Composing for Spaces & Places

On 15th January, I held my performance in the museum and so did the other students. Before starting the performances we did one last dress rehearsal in the morning at 11am. We organised our choreography and set up our equipment such as microphone for the flautist, guitar amp for the guitarist and stands and percussion instruments for the singers. The actual rehearsal started at 2pm and I was the first to perform. Overall the performance was a success.

On the 12th January, my instrumentalist had their last rehearsal before the performance coming on the 15th January and it was my first time hearing all the performers together as one. After going through my composition, I have found out that it was not organised very well and had to change a few things while we rehearse the piece. I have had to change the meaning for one of the signal cards, added areas to use the whistle as a signal to start and stop and change up some of the choreography. To my surprise we managed our time efficiently and now the piece is coming together. 

On the 7th January 2019, I showed a 10 minute presentation to my lecturer and peers about my composition from the beginning of October to the end of December. I have covered the Historical background about the specific site I composed for and the challenges I faced through creating the composition. I had missed a few important points to mention, however at the very end of the presentation I was given another 5 minutes to answer everyone's questions and luckily they asked about the missing points such as why I chose the specific instruments and why I composed the piece the way I have written it. If I could retake the presentation, I would organise the presentation in a clearer order and give myself enough time to breath as I believe that I rushed my speech. The good points about my presentation is that I gave an example of what instrument technique is used for the guitar, an example of an existing piece that I used for inspiration and drew a diagram of the choreography of my perform...

During the Winter Holidays, I gave some time to have look at my composition to see if there was anything I could improve on. If you look at the images below of my composition, I have changed the layout. The instrument I have included is a cymbal which I will play using a bow (this is to create a metal rail like sound). A train whistle and a normal whistle will be used within the composition and there will be some theatrical features in it. Actions involve the singers to do something such as walking beside the train, changing dynamics and tempo, and playing their percussion instruments. I have set new instructions for the guitarist which involve changing the ambient sounds produced by the pedal. Before the Christmas holiday, I struggled on finding percussion instruments for the singers because the loan centre did not have the instruments I needed for this composition. Luckily I managed to find the instruments in the Wilberforce building which are used for primary and secondary education...