Contemporary Techniques in Music Composition 1 – Marti Epstein

This music composition course begins by looking at new ways to think about organizing pitch, with a focus on melodic writing. Next, modern harmonic concepts are introduced, followed by new ideas about rhythm and form, and ending firmly in the mid-twentieth century with innovations in instrumental technique and acoustic sound production. Each topic is accompanied by an examination of musical examples by some of the giants of the twentieth century, including Arnold Schoenberg, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varese, Bela Bartok, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Ruth Crawford, and Toru Takemitsu.

Through writing exercises, analysis, and observation, you’ll learn techniques within their historical context. Experimentation is encouraged and should always be your first priority when searching for your individual style. In addition to the exercises for each lesson, there are four larger projects in which you are expected to write a more substantial piece of music incorporating concepts that you have learned.

At the end of this music composition course, you will be able to:

• Compose using non-tonal scales such as whole tone, pentatonic, octatonic, and invented scales
• Create richer pitch material through experimenting with other modes and folk music
• Compose using interesting interval sets
• Begin to explore pre-serial techniques
• Experiment with using familiar harmonic structures like triads in new ways- non-functional harmony, new voicings, and triadic layering
• Compose using non-triadic harmonic structures like quartal and quintal harmony, chord clusters, and harmonies made from mixtures of different intervals
• Experiment with meter and rhythm
• Create their own formal structures, moving away from the traditional classical forms such as sonata, rounded binary, etc.
• Experiment with chance, indeterminacy, proportional notation and graphic scores
• Compose using both traditional and found percussion instruments
• Explore extended techniques for winds and strings
• Learn about the safest ways to prepare the strings of a piano
• Use these techniques to create a unique, individual compositional voice

Syllabus

Lesson 1: New Scales

Lesson 2: New Modes

Lesson 3: Interval Structures

Lesson 4: New Verticalities

Lesson 5: Other Vertical Intervallic Structures

Lesson 6: Harmonic Movement

Lesson 7: Rhythmic Devices

Lesson 8: Formal Devices

Lesson 9: Aleatory

Lesson 10: Percussion and Found Instruments

Lesson 11: Prepared Piano

Lesson 12: Other Extended Techniques

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements