Contemporary Techniques in Music Composition 1

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Authored by Marti Epstein

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Course Code: OCOMP-367

Next semester
starts June 24

12 Weeks

Level 3

Level 3

3-Credit Tuition

$1,545

Non-Credit Tuition

$1,290

Are you interested in developing and enriching your unique, compositional language? Through the study of modern twentieth century compositional techniques, this course will help you construct your own melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic language. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to explore extended techniques such as prepared piano, wind multiphonics, and found percussion. With the knowledge attained in this course, you will grow your own unique voice to write music for visual media, concerts, recitals, or personal enjoyment.

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This music composition course begins by looking at new ways to think about organizing pitch, with a focus on melodic writing. Next, modern harmonic concepts are introduced, followed by new ideas about rhythm and form, and ending firmly in the mid-twentieth century with innovations in instrumental technique and acoustic sound production. Each topic is accompanied by an examination of musical examples by some of the giants of the twentieth century, including Arnold Schoenberg, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varese, Bela Bartok, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Ruth Crawford, and Toru Takemitsu.

Through writing exercises, analysis, and observation, you’ll learn techniques within their historical context. Experimentation is encouraged and should always be your first priority when searching for your individual style. In addition to the exercises for each lesson, there are four larger projects in which you are expected to write a more substantial piece of music incorporating concepts that you have learned.

At the end of this music composition course, you will be able to:

  • Compose using non-tonal scales such as whole tone, pentatonic, octatonic, and invented scales
  • Create richer pitch material through experimenting with other modes and folk music
  • Compose using interesting interval sets
  • Begin to explore pre-serial techniques
  • Experiment with using familiar harmonic structures like triads in new ways- non-functional harmony, new voicings, and triadic layering
  • Compose using non-triadic harmonic structures like quartal and quintal harmony, chord clusters, and harmonies made from mixtures of different intervals
  • Experiment with meter and rhythm
  • Create their own formal structures, moving away from the traditional classical forms such as sonata, rounded binary, etc.
  • Experiment with chance, indeterminacy, proportional notation and graphic scores
  • Compose using both traditional and found percussion instruments
  • Explore extended techniques for winds and strings
  • Learn about the safest ways to prepare the strings of a piano
  • Use these techniques to create a unique, individual compositional voice
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Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: New Scales

  • Authoring
  • Whole Tone Scales
  • Quiz: Voiles by Claude Debussy  
  • Pentatonic Scales
  • Analysis: Quiz: Voiles by Claude Debussy
  • Octatonic Scales
  • Exercise: Compose a Melody Using the Octatonic Scale
  • Invented Scales
  • Exercise: Invented Scale Melody

Lesson 2: New Modes

  • Authoring
  • Modes of Limited Transposition
  • Analysis: Abime des Oiseaux
  • Mode Mixture
  • Analysis: Finger Exercise by Bela Bartok
  • Folk Influences
  • Quiz: Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok  
  • Igor Stravinsky

Lesson 3: Interval Structures

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Interval Sets
  • Analysis: Abime des Oiseaux
  • Exercise: Interval Set
  • Arnold Schoenberg’s Early Works
  • Quiz: "Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke”  
  • Exercise: Interval Sets for Two Instruments
  • Pre-Serialism
  • Quiz: Pre-Serialism  
  • Analysis: Endgame 

Lesson 4: New Verticalities

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Triad Extensions
  • Tertian Harmonic in Non-functional Relationships
  • Analysis: La Cathedrale Engloutie
  • Exercise: Tertian, Chordal Language
  • Triad Voicings and Voice-Leading
  • Exercise: Voice Leading
  • Triad Layering
  • Exercise: Triad Layering

Lesson 5: Other Vertical Intervallic Structures

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Quartal Harmony
  • Analysis of “The Cage” by Charles Ives
  • Exercise: Compose Using Quartal Harmony
  • Quintal Harmony
  • Exercise: Compose Using Quintal Harmony
  • Secondal Harmony and Clusters
  • Exercise: Composing with Chord Clusters

Lesson 6: Harmonic Movement

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Parallelism and Harmonic Direction
  • Harmonic Stasis
  • Cadential Devices

Lesson 7: Rhythmic Devices

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Mixed Meter
  • Rhythmic Complexity
  • Additive and Subtractive and Non-Retrogradeable Rhythms
  • No Meter

Lesson 8: Formal Devices

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Fibonacci Series, Mosaic Form
  • Moment Form
  • Cagean Rhythmic Structures

Lesson 9: Aleatory

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Chance
  • Indeterminacy
  • Proportional Notation
  • Graphic Notation

Lesson 10: Percussion and Found Instruments

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Standard Percussion Instruments
  • What’s in Your Kitchen?
  • Percussion is All Around You!

Lesson 11: Prepared Piano

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Inside the Piano
  • Simple Preparations
  • More Complex Preparations

Lesson 12: Other Extended Techniques

  • Authoring Introduction
  • Harmonics
  • Multiphonics
  • String Extended Techniques
  • Winds and Brass Extended Techniques

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Music Notation and Score Preparation Using Finale or Music Notation and Score Preparation using Sibelius Ultimate and Music Theory and Composition 4 or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.

Textbook(s)

  • No textbooks required

Recording

  • Students are required to submit audio recordings of their pieces for assignments, which may call for up to four instruments. Recording live musicians is preferred.

Software

  • Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) or multi-track audio editor/recorder. Free options, such as GarageBand (Mac), Cakewalk by BandLab (PC), or Audacity, are acceptable.
  • Students are required to create notation and submit it in PDF format. Options include:
    • Notation software (recommended option), such as Finale, Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore (free), etc.
    • Handwritten notation captured by a digital camera or a scanner can be used in lieu of notation software.

Hardware

  • Recommended: One (or both) of the following studio monitoring options:
    • Studio monitors (pair), such as JBL 305Ps or better, as well as an audio interface and necessary cables
    • Over-ear studio headphones, such as Sennheiser HD 600, Sony MDR-7506, Philips SHP9500, Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, etc.

Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.


General Course Requirements

Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Chats. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course. 

Mac Users

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Marti Epstein

Author

Marti Epstein is a composer whose music has been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Ensemble Modern, and members of the Boston Symphony. She has completed commissions for the Foxborough Musical Association, the Fromm Foundation, the Munich Biennale, the Iowa Brass Quintet, the CORE Ensemble, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Longy School of Music, the Ludovico Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, the Radius Ensemble, and the Callithumpian Consort. In 2005, she was a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant. Marti has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (1986, 1988) and has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony (1998, 1999).

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She also serves on the Steering Committee for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project Scoreboard and was Composer-in-Residence for the Radius Ensemble in 2009 and 2010. In November 2015, Marti released an album of original chamber music title Hypnagogia. She has recently completed commissions for the Diagenesis Duo, bassoonist Chris Watford, and Transient Canvas. Marti is a professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music and also teaches composition at Boston Conservatory. Read Less


Gabriele Vanoni

Instructor

Gabriele Vanoni was born in Milan, Italy in 1980. He obtained two Bachelor’s degrees in Piano and Composition at Milan Conservatory, followed by a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Harvard University. His compositional interests range from acoustic music to live electronics. His works have been widely performed in Europe and the Americas, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Biennale di Venezia, ManiFeste, Moscow Conservatory, June in Buffalo, IRCAM, NYU, BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen, and Accademia Chigiana di Siena, among many others. Likewise, various soloists and ensembles have now been involved in performing his music, such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Talea Ensemble, Moscow Studio for New Music Ensemble, Ensemble L’arsenale, Mario Caroli, Diotima Quartet, Les Cris de Paris, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and many more. Gabriele was also awarded several prizes and mentions in local and international competitions. In addition to his activity as a composer, he served as the artistic director and founder of Suggestioni, a festival of Italian music in the United States. He also holds a degree in Business for the Arts, Culture and Communication from Bocconi University.

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After two years in Paris attending Cursus 1 and 2 at IRCAM, he moved back to the United States where he is currently an Assistant Chair in the composition department at Berklee College of Music. His recent commissions include a piece for the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan (Nutrire La Musica) and a new piece for accordion and string orchestra. Read Less


Panagiotis Liaropoulos

Instructor

Panagiotis Liaropoulos is a Greek composer and pianist. He was born in Athens, Greece and since 1997 he resides in Boston, Massachusetts. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Composition from Boston University where he studied with Theodore Antoniou and Lukas Foss. His compositions include music for solo instruments, various ensembles, chorus, and orchestra and his works have been performed and awarded in Europe and the United States. Dr. Liaropoulos is the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award (2018) and currently serves as a faculty member in the Composition Department at Berklee College of Music and the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is also the founder and music director of the Greek Music Ensemble, a Boston-based collective that focuses on performing Greek art music.

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Contemporary Techniques in Music Composition 1 can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Degree Majors

Questions?

Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.

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