Syllabus for Roster(s):

  • 22F MUSI 2350-100 (CGAS)
In the UVaCollab course site:   Musi2350-Fall2022

Composition Assignments

Note: Some details for the composition assignments described below may change before the project is actually assigned. Any updates will be posted here!!!

 

Composition Assignments 

Each student will compose three short musical studies worth 30% of the final course grade. At the end of the semester there will also be a final composition assignment worth 15% of your course grade.

Assignments are due on Sundays at 6pm, giving every lab a chance to meet during the week an assignment is due. Assignments are submitted when posted in the proper format and in the proper location on the collab site. Assignments will not be accepted more than two weeks late for any reason. Be sure to export/ bounce your assignment to an mp3 and check that it will play.

The composition projects will be due:

  • Composition Project 1: due Sunday Sept 25 at 11pm. (8% of course grade)
  • Composition Project 2: due Sunday Oct 23 at 11pm. (10% of course grade) 
  • Composition Project 3: due Sunday Nov 13  at 11pm.  (12% of course grade)
  • Final Composition Project: due Tuesday Dec 6  Friday Dec 9 at 11pm. (15% of course grade)

Grading is based on the following general criteria:

  • Timely completion and clear organization. Turn it in on time and make sure your assignment is in the proper format and follows the naming convention as outlined by your TA. (“yourlastname_assignX.mp3”, for example).
  • Complete all aspects of the assignment. Read the instructions carefully to make sure you are doing all the parts. Did it ask for a write-up in addition to the digital file?
  • Take risks. As composers and technosonic experimenters it is your job to try new things.
  • Evidence of work. Composing music takes time and requires considerable thought and significant effort.

Composition Assignment 1 - Sound Collage Composition

In the first composition project we will explore composing a short piece of music using entirely recorded “real world sounds”. This project takes inspiration from the techniques of Musique Concrète, where recorded sound is the “raw material” from which a composition is made. 

You should create your piece in two stages: 

In Stage 1 you will collect between 10 and 20 short sounds. You can record sounds in the world using any recording device, including your phone. You can also check out a higher quality portable recording device from the Music Library or from the Robertson media center in Clemons.

These sounds can be any sound you find (or make) in the world: the sound of a bird outside your window, the strange rattling machine in the alley, the sounds of kitchen utensils being scraped together, voices,…. anything really. However try to find sounds that wouldn’t normally be considered “music”, and don’t include any actual drum sounds. 

You are welcome to also find sounds online, for example from freesound.org, but at least 5 of your sounds should be recorded by you in some way.  Once you have collected these sounds, you can use Audacity, Reaper, or another audio editor to trim and normalize each sound, and when you’re done each sound should be short: less than 5 seconds in duration. Save each sound as its own .wav file. Collect all your original sounds in a folder and submit them with your project. 

You are welcome to work together with other students in the class to record sounds but you need to edit your own unique sounds.

In Stage 2 you will compose using the sounds you have chosen. Use Reaper (or another DAW) to “sculpt” your sounds, for example by creating new amplitude envelopes or panning. If you want a drum sound, how could you make one from one of your stage 1 sounds? Then assemble these sculpted sounds into a composition that explores sound timbre, texture, rhythm and space. You should experiment with possibilities beyond traditional beat-based music. What happens if you abandon rhythm & pulse? How does panning change the way we hear sound? What if you make a very short sound, and then paste multiple copies of that sound in fast succession? You can use your DAW to arrange, layer, and process these sounds using amplitude envelopes, panning, and EQ.

Your final composition should be 25 to 35 seconds in length.

(Note, for this project you are not allowed to use any other audio effects, other than equalization / filtering. So no delays, reverbs distortions, chorus, etc.)

Submit your Stage 1 sounds and your Stage 2 composition (exported as an mp3 or mp4 file), along with a short writeup about your piece. Save your writeup as a pdf file (not .doc!) Your Lab instructor will give you the detailed requirements on the writeup requirements. Zip these all together and submit on the Collab for your lab section. All materials will be submitted to your discussion section TA. 

Composition Project 1 is 8% of the course grade

Composition Assignment 2 - Composing with Timbre / Texture / Space

In the second composition project you will start with a single sound source, and then you will use sound design techniques to transform this sound in various ways to create three distinct sections (which we can call A, B, and C.) 

Each section should have a very different “sound” to it, and you can create this sound in various ways: you can change the timbre of the sound, for example by applying different filters or envelopes, or using time-frequency manipulation (such as SPEAR); you can create different textures, for example by making your sounds be slow or fast, sparse or dense, rhythmic or irregular; you can create a different sense of space by using delay and reverb to make a large echo-ey cathedral space, or a space like a tight claustrophobic box, or you can use effects like flangers, phasors, chorus, distortion, granulators, to create strange or unique sound worlds.  And of course you can combine these techniques (timbre, texture, and space) in whatever way you like, in order to create these three different sections.

Here are the technical requirements: 

  1. Pick a starting sound which is less than 10 seconds long. You can find this sound somewhere, record a sound in the world, sample from a pop song, play a little melody on an acoustic instrument or synthesizer plugin and record it. You can really start with any sound. (In a sense, your choice is not that important, because the real creativity is how you will use and change this sound in each section.)  The constraint is that the sound must be a recording, 10 seconds long or less. (So we’re still working with “sound” and not with notes…. You can use notes in project 3!)
  2. The total length of your composition should be between 1 and 2 minutes.
  3. It must have 3 distinct sections, each with a different "treatment" (i.e. timbre/texture/space) of the original sound. You can have sudden transitions between each section, or you can gradually blend from one to the next.
  4. Submit your composition (exported as an mp3 file), along with a short writeup about your piece. Save your writeup as a pdf file (not .doc!) Your Lab instructor will give you the detailed requirements on the writeup requirements. Zip these together and submit on the Collab for your lab section.

Composition Project 2 is %10 of the course grade

 

Composition Assignment 3 - Process Music / Minimalism / Evolving Beats

In the third composition assignment we will work with the ideas from Process Music, Minimalism, Ambient Music, and aspects of Electronic Dance Music.  More specifically this assignment is about music which evolves slowly and gradually. Music which doesn’t demand the listener’s attention, but rather works with subtle change and makes a space for the listener to find their way into the music. Music in which the listener might notice their own process of listening.

In Process Music, artists devise simple processes, which when executed create both the low-level stucture (for example the notes) and the high-level structure (the form of the piece, how it changes over time). Minimalist music often has many of the same features of Process Music: slow evolution, repetition, rhythmic pulse, polyphony (i.e. multiple melodies/lines/voices.)

Underground dance club music from the 1970’s onwards (disco, house, & techno) often features repetitive beats and grooves which change slowly or rarely. Repetitive rhythmic music is used in many cultures to create an experience of trance, or a dilated sense of time. (We are not talking here about “club anthems”, where everyone jumps with their hands in the air as the drop lands. This is more like that state, perhaps later in the night, when the groove is inspiring the tired dancers to keep going a little longer. This is about music that builds a groove over time.)

The requirements & details:

Your composition should last between 2 and 4 minutes. It should evolve slowly for most of the piece. But it does need to evolve! The middle should be different than the beginning, and the end should be different from both. You may put in a small number of “distinct” changes, which the listener would notice, but these should be rare. 

In the previous composition assignments you were required to work directly with recorded or synthesized sound material, and the requirements  steered us away from rhythm and beats. In this project you are welcome to feature rhythm and pulse. And you can use “notes”. That is, you can use MIDI or other ways of sequencing sounds which may be generated by synth plugins, samplers, drum machines, etc.

Submit your composition (as an mp3 file), along with a short write-up about your piece (submitted as a pdf file).

Composition Project 3 is %12 of the course grade.

Final Composition Assignment - Open Ended

The final composition is open-ended in the sense that you can decide the parameters of the piece that you compose. You can choose the “genre”, the form, the tools & techniques you employ, the themes from the class that you reference. The only “restriction” is that your piece needs to employ technology in some meaningful way. (This should be easy to achieve!) You are also welcome, if you like, to make your composition “multimedia”, for example, by submitting the piece as a video. Since the grading weight is the same as the other composition projects, you should put at least as much effort as you did into your previous projects.  If you have a question about whether your composition idea is appropriate, please contact your TA.

The requirements and details:

You composition should be between 2 and 5 minutes 2 to 4 minutes in length. It should be submitted as either an mp3 audio file, or as a video or a link to a video. You must include in your submission a short document describing what your goals were for the piece, why you chose them, and any other important details to help your TA evaluate your work. 

Submit your composition (as an mp3 file, or video, or link to a video), along with a short write-up about your piece (submitted as a pdf file).

The final composition project is 15% of the course grade.

Performances for Concert Write-Up

Performance Write-up Assignment

During the semester you must attend at least one (online or in-person) concert or performance of music made with technology. We will provide a list of acceptable events. You are also welcome to propose other events to your TA, who will decide if it is appropriate. After the concert, choose a specific musical work or artist to focus on rather than the full concert, and write about the performance. Your report should be between 2 and 3 pages (approximately 750-1000 words) and upload as a pdf to Collab.

Your write-ups should include the following information: 

  • A summary of the performance / piece / set that provides context (where? when? who?)
  • In order to contextualize what you're seeing & hearing, both for yourself and for the written report, you will likely need to do a bit of background research into the artist and the piece (via online research, readings, or in-person interview or chat).
  • A discussion of the technologies employed and how the performance relates to the techniques, aesthetics, and ideas covered in class.
  • A discussion of your aesthetic experience of the performance.

Upload as a pdf to your TA's Collab. Due Weds Nov 30 at 11pm.

 

Below is a list of music performances that you can attend and write about to fulfill the writing assignment. This list will continue to be updated during the semester. 

  • MORE INFO COMING SOON....

Resources

Musi 2350 TechnoSonics: Resources etc.

Fall 2022, University of Virginia

Software

 

Books and other Reading

  • Holmes, Thom. Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture. 5th Edition. Routledge Press. (Available on Virgo: https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/books/items/u7624354)
  • Stubbs, David. Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music. First Edition. Faber & Faber, 2018. Print.
  • Demers, Joanna. Listening Through the Noise: The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
  • Rodgers, Tara. Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. Print.
  • Introduction to Computer Music, Hass, Jeffrey. Online: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/toc.shtml
  • Cox, Christoph, and Daniel Warner. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. New York: Continuum, 2004. Print.
  • Port, Ian S. The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll. 2019.