I haven’t composed in months, and the composing part of my brain is getting really itchy and will need to be scratched soon. Animation Mentor and work are keeping me too busy for such self-indulgence, so before I just jump right into composing a new piece, I’d like to try something new. I’ve been thinking about trying to do this for while, but I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t have the skill. I still probably don’t have the skill, but I’m not afraid anymore!
So… I’ve never written a fully-fledged multi-movement symphony before, and I hope to tackle that. But before I do, I thought it would be tremendous fun to have you, yes you, dear reader, whoever you are, write a brief description of the first movement of the symphony as if it already existed and you were writing a Wikipedia entry on it.
For example, you might say:
Hannifin’s Symphony No 1 begins with a cheery tune on the oboe, reminiscent of a Sherman brothers song. But then thunderous brass enters, the tempo quickens, cymbals clash on every measure, and the orchestra descends into a dark waltz in C minor. The snare drum emerges with strange rhythms, and a dark melody, introduced on the violins, quickly spreads through the orchestra like a dark disease. After 10 minutes of dizzying arpeggios, the movement ends quietly, with the oboe playing its opening theme, but shifted into a minor key, as if whatever joy it had at the beginning has been driven out by darkness.
Or something more or less descriptive. Whatever your imagination can conjure.
The description can be as traditional or as outlandish as you want; anything goes. That’s part of the fun of the challenge! However, I won’t be able to use every piece of every description (if I get more than one). I will create a final description by randomly choosing pieces from each description I can obtain, so the final description is sure to be wild fun. Then I will take on the description as a serious composition assignment, and try to compose to it as strictly as I can. I’m sure I’ll fail some parts (like if you write “the orchestra then descends into an 8-part fugue”), but it will be fun (and perhaps educational) to try!
So, if you have a few moments of spare time, please comment on this post with a description of the first movement of Hannifin’s Symphony No 1 as if it’s already been written. Thank you!
(I’ll end my search for descriptions on March 25, 2011, in about two weeks. I’ll try to do the same thing for a second movement with new descriptions, after uploading the first movement to YouTube.)
, a biography of Walt Disney. ‘Twas quite educational, since I really didn’t know very much about him or the history of his company. I might dedicate a future blog post to some thoughts on his life and work, but not tonight. I will say he must be a goldmine for biographers. He had a lot of influence, there are a lot of different opinions about him, and he got his hands into a lot of things. There’s a lot to write about.
from Amazon earlier this week, and have started reading through that. I read bits and pieces of it in college from the library, and I know I browsed through it at some other point in my youth. I am wondering if we have an older family copy somewhere (though I don’t think so) or if one of our grandparents or relatives had a copy. But I just know I browsed through it years ago before college. Anyway, it’s full of wonderful pictures and art. I really wish it came with a DVD or something so I could watch the examples, but I guess that would only double the price. Anyway, as I’m trying to learn computer animation, this book seems like one of the must-reads.
. It was … uh … interesting I guess. Had some funny parts, but by the end I didn’t really get the point of any of it. It was like a very long joke. If there had been just a bit more humor, it might’ve been OK.
a couple night ago, which was actually better than I thought it would be (I had low expectations), but it was weird (and I imagine one could really psycho-analyze the heck out of it if they wanted). The director’s soundtrack choices did kinda make me think the Wild Things were a bit like hippies at some points, which made it weirder. But there some other very hilarious parts (Bob and Terry are my favorite). Overall, though, it was a bit soap-opera like, because all the Wild Things want to talk about their emotions and feelings rather than do anything particularly adventurous. Which isn’t necessarily bad, I still found it engaging, but I can understand why some mind find it boring. (What I don’t get is all the debate about whether it’s too scary or adultish for kids, which perhaps was played out for publicity. Or perhaps because it was based on such a famous picture book. But the movie itself didn’t push any thematic boundaries.)