COMPOSITION PORTFOLIO
SEMESTER ONE, 2015
BACHELOR OF MUSIC (COMPOSITION AND MUSIC TECHNOLOGY)
MUS3230 PRINCIPLE STUDIES: COMPOSITION AND ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS
LAURA HALLIGAN
10224548
SEMESTER ONE, 2015
BACHELOR OF MUSIC (COMPOSITION AND MUSIC TECHNOLOGY)
MUS3230 PRINCIPLE STUDIES: COMPOSITION AND ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS
LAURA HALLIGAN
10224548
INTRODUCTION
This portfolio represents the first semester of my fourth and final year at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Being my final year, my degree will culminate in a 45-minute recital in November, which will showcase the things I have learnt throughout my time at WAAPA.
This semester has been a test in time management and learning how to fit planning and writing for a recital into a busy schedule. My original plan was to have the entirety of music for my recital completed by the end of June, and although I’ve made a start I am nowhere near finished. It’s still an extremely daunting task but it feels very manageable. Having DESPERADA premiered at the Breaking Out Concert for the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival reinforces my optimism. Writing, rehearsing, and performing the piece within a relatively short timeframe to a standard that I am fairly happy with enables me to feel very enthusiastic about writing a 35-40 minute program for my recital.
This portfolio represents the first semester of my fourth and final year at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Being my final year, my degree will culminate in a 45-minute recital in November, which will showcase the things I have learnt throughout my time at WAAPA.
This semester has been a test in time management and learning how to fit planning and writing for a recital into a busy schedule. My original plan was to have the entirety of music for my recital completed by the end of June, and although I’ve made a start I am nowhere near finished. It’s still an extremely daunting task but it feels very manageable. Having DESPERADA premiered at the Breaking Out Concert for the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival reinforces my optimism. Writing, rehearsing, and performing the piece within a relatively short timeframe to a standard that I am fairly happy with enables me to feel very enthusiastic about writing a 35-40 minute program for my recital.
INTERACTIVE MUSIC (2014)
For the Interactive Music unit I was in a group with Billie Court, Leanne Puttick and Matt Cole. We decided to make a laser harp for the Arduino assignment. Finding the project instructions on the Instructables website (instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-Laserharp/?ALLSTEPS). The Arduino laser harp is a musical instrument that plays a tone when a beam of light from a laser becomes obstructed from hitting a phototransistor. The Arduino code works by setting thresholds that detect changes in the amount of light that the phototransistor detects. The simple Arduino laser harp required: · 1x Arduino Uno · 1x Breadboard · 1x Laserpointer · 1x Diffraction Grating · 1x Speaker · 1x 100 Ω resistor · 3x 4.7k Ω resistors · 3x NTE3034 Phototransistor Detector Deciding to purchase the project parts at Altronics Perth, we couldn’t find a diffraction grate or the specific phototransistor required, so we decided against using a grate and used phototransistor with similar specifications (we ended up with a BP2334 Phototransistor). Putting the laser harp together prove slightly difficult because the instructions used a different type of breadboard and we couldn’t source the exact requirements. With help from Stuart James we managed to build a laser harp that worked quite effectively. |
ALETHEIA (2014)
The rehearsals for the third-year composer’s ensemble Aletheia took the form of semi-structured improvised jams, exploring given ideas and techniques. Utilising a mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments, these rehearsals were intended to solidify improvisational structures within the ensemble to enable the culminating performance to maintain coherency. Some of the ideas that the ensemble explored was the juxtaposition of long and short note durations, chordal structure, tonality/modality, sequential patterns, organised formal structures, and rhythmic ideas. Aletheia performed at Sound Spectrum in semester 1, 2014. The program featured two semi-improvised that had a combined duration of about 20 minutes. |
RECITAL
I formed a coherent plan for my recital in February of 2015. The original plan was for a five piece, 35 minute recital; accounting for 10 minutes of extra time for the audience’s entry and exit from the auditorium, and gaps between pieces.
1. INTRODUCTION (8 minutes) (OPENING)
2. STRINGS + ELECTRONICS (7 minutes) (DESPERADA)
3. VOCALS + ELECTRONICS (6 minutes)
4. SOLO ELECTRONICS (8 minutes) (GEYRUT)
5. SOLO ELECTRONICS + OUTRO (7 minutes)
Maximum Technical Requirements –
1 mixer
1 master laptop – for the click track and overall playback of the ambient electronics
7 on-stage instrumentalists – 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello + 3 synth/laptop players
4 music stands
4 chairs
4 mics + stands
4 desks
The parts of my recital that I have already planned will stay similar to what they were originally, although I may reduce the instrumentation.
As a concept, my recital is built upon the notion of power and femininity. The force behind THUNDERESS appears as an abstract of myself. I felt that this was a necessary way to approach my recital, and that the only way I’d be entirely happy with the music I present would be to somewhat separate myself from it.
Although I haven’t achieved what I planned to in regards to scheduling, I feel like my recital will still come to fruition and that I will be confident to present it as my work.
I formed a coherent plan for my recital in February of 2015. The original plan was for a five piece, 35 minute recital; accounting for 10 minutes of extra time for the audience’s entry and exit from the auditorium, and gaps between pieces.
1. INTRODUCTION (8 minutes) (OPENING)
2. STRINGS + ELECTRONICS (7 minutes) (DESPERADA)
3. VOCALS + ELECTRONICS (6 minutes)
4. SOLO ELECTRONICS (8 minutes) (GEYRUT)
5. SOLO ELECTRONICS + OUTRO (7 minutes)
Maximum Technical Requirements –
1 mixer
1 master laptop – for the click track and overall playback of the ambient electronics
7 on-stage instrumentalists – 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello + 3 synth/laptop players
4 music stands
4 chairs
4 mics + stands
4 desks
The parts of my recital that I have already planned will stay similar to what they were originally, although I may reduce the instrumentation.
As a concept, my recital is built upon the notion of power and femininity. The force behind THUNDERESS appears as an abstract of myself. I felt that this was a necessary way to approach my recital, and that the only way I’d be entirely happy with the music I present would be to somewhat separate myself from it.
Although I haven’t achieved what I planned to in regards to scheduling, I feel like my recital will still come to fruition and that I will be confident to present it as my work.
DESPERADA was originally planned to be the string feature in my recital. As a concept, the instrumentation was going to be for string quartet and electronics in the form of fixed playback and live processing. The title comes from the Spanish word ‘desesperada’ meaning desperate or hopeless, and I intended for the piece to represent the feeling of being helpless and ineffectual.
The fixed playback of the work is the result of one midi track being affected by multiple synths and a tonne of automation. Knowing that I wanted to piece to have a relentless pulse throughout enabled me to experiment with laying many sounds on top of each other to achieve the end result. Through automating multiple attributes of the layered sounds at the same time I was able to alter the track to create changes in timbre and depth of sound.
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The fixed electronics came together rather quickly, so the next task was to write the string parts. As I had originally planned to use a string quartet for the piece I began writing and capturing ideas for the quartet. I didn’t form a solid plan for the string parts until a few weeks out from what was to be DESPERADA’s first performance. Given the time constraints and the potential lack of rehearsal time I decided to write the piece for solo violin instead, and collaborated with first year composer Pippa Lester.
Working with Pippa was definitely a highlight; she put a lot of input into the workings of the piece, creating a workshop-like first rehearsal that helped me immensely.
DESPERADA received its premiere at the Breaking Out concert at the PICA Performance Space as a part of the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival held by Tura New Music. The Breaking Out concert featured emerging young WA composers from both WAAPA and UWA, and was held on May 20, 2015.
Working with Pippa was definitely a highlight; she put a lot of input into the workings of the piece, creating a workshop-like first rehearsal that helped me immensely.
DESPERADA received its premiere at the Breaking Out concert at the PICA Performance Space as a part of the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival held by Tura New Music. The Breaking Out concert featured emerging young WA composers from both WAAPA and UWA, and was held on May 20, 2015.
My programme notes for the Breaking Out Concert:
persistent, continuing, constant,unforgiving continual, continuous, non-stop;never-ending, steady, uninterrupted unbroken,interminable, incessant, unstoppable, unceasing, endless, unending,perpetual, unremitting,, unrelenting, unrelieved, sustained., harsh, grim, fierce, cruel, severe, strict; punishing, remorseless,merciless, pitiless, ruthless, unmerciful,unsparing, unforgiving, unfeeling, uncaring, relentless, unsympathetic,uncharitable, unpitying,, desperation. |
(in progress)
The opening to THUNDERESS is essentially a field recording of a storm that I captured in early February of 2015. The recording is intended to be playing as the audience is making their way into the auditorium to create an immersive ambient environment. The recording features minimal editing until it nears its conclusion with the introduction of electronics and light processing. I’m finding that the opening to my recital is entirely dependent on the pieces that I’m writing, so my ideas for the opening are constantly changing and evolving and I am yet to solidify anything. |
(in progress)
GEYRUT will be an extension of DESPERADA, utilising the same electronic samples and dependency on consistency of rhythm. I plan for this piece to be roughly eight minutes long and it will explore different rhythmic ideas.
GEYRUT will be an extension of DESPERADA, utilising the same electronic samples and dependency on consistency of rhythm. I plan for this piece to be roughly eight minutes long and it will explore different rhythmic ideas.
OTHER
Writing for RealTime –
As a part of the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival I had the opportunity to take part in a writing mentorship. Under the guidance of RealTime Arts reviewer Matthew Lorenzon I reviewed three festival concerts, and attended many others. This was an amazing experience and I was able to meet many composers and performers during the festival. Most of the learning process came through the editing process of writing the reviews; I found it challenging to be critical of works.
The writing and editing process took a combined two days for each review, and through al the hard work it was extremely satisfying to have my reviews published on RealTime online.
Writing for RealTime –
As a part of the 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival I had the opportunity to take part in a writing mentorship. Under the guidance of RealTime Arts reviewer Matthew Lorenzon I reviewed three festival concerts, and attended many others. This was an amazing experience and I was able to meet many composers and performers during the festival. Most of the learning process came through the editing process of writing the reviews; I found it challenging to be critical of works.
The writing and editing process took a combined two days for each review, and through al the hard work it was extremely satisfying to have my reviews published on RealTime online.