Logistical, Mental and Idea Organization for the Composition Diploma

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

- on how to best manage the time available (how did you alternate work and rest?)

The work you haven't found yet, or the one you have and are doing while studying?

Keep in mind that you also need time to procure commissions and follow up on the performances of your pieces. The worst thing is doing the parts yourself; find a good assistant... otherwise, you'll end up spending your days on Final Cut

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

- what kind of "autogenic training" did you use (;-P) on yourselves (if you did it) to not "collapse"?

A bit of post-exam depression arrives; celebrate, enjoy it, think that you'll be one more unemployed person on earth.... or there are two-year programs to fill the days... hihi

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

- do you think it is useful, during 'lockdowns', to have a good supply of coffee at hand?

Everything that represents comfort must not be missing: meals, favorite pillow, mosquito repellent, coffee (if you like it)... as long as it doesn't make you jittery... in antithesis: Valium

I also had other studies, so I oriented myself towards a profession that is outside the musical field.

... because one must eat to live, I think it's hard, especially nowadays.

I think I explained myself poorly... I didn't mean to refer to the professional field, but exclusively to the examination period for obtaining the diploma.

Halfway through the 15 days, I left for military service.. I was away for 2 days, just long enough to get leave for exams. As soon as it was finished, I left again and after 3 days I ended up in the military hospital due to exhaustion. After 1 month, I was discharged

Ok, by work you meant studio

But, having reached this point, what is done is done in the sense that in a theoretical exam there is always review or the study of final details. As far as practical and professional tests are concerned, one relies on skills that you should have already developed and which certainly won't improve in the last 2 or 3 weeks.

So it is right to stay active with your head until the very end, but take some periods of leisure; maybe don't go to bed late because then a month of being sick will begin. It's not just the exams; at home you become slaves to yourself and if ideas are lacking, you sleep less and less at night.

Without scaring you, everyone has survived... but it is useless to arrive already tired with the illusion of having improved, who knows how.

Zedef wrote:

Halfway through the 15 days, I left for military service.. I was away for 2 days, just long enough to get leave for exams. As soon as it was finished, I left again and after 3 days I ended up in the military hospital due to exhaustion. One month passed and I was discharged.

What "luck."

My worst memory is that of hand cramps and the feeling of anxiety and racing against time.

Great suggestion about not arriving physically and mentally exhausted

The thing that stressed me out the most was the fact that the conservatory wouldn't give me the dates (they would only define them about a week before)....and at work they had grown tired of the fact that I wasn't defining the period of leave ...with the risk of it not being granted.

Once the dates and the leave are certain ... everything will be smooth sailing

I already know the rehearsal dates, fortunately.

Another doubt that haunts me is:

- for the rehearsal of the symphonic piece (or lyrical scene, whatever it may be), 15 days are scheduled. Did you use all of them entirely, working hard from the first to the last? Or, even considering a good product (finished, refined, and complete with every indication), could it also be completed a few days before the deadline?

i have reached the threshold of my diploma exam, aware of my knowledge, sure of my ideas, more than sure about what I intend to do "after" (musically and compositionally speaking), but with a state of mind that borders on uncertainty regarding what I will be asked to produce in the various exam sessions. discussing several times with my teacher and analyzing my own scores and those of others, I have not developed a precise idea of what the works should contain.

I have the feeling that perhaps the specific contents are not considered much, but rather the intentions and inventiveness of the candidate. Sometimes I have happened to create scores that were monstrous (graphically) but veeeery 'pumped up' with rhetoric.....other times, scores (graphically) with decidedly less visual impact but that said something sensible and clever.

It all seems aleatory to me....where anything can be considered "good" or "bad".

What do you all think?

I'm tiptoeing in because once it might have interested me .. now with the reform ... less.

Anyway, I think you experience the same feeling as all those who have taken exams, and for private students, even worse. The point is this: as an internal student you have, even if few, certainties... just think of the external students.

Is it possible that your teacher hasn't guided you to the point where you haven't formed an idea about your stylistic desiderata?

my language, I believe I have defined it, with which to easily express ideas that are quite convincing,

taking inspiration, 1/4 from Bartok, 1/4 from Stravinsky, 1/4 from Debussy and 1/4 from jazz.

even for my teacher this discussion is functional... but more often than not it pushes me to go beyond....

to try current languages and avant-gardes..... but which do not belong to me and I don't really believe in them....

languages and techniques that produce a sound product that in the end makes you ask yourself: "but is this music?"....

or "but what the hell am I writing?".... mha

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

...but several times it pushes me to go further....

Curiosity, why and where?

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

to try current languages and avant-gardes.....

The avant-garde is no longer current. That is why I ask why?

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

but which do not belong to me and I don't really believe....

To know like the Renaissance mode ... and that's it

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

languages and techniques that produce a sound product that in the end makes you ask yourself: "but is this music?"....

or "but what the hell am I writing?"....mha

In fact, they had an aesthetic reason, we don't... so it must be a journey of knowledge

Returning to the technicalities, in my opinion you need all 15 days, also because you know you will have to deliver, so you won't rest even if formally you might have a few hours left over

It is better not to count on leftovers and even better, use all the time available by dosing it sparingly

I quote Gerardo, I have never agreed so much with a forum member.

A teacher must always cater to the inclinations of a student, guiding them to form their own style and not guiding them toward being a poor copy of another (see post-structuralism ... which is stuff from 30.. 40 years ago). A professional composer, who writes and is performed today, knows well that music is no longer post-structuralist... they certainly must be coherent but must not disregard the perceptive sphere.

In short, it is not a mathematical or cerebral exercise ...

The music of composers like Berio must serve as a great example, of great utility, not only for its intellectual, artistic, and expressive quality, but precisely because it showed us how an artist knew how to escape a collective trap in a moment of crisis, trying to understand the essence of what makes a language communicative, without closing oneself off to criticism and new ideas, and without forgetting that there is a past that belongs to us and that we cannot exclude ourselves from, as if it did not exist.

In my opinion, one must take into account that art is made by man, for man, and that refusing everything that concerns him is like refusing oneself.

This does not change the fact that one must still know [the past], and the academy cannot be of today, but must necessarily be of yesterday. It is important to be aware of this as well.

Regarding the exam, many have replied to you; the agi [musical exercises/studies] must not be missing, stay focused now because you will be required to use a lot of energy and you must be lucid to face the difficulty, which will not be lacking. The enemy is always time, especially in relation to the desire to do well (meaning a work of art), even more than what is desired, but this is our own inner drive, not necessarily something required by the test and in fact, if I understood correctly, they expect a project rather than music that is listenable, so this reduces the time... and simplifies the evaluation for them... said obviously with bitterness.

As for style, they made a clear point to me, it depends on what grade you want to get... even failure is "painful"...

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

I rehearsal dates, I already know them, fortunately.

How fortunate!

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

Another doubt that haunts me is:

- for the rehearsal of the symphonic piece (or lyrical scene, whatever it may be), 15 days are planned. Did you use all of them in full, working hard from the first to the last? Or, even considering a good product (finished, refined and complete with every indication), could it also be finished a few days before the deadline?

It depends on many factors; I don't think I can give a valid answer without telling my experience, which is: until the very last minute I was behind "polishing" the piece, and the more you look at it, the worse it gets.

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

I have the feeling that perhaps the specific contents are not considered much, but rather the intentions and the inventiveness of the candidate.

...also because if you think about the time they will take to correct it.

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

Sometimes I have happened to create monstrous scores (graphically) but veeeery 'pumped up' with rhetoric.....other times, scores (graphically) with decidedly less visual impact but that said something sensible and clever.

...it depends on what you are aiming for; when someone has little time to get an idea and give a grade, the first things noticed are precisely the outward traits and the macro errors...I don't know, if you make a flute play below C and similar.

ScalaQuaranta wrote:

It all seems aleatory to me....where anything can be considered "good" or "bad".

A lottery ticket? I wouldn't say so; once you know a bit what the commission expects... you just have to not do crazy things and stay within the "pre-established" tracks.

In the end, you have to show that you have a bit of technique (even graphical); artistic evaluations are always aleatory and anything goes.