The “Haydn” Quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a set of six string quartets published in 1785 in Vienna, dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn. Haydn was already a famous composer when Mozart was still a child. “Papa Haydn” was known as the father of the string quartet, and was revered by the musical elite […]
Category: Harmonia
Seven Modes, Three Primary Colors
Seven Modes, Three Primary Colors Many of us learned modes by using the white keys on the piano. This is not a very satisfactory way to learn, since it makes it much harder to identify modes in other keys. Instead of relating modes to white keys, let’s think of modes as having one of three […]
Modal Listening Practice
MODAL LISTENING PRACTICE: The picture above demonstrates an interesting grouping of the modes. We can progress from one mode to another in the order shown above by lowering one note of the scale: Lydian progresses to Ionian by lowering the fourth note. Ionian progresses to Mixolydian by lowering the seventh note. Mixolydian progresses to Dorian […]
Composition Competition Success Stories
Composition Competitions can be daunting, delightful, stressful, playful … it all depends on the competition! What makes a successful composition competition, and what environments and incentives bring composers back again and again to enter another new piece? In this article, we will explore some of the positive aspects of composition competitions and hear some real-life […]
Julie Harris – La Premiere
JULIE HARRIS – LA PREMIERE: I had never entered a composition competition before in my entire life. I have been composing since I was a little kid. I “wrote” my first piece at age six, although I didn’t have the skills to write it down. I majored in composition in college and duly received […]
Mike Tauben – Saudade
MIKE TAUBEN – SAUDADE: The requirements of the competition were very clear. The page posted in January 2014 began with a description that might appeal to any classical music lover: Simply Stunning … That’s what the audience will say when your piece is premiered and recorded in May 2014. Future performers will add this exquisite […]
Samantha Strowd – Five Cats, Something Like That
SAMANTHA STROWD –FIVE CATS, SOMETHING LIKE THAT: Everything about the competition sounded like fun! The year was 2011. The sponsor was a performance group in Hanover, Germany, who was giving their third annual Composers Competition. The Plathner Eleven chamber group certainly had a sense of humor and creativity. The rules for the competition were similar […]
Valentine’s Day Concert 2016
VALENTINE’S DAY CONCERT 2016: There are thousands of “love songs” I could have listened to today in my daily Listening Time. After all, it’s the weekend of Valentine’s Day, and there is Rachmaninoff and Schubert and Liszt and Wagner and Puccini and Mahler and Grieg and Elgar and … the list goes on and on! […]
Harmonic Planing and Constant Structure Chords
Harmonic Planing, also known as Harmonic Parallelism, can be a very valuable tool in the 21st-century composer’s toolbox! The picture above is tongue in cheek, with its airplane and parallel lines, but it can also get us in the mood for a different way of looking at harmonic progressions. All of you composers out there […]
Musical Words as a thematic tool
Open the toolbox of a 21st-century composer and you might find a myriad of styles, methods, and musical systems. We’ve inherited the best of the past while developing exciting new trends. These days composers have the freedom to use old or new, borrowed or blue, sweetly consonant or blatantly dissonant. The sky’s the limit for […]