Composition Assignment

My Theory class was given a composition assignment. We've been studying triads - major, minor, diminished, and augmented.

This assignment is worth 150 points. Here are the guidelines:

• 8 measures long
• use any triads: major, minor, augmented, or diminished
• all triads must be in root position
• triads can be from any key, but you must stay within one key (that is, you can use borrowed chords, but can't modulate)
• Double the triad at the octave below - keep the hands together (no octave separation)
• use only quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes, or whole notes

We lose points if we don't follow the guidelines.

I actually wrote 14 measures, modulated to another key & came back, but that didn't fit the guidelines, so I took those measures out.

Here's my composition (click on the picture to see it full size):


Obviously it's not going to be some Major Masterpiece for All Time, but it was an interesting assignment. The hardest part for me at first was to keep everything in root position, but once I wrapped my brain around that, the rest progressed pretty nicely.

It's also obvious that I wasn't thinking in terms of "chord progressions" - and that wasn't one of the requirements of the assignment (so there!). The guidelines also said nothing about staying in a single meter. I did try to make it work in 6/4, but it just didn't feel right that way, so I went with what the music wanted to do & mixed the meter up a bit. The dynamics weren't required either, but there they are.

I enjoyed this assignment - and to be honest, this is the first bit of original composition I've done in YEARS! Oh sure, I've done *lots* of arranging and adapting over the years, but haven't written anything new in longer than I care to remember. So this felt really really GOOD! :-)

Hopefully I'll find some round tuits and start composing again....

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Addendum

By popular demand, here is an MP3 of my Composition Assignment.

I used Finale to generate the file in the first place, then saved it as a .wav. I used Audacity to export it to .mp3. The dynamics are a bit weird, but otherwise it's ok.

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