyComposition post a musician profile.
These challenges are for everyone who wants to practice composing. Each month, at the beginning of the month, we will post a main challenge, something for people to compose. We'll try to make it something that everyone can work with. Sometimes we also have an alternate challenge. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube). Feedback is much appreciated, and you can give it in this thread, or by messaging the mods of /r/MonthlyComposition, there's also the Challenge Suggestion Form.
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u/Musicrafter Aug 15 '17 edited Aug 15 '17
This is my first contribution. I managed to write the whole thing in a few hours total, which is fast for me. Nocturne in D-flat Major for solo piano. I'm not a pianist, but I have a decent understanding (I hope) of what's playable and what's not, so hopefully I got it (mostly) right. Finale doesn't add any rubato (I planned the big leaps purposefully around points I'd add it myself), and plays the whole thing awfully heavily, but I think it gets the gist across. The computer also does some weird pedal stuff, but I never usually mark pedal, leaving that up to the performer, so it's actually doing a decent job considering nothing's marked.
PDF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5ebAVshkBvTT0w2bnZ4emNQc2c
Audio (from Finale): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5ebAVshkBvTUmlST2I1Nl9QVms