Bach to Basics

After a week back in the land of real life, I'm finding it harder and harder to carve out that time to listen, learn, practice, compose, etc. I did return to a practice composition in the "Layers and Counterpoint" lesson (A-5), remembering that I liked it, but felt like it wasn't quite "finished." It was, however due, but that was another blog...

As I listened again and again, I felt good about it overall, having avoided the dreaded parallel fifths and octaves on which every first-time counterpointist undoubtably errs. I almost went there, but the tiny, nagging voice of my freshman theory professor made its way from the recesses of my memory to the front of my ears, screaming (in a not-so-tiny voice) "DON'T DO IT!!! BACH would NEVER do that!" How many of us protested, insisting that it sounded good, and that's how we wanted it to sound, only to be reminded that unless our last name was "Bach" it simply wasn't done. 

I had composed my chorale, (over a fixed Bach bass line, of course) having assigned SATB "voices" to the score, and when they played back (bet you thought I'd go for the "playbacH thing there - ha!) it had a really unpleasing sound. I thought about what other instrumentation might have been appropriate, and though I secretly desired to set it for saxophone quartet, I played it straight and set it for brass choir. Much better, and you can check it out below.

Among my lessons learned were to consider for which instruments you might be composing, and to be sure that the key is accessible and in an appropriate range for your players.  Also, be aware of individual intonation considerations for those instruments. Pros can handle this stuff, but can our younger students?  I also learned to be thankful for the professors I had 30 years ago, who taught me well in theory, composition, and orchestration, and for my new teachers who, in a cutting edge kind of way, still remind me to go "Bach to basics" when approaching counterpoint.