So I've been doing these daily composition exercises in a similar vein to the Mikrokosmos by Bartok. It's been a lot of fun so far. These are short pieces for piano that are derived from a small amount of material but that meticulously monitor each parameter of the composition (range, dynamics, number of notes used in certain sections ext.) For the exercise I'm going to show you today (written a few weeks ago) I tried to focus on chromatic saturation, thematic transformation, and stretto. If you don't know what these terms mean, don't worry! I'm going to explain them tomorrow (in a hopefully non-boring way.) Hurray! You get to learn something over the summer! I know you are all thrilled :P

For those of you who already know what the previous three terms mean, see if you can hear them in this little piece I wrote. 

The piece is only 43 seconds long so give it a listen!!! Bear in mind that this is an exercise

Social Media

Right now, while the summer is still young, I am scrambling around trying to get a presence set up online. In the relatively near future (less than a month) I hope to have a functional website up and running which will connect you to this blog, SoundCloud, Facebook, and my YouTube page as well as provide contact information and a comprehensive list of my compositions to date. Here's a link to my SoundCloud account which I just put up today. There's only one thing right now (a choir piece I wrote last year) but continue to check back because I will be gradually adding more music every few days or so. Anytime I do I will be announcing it on this blog.

Now for composition stuff. Yesterday I wrote a short piano exercise. This is part of a daily composition exercise I am trying to do. While these are mostly intended for my own private study and development, I might occasionally post a midi recording of one here and there. They are mostly in a similar vein of the Mikrokosmos pieces by Bartok. This comparison is in reference to the kinds of extreme limitations that are put on the parameters of each miniature piece. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about what those pieces look like and give an example of one I did a few weeks ago for anyone who is unfamiliar with the Mikrokosmos. I don't claim to even be close to the same level as Bartok. I just think that this is an easy way to exercise your creative muscles through limitations. So look for that tomorrow.

Rylee's Theme on YouTube!

 Click on the picture to hear Rylee's Theme on YouTube