Composing with Constraints: 100 Practical Exercises in Music Composition

Contents

• Introduction
• How to use the book
• Recommendations for the instructor
• Chapter I - Melody (exercises 1 - 20)
• Preliminary notes
• Melody 1 - focal point
• Melody 2 - using your own scale
• Melody 3 - using your own scale and a subset
• Melody 4 - using your own scale with a substitute pitch
• Melody 5 - a scale in a given order
• Melody 6 - a scale in a given order with ordered rhythm
• Melody 7 - concatenating triads
• Melody 8 - concatenating triads of any type
• Melody 9 - segments of equal duration
• Melody 10 - segments of unequal duration
• Melody 11 - the melody of an image
• Melody 12 - integer notation
• Melody 13 - integer notation collections and subsets
• Melody 14 - integer notation collections and transition subsets
• Melody 15 - simple probabilities
• Melody 16 - a twelve-tone row
• Melody 17 - a twelve-tone row in palindrome
• Melody 18 - intervallic content
• Melody 19 - leitmotifs
• Melody 20 - eliminations
• Chapter II - Harmony (exercises 21 - 40)
• Preliminary notes
• Harmony 21 - composing transitions
• Harmony 22 - using segments, melody becomes harmony
• Harmony 23 - axis of symmetry Harmony 24 - using the harmonic series
• Harmony 25 - using the harmonic series with a pedal tone
• Harmony 26 - just triads
• Harmony 27 - using integer notation
• Harmony 28 - diatonic?
• Harmony 29 - a twelve-tone row
• Harmony 30 - alla circle progression
• Harmony 31 - triads that move in thirds
• Harmony 32 - triads that move in thirds and progressions within a progression
• Harmony 33 - polychords, triads over triads
• Harmony 34 - polytonality
• Harmony 35 - pedal tones
• Harmony 36 - ideas using parallel modes
• Harmony 37 - clusters
• Harmony 38 - sequences and patterns
• Harmony 39 - implied harmonies
• Harmony 40 - contrafacts
• Chapter III - Rhythm (exercises 41 - 60)
• Preliminary notes
• Rhythm 41 - transformations using simple math
• Rhythm 42 - using segments
• Rhythm 43 - using segments per measure
• Rhythm 44 - non-retrogradable rhythms
• Rhythm 45 - patterns within patterns
• Rhythm 46 - extracting the rhythm of a text
• Rhythm 47 - why meter?
• Rhythm 48 - short, long, long, short - using Morse code
• Rhythm 49 - ostinato
• Rhythm 50 - playing with hemiolas
• Rhythm 51 - hemiolas and melodic construction
• Rhythm 52 - polymeter
• Rhythm 53 - metric modulations
• Rhythm 54 - using rhythmic motifs
• Rhythm 55 - motivic displacement
• Rhythm 56 - isorhythmic motets, talea and color
• Rhythm 57 - repeat signs, loops and internal spiraling
• Rhythm 58 - composing with unequal rests and pauses
• Rhythm 59 - eliminations, everything coming from the same tune
• Rhythm 60 - perceivable and non-perceivable pulse
• Chapter IV - Texture (exercises 61 - 80)
• Preliminary notes
• Texture 61 - analyzing Chopin
• Texture 62 - homorrythmic
• Texture 63 - leitmotifs
• Texture 64 - all the same but different
• Texture 65 - phasing
• Texture 66 - analyzing Debussy, plaining
• Texture 67 - Liszt, simple harmonies, complex texture
• Texture 68 - ostinatos
• Texture 69 - letting the performer make decisions
• Texture 70 - aleatoric counterpoint
• Texture 71 - micropoliphony
• Texture 72 - counterpoint, appropriating from Fux's species
• Texture 73 - counterpoint tree
• 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and others combined
• Texture 74 - same chord, different color (orchestration)
• Texture 75 - the magic of the unison and timbral modulation
• Texture 76 - volume of orchestration
• Texture 77 - text painting, representing text with sounds
• Texture 78 - heterophony
• Texture 79 - using stratified layers alla Ives
• Texture 80 - sound masses
• Chapter V - Form (exercises 81 - 90)
• Form 81 - planning contrast
• Form 82 - composing with modules
• Form 83 - the one-way-trip composition, developing variations
• Form 84 - theme and variations
• Form 85 - spinning around A, rondo?
• Form 86 - form as process, minimalism
• Form 87 - palindromic structures
• Form 88 - available forms alla Brown
• Form 89 - monolithic structures
• Form 90 - game pieces
• Chapter VI - Pre-compositional strategies (exercises 91 - 100)
• Starting a new composition. Challenges and possible solutions.
• Strategies.
• Formal plans.
• Using matrices.
• Analysis and stylistic imitation.
• Improvisation.
• Soundscapes and nature.
• Using the computer as assistant.
• Pre-composition 91 - writing a compositional recipe
• Pre-composition 92 - using a matrix
• Pre-composition 93 - deconstructing and reconstructing I
• Pre-composition 94 - deconstructing and reconstructing II
• Pre-composition 95 - transcribing your own improvisations
• Pre-composition 96 - bringing ideas from other worlds to your music
• Pre-composition 97 - quotations as triggers
• Pre-composition 98 - drawing sketches
• Pre-composition 99 - oblique strategies by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt
• Pre-composition 100 - the computer as assistant
• Appendix
• A) Grading rubric
• B) Sample curriculums for group composition classes or individual lessons
• C) Select anthology of scales and musical examples
• D) Table of instrument ranges and transpositions