PA5012 – Performance Skills 2
CW2 – Reflection on your group composition/performance (1000 words total)
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Link to your band performance videos:
Discuss the following in relation to your composition and performance
The concept for Composition 1:
As a group (3-6 members) create two original pieces to be performed live. The pieces should be arranged to suit a live performance, taking into account the skills of the group’s members. Each piece should be 3-5 minutes long.
The two pieces are
1. A fully composed piece including at least TWO of the following:
a. An unusual time signature (not 4/4 or 3/4)
b. At least one change of time signature
c. A harmonic progression of more than four chords
d. Use of at least two chord types from this list: diminished (triad or 7th), half-diminished, 6 (major or minor), augmented, 9th 11th advanced 13th chords
e. Extended/unusual playing techniques for at least 3 instruments/voices
2. A piece combining pre-composed and improvised elements, including at least TWO of the following:
a. Use of a graphic score
b. Use of an instruction score
c. Use of a cue system for communicating playing methods and structure. Free improvisation in one of the sections within the composition
e. Avoiding simple song structure (verse/chorus/bridge) Inclusion of more than two pre-defined sections
f. Use of modes/pitch sets that are not major/minor/blues
Assessment criteria:
· Composition/arrangement: attention to details of musical components, structure and lyrics, suitability for the performers’ playing skills, originality
· Performance: presentation, confidence and musicality of the performance, communication between musicians
· Technical skills: suitable use of technology for performance
· Presentation: design of the performance in line with the band’s musical style or personality
Requirements used (delete as appropriate):
d. Use of at least two chord types from this list: half diminished (triad or 7th), half diminished, (major or minor), augmented, 9th 11th 13th chords
e. Extended/unusual playing techniques for at least 3 instruments/voices
The concept for Composition 1: Shame
The concept for our first song Shame was a love song with a futuristic twist. We wanted to incorporate our space theme within our composition. In our piece, we sing about our differences and it was a play on words we wanted the listener to feel as though we were unmatched by being from “different planets”. The first song implicitly insinuates that we are on separate paths so much so, that we could be different species. However, the second song clearly states explicitly that Damien the love interest is an Alien. We wanted the first song to start painting a picture and the second to reiterate that statement by clearing up any confusion.
Concept for composition 2: M.A.R.S
M.A.R.S is a song that introduces our band with our names Mitch, Aiesha, Rhyanne and Sasha (me)
not only does MARS represent each member of the band it also displays a futuristic and playful stance on using unusual singing and improvisation as something “Alien” like and strange. We wanted to sing an acapella song to showcase our vocals and experiment with creating music from objects or utilising our bodies to create a percussion sound. We wanted our song to be structurally improvised, this technique is usually demonstrated in jazz music.
Requirements used (delete as appropriate):
c. Use of a cue system for communicating playing methods and structure.
d. Free improvisation in one of the sections within the composition
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Your contribution to the creation, rehearsal and performance
In ‘Shame’ I co-wrote and arranged the songs with Rhyanne. Mitch and Aiesha wrote and contributed to each of their parts but I and Rhyanne had the clearest vision and made sure we executed things whilst making sure we were all equally happy and involved. I wanted everything to be harmonically strong and focused so we could utilize all four of our voices and ranges to be able to use our voices to tell an interactive story. Almost all expressive or direct performances have an aspect of the reflexive or transformative qualities about them (J. Toynbee 2000 p91).
To be honest all four members of our group worked well together we all bounced off of each other’s ideas and everyone contributed to all of our music-making, however Rhyanne and I often came up with the ideas and Aiesha and Mitch added their stamp on their parts apart from the chorus of “Shame” that was written by Mitch but the concept came from my idea I was playing around with words like shame, blame and name. Lastly, it was my idea to back up each verse and the chorus sang with a call and response to utilize all of our voices and make our sound fuller and more like a band we also used Destiny’s Child song “Emotions” as a reference for our vocal harmony cues and our four-part harmony round.
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The methods of collaboration in the creative process, rehearsals, production, performance
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Aiesha, Rhyanne and I are R&B Soul singers however, Mitch is a 80’s glam rock/ Pop singer. To make sure we were all balanced and were able to come together we experimented with two different music styles. The first song “Shame” was Electro Pop we wanted this to be evident so we used synthesizers on the keyboard to create an electronic sound and wanted Mitch to lead the chorus where we centre the genre around him. My vision for this quartet was a Jazz inspired theatrical performance. We fully executed this idea in our second song ‘M.A.R.S’ really well by going back to our roots and singing gospel and jazz-inspired songs.
When it came to rehearsals we used planned to meet up an hour before our lecture to brainstorm and come up with ideas. A lot of our creative process was all four of us improvising together until we come up with ideas we were all happy with. The keys in “Shame” were created by us talking about the electro-pop genre and Rhyanne experimenting with chord progressions that sound more pop than R&B where that’s her usual style. We then started to create lyrics and melodies.
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For our song M.A.R.S. we thought of a theme “Alien” to go with our name and started building ideas from there we know it was going to be acapella and have improvisation as the core foundation as stated by (F.Tirro1974) Improvisation, the somewhat mystical art of performing music as an immediate reproduction of simultaneous mental processes…. Just as the ability to improvise was a prerequisite skill for the Renaissance ensemble instrumentalist. We thought of verse and a chorus for structure then improvised the rest. The spaceship and rocket countdown part was the last thing we added to make it more interactive and theatrical. It was very important to us to make the music child friendly so it was accessible for all ages because young people are the future and will probably be our main target audience with our catchy lyrics and simply melodies.
Musical elements in each one of the compositions: pitch, harmony, melody, rhythm/time, dynamics, timbre, texture, instrumentation, structure
Shame:
Pitch –
The pitch of our song started in F minor
Harmony-
MARS cue blues chord notes- C dominant chord M=C3, A=
E3 R= G3 S= A3#
Melody-
The melody line of the main notes that we were singing
was the most repetitive part of the chorus that was the base of our song. The structure of notes that dominated the melody was mainly C sharp major 7 D half diminished.
Rhythm/tempo –
The rhythm and tempo of shame was 85bpm
Time signature-
4/4
Dynamics –
We used a range of different dynamics when singing the
verse and chorus because we wanted the chorus to stand out and be fuller than
the verse although we supported everyone throughout the song.
Texture –
We used dense textures within the entire performance in
that the keyboard in the first song, the tapping of our legs in the second
song, along with the harmonies in both songs, create layers in replacement of
a wide range of instrumentation.
Structure –
Intro –(Spoken) Intro-
(Sang) Intro -Verse1- Chours-Verse2- Chorus- Bridge- Chorus
Shame Cue= key F minor
Mitch first key
MARS cue blues chord notes- C dominant chord M=C3, A=
E3 R= G3 S= A3# Mars=
Mitch= C3 Aiesha= E3 Rhyanne = G sharp Sasha C4 = Mars
Intro (Mitch)-verse-(Aiesha) chorus-(Mitch lead- (all)
verse (Sasha)-chorus- Mitch lead- (all)
M.A.R.S= C3 first note
M.A.R.S:
Pitch-
MARS cue blues chord notes- C dominant chord M=C3, A=
E3 R= G3 S= A3#
Rhythm / Tempo-
The tempo for our chorus was 90 bpm and the verses
where 100 bpm
Time signature -
4/4
Timbre –
The distinguished feature of our timbre was the
scatting and improvisation. Scatting in Jazz often mimics a saxophone
Texture –
Our music texture for MARS was simple and sparse but
jazzy and rich with harmonies and layered vocals
Instrumentation –
(Sang) Acapella is just voice and during the verse
percussion is made by clapping and tapping hands
Structure –
Spoken Intro-Mars Cue- Chorus- veres1- chorus- verse2
chorus- verse 3 chorus- bridge
Visual aspects: outfit, light, use of camera, film editing, etc.
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For our performance we had the vision to wear space-like clothing and alien antennas, unfortunately, we had a setback with our customs they would have taken too long to come, but in the end, we went with a colour scheme of black and grey. If we had more space and equipment we would have had a blue/ purple colour so shame and an infrared-themed coloured red-light to represent alien life forms.
Your evaluation of the performance. What went well? What could be improved? What did you learn for future performances?
I feel our group was well rehearsed and the performance went down well. We were all very happy with our we presented our band and music. However, I would have liked more interaction and engagement from the audience. We may have to look into the way we ask for participation to make it more interactive. I liked our positioning on the stage as we stood in our vocal grouped harmonies and tried our best to utilize the stage and display good energy and presence.
Bibliography;
Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation By Frank Tirro 1974
https://online.ucpress.edu/jams/article-abstract/27/2/285/49156/Constructive-Elements-in-Jazz-Improvisation?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Jason Toynbee- Making Popular Music- Musician, Creativity and Institutions. Bloomsbury, USA (2000) p91