audrina's reflections

Composition reflection

Before I attended the composition master by Dr Kelly Tang, I had little or no idea how to compose something like how to come up with a theme, how to make my composition interesting so on and so forth.


The sleeping composition was more difficult to me as I had to compose according to something given. Initially I had no idea how to put that scene in my head into music, onto the score. Many times, I would come up with an idea, but when I listen to it after some time, I start to think, this is not the way it’s supposed to sound and I would redo the whole thing again. Although the Sleeping composition was not meant to be too long, I had a hard time trying to depict myself falling asleep hence I felt that it was more difficult than the whole tone composition.


On the other hand, the whole tone composition had some rubrics like there must be a whole tone scale somewhere, and cross rhythm, so I played out the whole tone scale, I had this eerie feeling about it. To me, it sounded peaceful yet evil at the same time.
That was why I decided to compose about burglars at night with the whole tone section portraying the darkness of the night.


Other than that, due to the fact that I have been learning how to play the piano for about 2 years and that I have only started paying attention to how important the harmony really is recently, my piano compositions tend to focus more on the melody and the left hand or accompaniment tends to be less interesting.


Personally, I felt that composing something and playing it for others to listen and letting them comment is quite stressful. Other than that, I felt that it helps quite a bit because the suggestions helped me to improve some parts in my composition which I have overlooked.