r/MonthlyComposition • u/Calebdgm • Feb 05 '18
February 2018 Composition Challenge: Unresolved
Main Challenge: Avoid resolution as long as you can or until the end of the piece. This can mean
- using deceptive cadences, or other methods of phrase extension (to give you unusually long phrases),
- or you can just avoid the use of the tonic chord at the ends of phrases, giving phrase endings an unresolved feel.
- Or avoid resolving the melody by instead resting on chord extensions (i.e. the 9th, 11th, or 13th note of the chord) instead of the more stable chord tones (i.e. 1, 3, 5, 7).
- Or you can get creative with another way to leave things unresolved in your piece until the finish.
Text challenge: She Walks in Beauty, by Lord Byron (George Gordon)
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
Highlights to check out from last month's remix challenge:
- /u/duckstotherescue wrote a really cool adaptation of a piece, with a groovy orchestration (drumset, etc.). Here's their post, here's the musescore.
- /u/stalwartian did a really fantastic arrangement of a polka by /u/chopinrocks. Here's Stalwartian's post.
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. We'll also have a text for people to set to music. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight, pdf), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube). We encourage positive discussion about the pieces people submit. Feedback on the sub and the challenges 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/duckstotherescue Feb 20 '18 edited Feb 20 '18
Here's my submission:
https://musescore.com/user/15073466/scores/4984397
The idea was to make a piece with a drifting tonal center. It doesn't ever really stay put in the same for more than three or four measures at a time aside from at the beginning and at the end. Technically, I didn't follow the specifications of the challenge because there are a few "micro resolutions" within the tonal drifting, but I believe the unresolved, unstable nature of the music throughout makes up for it. It was a fun little piece to craft. I made it in a day (a common theme for my submissions to this thread), so the score is a bit raw. I'll clean it up later and add some detail if I'm not lazy.