Enya, Anyone?

I don't know why, but some of my harmonizations gravitate toward an Enya sound, moving in 3rds. I don't even own any of her CD's but I've enjoyed listening to her at my sister's house. My orchestration for Steph's oboe solo is no exception to this phenomenon. /gm/BbM/EbM/gm, FM/BbM/. I knew I was doing it right away, but I didn't know what else to do. It's hard to get a sonority out of my head. Does anyone else have bad harmonization habits? How do you deal with them?

Other than that, as I worked on my project today I reflected on how far we have come, and how much I have learned in this class. It doesn't take me quite as long to complete a project anymore. That's nice.

Yikes!

This is the time in the semester where I feel like I've been hit by a bus. The end.

I'm Just a Grasshopper

As I said in class today, studying scores teaches me that I know so little! But I'm also encouraged because I'd like to think that although I'll never be able to orchestrate as well as the people we study, maybe studying them will make me better at orchestrating small things for churches or schools.

On that note, it's very frustrating to me that most hymnal orchestrations are so poorly thought through. So many Christian musicians have become no more than peddlers, selling cheap music to those that don't know any better.

That's all I have to say.

To Love or Not to Love...

I have developed the ability to arrange/orchestrate things I do not love. That is a good thing, so that I am not torn apart when I realize that "my piece" is not perfect according to someone else's standards. However, at times I wonder if I shouldn't love my pieces just a little. I want to do well, but I don't want to take forever doing the projects. I complete them in a way that meets the requirements, and sometimes I like the melody/arrangement, sometimes not so much. However, I take little ownership of it now. I still want to do my best, but it has become an assignment with specific peramaters rather than a composition I want to pour myself into. Is this a bad thing?

My Cooking is Boring and Bland

I think I can relate to Alicia. Today I went back to my orchestration of the Spanish melody only to find that I didn't like it very much. I listened with the headphones and declared to Zach and Dave S. that it was hideous. They then informed me that the volume was so loud that they could hear it perfectly even through the headphones!
I intended for it to be simple, but it almost seems too simple. Sometimes I'm not sure how to "spice it up". Sometimes I'm like the cook that is afraid to experiment outside of what I already know, lest something go frightfully wrong! My knowledge of orchestration seems so slim right now.
I love studying orchestral works. I love seeing how they produced the sounds. Somehow I'm not able to translate that into my assignments. Not that I expect to write as good, but that I should be able to apply some of the principles in smaller ways. But when I write it's as though I'm still thinking with choral limitations.

Developing "taste"

Let's see . . . where was I . . . oh yes! So, my point about the odd foods I like was this: "taste" is developed by positive exposure over an adequate length of time. This rejoins the post Alicia made about peanut butter and orchestration. I think that the more positive experiences you have orchestrating (or writing any kind of music), the more inclined you will be to try a repeat of the experience. The converse may also hold true.
Can we try to change Abigail's, "some days I like it but other days I don't," into, "Oh, I always love it when . . ."
Does the difference make sense? I think that developing taste depends not on our whimsy but on our habit-forming experiences. I think there is a difference. That's why I like fried catfish and calmatta olives all of the time.

Developing "taste"

Improvising on the peanut butter and orchestration analogy, I have discovered that most people dislike foods I enjoy. For example, I have developed a taste for such unpopular entrees as: spinach, smoked salmon (lox), kookaburra licorice, raw ginger, sushi, chicken cooked in coconut milk, sparkling water (e.g. Perrier), Greek olives, . . . wow I'm getting hungry . . .

. . . I am going to go eat and come back to finish this post!