Started by
wagner
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hello everyone, let me introduce myself, I am new to the forum, I am a pianist and an experimental composition student.
I would like to write a contemporary string quartet but I don't know where to start, I have no references, material, etc. I would like to analyze some modern scores, do you have any interesting names?
I would like to write in a neo-tonal style
Thank you all
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I'm going off-topic - excuse me! - because I am certainly not a neo-tonalist ... But I'll point out these two quartets to you: recent and very beautiful.
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First of all, I would need some specifics for Neotonality or at least an example of a composer that you like
The ingredients are:
- Listening: on the forum you can also rely on this section... browse through it a bit (http://www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/forum/133-ascolti-del-xxi-secolo/)
- Analysis: one can reason
- Master: never hurts
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I also suggest some slightly more agée listening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-JAL-Vh7Xk
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For now, you could reason about the instrumentation; from the classic Vn, Vn, Vla and Vc you have many possibilities....the fact that it is atonal is merely a matter of language.
Of course, if tonality is involved, precisely because of its most important constructs, you cannot, for example, write for a quartet of double basses... or rather, you would lose every reference to the arrangement of harmonics and you would eventually be left with an harmony in thirds stripped of cadences, or at least the most obsolete ones.
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I would just like to clarify that when I indicated the 21st century section, given the off-topic listening suggestions made so far, I meant the section in its entirety, including those works that are no longer voted for in 'Contemporanea' as a genre. Furthermore, MicaMahler has pointed out some works from about 30 years ago, which in relation to 'Contemporanea' are also quite dated and therefore certainly not modern... practically an '80s sound.
Even though scrolling through the list I did not find pieces strictly for quartet, there are certainly pieces written according to logics closer to harmony by thirds... which allude more easily to tonality. Precisely because of this, I find it necessary for Wagner to make some clarifications. I really don't see "Neo" paired with tonality, as I believe tonality has never been abandoned; so, to which retro-avant-garde are we referring?
It is one thing to say, for example, neo-romanticism, meaning an approach to compositional material in the romantic spirit, and quite another to pair "neo" with grammar.
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Even if it is a string orchestra... some analytical insights can be taken
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Think that I also came up with a fugue for string trio by the user Geppino from the forum ...written really well. Contact him.
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What is more current and experimental than film music?
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Well, I specified that my listening was aged... And I hope they can still be useful!
P.s. Jonathan Harvey's quartet is from 2003 anyway
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micamahler wrote:Jonathan Harvey's quartet is from 2003 anyway
You know, I never would have guessed... I'm starting to become convinced that when a composer has finished their training and defines their own style... especially in Contemporary music, it almost becomes a limit. I mean that few manage to truly move forward afterwards, and it is easy that only the young bring a tangible contribution. Perhaps it is a generational problem, and listening to him, I don't find these huge differences with his music from twenty years ago.
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postmoderno-neotonale? Primo Boccadoro
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You are all extremely kind and I thank you for the listening suggestions offered, truly.
Unfortunately, my Teacher only follows me occasionally and demands a lot of autonomy. In the composition of this piece, I am completely free without stylistic constraints or anything else... he advised me to write it to participate in the Composition Competition that will be held in Spoleto this summer, dedicated to Gian Carlo Menotti, but I don't know if I will do it; I will certainly write this piece because it is my third approach to contemporary music. The first two pieces I wrote, one for clarinet and one for flute, are completely atonal, written following the music of Franco Donatoni, George Benjamin, and Ligeti as a guide.
In this piece, however, I want to try to be influenced by composers I like very much such as John Adams, Philip Glass, Takashi Yoshimatsu, and Samuel Barber, but in a minimalist context... I said neo-tonal because I would like to use structures derived from tonality, chord progressions, but then develop them in a complex way.
I was trying to think of a work plan collateral to the composition, what do you think?
1) analysis of Bartók's quartets
2) listening to contemporary quartets
3) manual transcription of quartets
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ps. how useful can Vincent Persichetti's harmony manual be in this regard? Do any of you use it?
And in these musical composition competitions, is a language with references to tonality or otherwise to tertian harmony well-received or considered poor?
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wagner wrote:And in these musical composition competitions, is language with references to tonality or otherwise to third-based harmony well-received or considered poor?
Surely... you have to write like a certain Ivan Fedele
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Really? I thought that the dedication to Menotti implied greater freedom in the choice of language, with more evident references to tradition or at least to tonality.
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wagner wrote:Really? I thought that the dedication to Menotti implied greater freedom in the choice of language with more evident references to tradition or at least to tonality.
Not language: WRITING!
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Another useful section and discussion on the matter of competitions
Too many topics in a single thread... open specific discussions otherwise it will soon become a mess
