Ballet/contemporary dance quartet Modes of war

[Mithius]

2wice in one day this is not possible, okay carry on.

Hello at uni throughout 2007 - 2008 I composed music for a Ballet/contemporary dance played by a quartet.

The quartet and the instruments used at the Ballet/contemporary dance were:

1 - violin

1 - viola

1 - cello

and a piano

It did get it played by a real quartet,the resident quartet of the Uni, though very differently,

alot slower, many different notes than these audio files. Though it was an experience I shall not forget.

I do not have live recordings of that event sorry these audio files will have to do.

Modes of War: This is the 24 minute version, I also created a 16 min version and a 7min,

which is the last 7mins of the 24minute version. Which is what the quartet played at the show.

Modes of war needed a conductor and I could not conduct this though I did create it which is strange.

Jeremy conducted it, he put a lot of energy I thank him for that here.

This is some of my commentry:

Modes of war was initially thought out to be conflicts of modes or modes layered on top of each other

from different scales not relating so much to each other, though in a musical and melodic manner.

The original 24 minutes version was not unrelenting it had breaks that would give other instruments time to rest.

Modes of war is about simply ideas, not forms that structure the music but ideas that structure the music,

these ideas are short in length and then placed throughout the composition in places I see fit and when these

ideas do appear it is like a little secret, or even a ray of hope or as an opposite a death ray has appeared.

The waltz was composed at the same time of modes of war. It is not part of the Ballet or part of Modes of war

though it does use some ideas from Modes of war so in a way it is part of it.

I hope people can enjoy it in a different light.

The samples used for these files were from eastwest strings gold

Here are the Mp3s of the same version at different bit rates:

One should be able to paste these addresses and download the files should.

Waltz 120Bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?e0xdovextij

waltz 81bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?b3nhvtns5ml

modes of war 120bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?okzn1drm4b0

modes of war 81bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xsfyjmbtjkd

modes of war 61bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?znmc3fy2y8j

modes of war 31bit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lmtwux4yt13

Thanks and I am happy I can share this as well.

[Mithius]

Hello is it okay to ask these question to anyone.

I would like to know what people think of this composition, any criticism is okay. What do people who compose within a tonal center think of Modes of war?

And what do people who compose in an atonal centre think of Modes of war?

This piece is based on 5-6 ideas, these ideas interact more towards the end what does one sense by the end of piece?

What does one feel when they listen to this piece?

what does it convey to one?

I would be grateful if anyone took the time to have any thoughts on this piece.

[Sil]

The waltz sounded very minimalist in places, jazzy, and even sometimes reminded me of the work of Alfred Schnittke when it picked up in tempo. It sounds good to me, but I didn't really detect any motivic interplay to hold on to throughout the work. In that respect I'm reminded of Ives, like your melody line is just one long passage that encompasses the entire piece.

Something I'd work on in the future is breaking up your instruments so they can play off one another instead of playing in unison or with the same rhythmic character (polyphony instead of homophony.) Counterpoint is the main thing that seems missing.

Modes of War is very similar to your waltz in terms of your style. Again, I don't detect a lot of motivic writing but instead long passages that segue into one after the other without cadence or closure. It's very minimalist in that respect. A lot of the rhythmic ideas sound really good, but there's nothing for the listeners to attach onto to keep them grounded. It's kind of free-form and similar to those long 20 minute jazz sets. If I had to guess, you wrote this as a kind of "stream of consciousness."

Are you a composition student? Did you get graded on this? I think this piece is a good start to your development as a composer, so it might be helpful to do some new works heavy on contrapuntal lines and thematic continuity. If you like quartets, Shostakovich's 8th and Ravel's Quartet in F. I thought you referenced Shoshty's DSCH motif at around 15:38 and 17:00 in Modes of War, but I could be mistaken.

Also, why didn't you compress these at 128 kbps? 120, 81, 61, and 31 are a bit weird for mp3 compressions. Most people tend to stick to the binary-friendly numbers like 64, 128, 256, 32, etc.

[Mithius]

Thanks sil for your views.

I do not believe I have heard of Alfred Schnittke, I have heard of the name Ives though I have still not heard any of Ives music. It is only recent than I have understood in the music I create, I tend to use a lead melody that seems to get priority over everything else. Thats how passages for me seem to now stretch for long periods of time, I am not sure how to get away from this way of thinking. I have studied some Bach pieces at Uni and I also in my spare time arranged some S,T,A,B Bach choral pieces for 4 guitars, though I need contrapuntally to do a lot more if I am to gain a firm understanding of Counter point.

In my commentary for modes of war, that I said here and I handed in, in may, I mention I use 5/6 ideas that make up this piece,this is a correct statement and not correct statement. I will try to explain, while I do use 5/6 ideas throughout the piece,the ideas I use themselves do not make up the piece. This is something I should have said before.

To explain this (and I hope this makes some sense) I will use Shigeru Miyamoto when he produced a game in the past(because I am not sure if he has changed his ways)

An interviewer asks the question (similar but not quote)when producing a game what is the overall percentage of the level one needs to completes the game and what is the percentage of the secrets within the game. Miyamoto replies 70% is the game it self and 30% is the secrets of the game. To me the secrets are the little motives or ideas I use and it is probably less than 30% of this piece,maybe about 20-25%,though if one sticks through they will find these little secrets hidden,scattered across the whole piece,the idea could played by the piano or by any of the string instruments. And very near towards the end I start bringing these ideas one after the after, sometimes 2 or 3 on top of each other, I got this idea from the great Shoastakovich which he done in one of his quartets.

Cadence or closure, a teacher at Uni has mentioned this to me, It does not really cadence, in the classical world which is different from the world I am from would say that this composition has no full stops, music is one thing to me, words on paper is another to me. There is a very large full stop at the end no one can miss that full stop. (A cadence in F sharp minor). Though when trying to get this played it did cause super problems in that the violin parts stretched for nearly 9 pages,in-fact nearly all the instruments had absurd length pages, without a pause,there I now see to use full stops, I was in the wrong there. In the future I should at least give instruments more of a rest though for this piece that is what I wanted them to play.

"Stream of consciousness" yes in regards to modes of war, let the music go where ever it wanted to go. Some people may not like this way of thinking in music or in this piece and one of the consequences one pays in this piece, is like you said it gives very little for listeners to attach to. It also makes people think that this is just a bunch of different parts or sections pieced together, I also arrived at the conclusion that many sections are like pedals not a true pedals but there is a common note within each section that sustains the section so counterpoint is not so possible. though if they give it a chance, they can hear that overall it equals more than the sum of it's parts.

I am an adult composition student, this piece does not count towards the final mark. The head of composition at the University, who is an amazing composer, took to this composition, I really thought I was going to get slated or stoned like an outcast.

I had been listening at Dimitri's 5th symphony and some of his quartets, so it was inevitable I would bring him back to life, I do like to know do people notice or care for these things 15.38s, and in the violin at 17.00s it is many other places as well in the piano at 20.13s. I would go as far as to say that one of the ideas out of the 5/6 is in the vain of Shoastakovich. I probably will get stoned to death for plagiarizing, for saying and doing things like that.

Why did I not compress them at 128 kbps or other normal figures, I really was not thinking there, I was so Hyped on letting people know about the other project that I did not even think about those odd ratios, right they are odd, next time I will do friendly numbers.

Thanks again Sil I really appreciate the comments

[DramaNoMore]

Hy, I would like to comment about this:

Some people may not like this way of thinking in music or in this piece and one of the consequences one pays in this piece, is like you said it gives very little for listeners to attach to.

In my opinion, this just shows how... insecure some people are about everything they cannot predict... Yea, it's usefull to be sure that were going to get payed next month... or that we'll still have a home... but needing to know some aspects of the music you're listening to beforehand to be more confortable with it, is a bit too mutch, I think.

I like it this way, though. I really liked these couple of pieces.

Edit: The word "roller-coaster" Just came to me.