Category: composition1

Assignment, due Jan. 31/Feb. 1 Compose eight brief melodies for any monophonic wind instrument. These melodies will be performed in class, so they should be written for a class member (with their knowledge), written for the composer to play, or written for a specific guest musician that you will be responsible for bringing in to…

Due: Thursday/Friday (1/24 and 1/25) Compose 6 brief melodies, in any style. Each melody should contain one musical thought. You can think of each melody as a phrase, but make sure your phrase is comprised of one main idea that rises to the status of profile, of something recognizable. Write your melodies for the piano…

For the next round of study, we’ll be looking at and listening to works by Stravinsky, Debussy, and Varese. Stravinsky, Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo Debussy, Syrinx Varese, Density 21.5 Scores and audio in iLocker. For the M/F group, we will discuss these works on Friday. For the T/R group, discussion will be on Thursday.

I mentioned in class that there is an email listserv for composition. We also have a Facebook group. Listserv We use the listserv to communicate to students about upcoming events and other important announcements. You can subscribe to the list with the following steps: go to http://listserv.iweb.bsu.edu/ From there, click on the link at the top…

I have a twitter account, @keithkothman. I use it to comment on the world, music, and to alert students to posts on this blog. You can follow me, and I’ll probably follow you back. You can also (or instead) follow the hash tag I use for posts, #221comp1. And to complete the circle of self-referentiality,…

Rather than describe the compositional process in romantic terms as music flowing through a composer to the audience, it is more useful to think of composition as a process that involves the composer working with materials using a collection of methods. Applying the same methods to different materials can lead to an entirely different composition. Likewise, applying different…

Download the syllabus as a pdf document MUST 221: Music Composition 1 Ball State University School of Music Instructor: Keith Kothman Office: MU 207/MU 109B Phone: 285-5503 Class Meeting Times: A: TR 12:30 – 1:30; B: WF 1 – 2 Location: Studio 9 Prereq’s: MUST 101, 111 Materials Needed: Manuscript paper. All of your work will be done in…