In this project I had to Compose a piece of music for a Shakespearean sonnet. Firstly, I was assigned my sonnet. I instantly went away to read the sonnet and figure out the theme of the sonnet. The sonnet had a very dark feeling to it just because of the choice of words William Shakespeare used. However the actual theme was not that dark, I still used a very sad and depressing sound in my composition to create a very nice conflict between the words and the sounds heard over the sonnet video made by the media students and the performing arts students. I decided to play the piano in C Sharp Minor when the time came to actually composing the piece. I chose this key because the C Sharp Minor scale is a minor scale based off of C Sharp which is a happier sound in contrast to a minor version ; Which follows suit with the nice conflict i had with the words and the sounds heard .
research
when researching i looked for sonnets that had music over them. I was searching in hope that one would spark some idea’s for my own composition. Non however actually gave me inspiration and i only actually came across one clip on youtube that had music over it and it was from a film clip. It also wasn’t over my sonnet, it was over sonnet 18 which didn’t help either. Nevertheless, here is the clip. The music begins at 40 seconds.
I eventually began to research different scales to see what key i though would be the best to play in and that is how i came to decide on C Sharp Minor.
Planning and production
I had a time range of around two to three weeks to complete my compositions and so I gave myself around a week and a half for each one. My sonnet composition took my approximately three days to complete. It didn’t pose a challenge besides on the first day, I struggled on coming up with a start to the composition. My production was in my opinion very well done with the time given. I did expect to take longer but once I had found a creative spark I just flew through it. I planned to take two to three days composing a rough version and then 5 more to complete a finished version which would be properly mixed and produced to a fine level. A rough version was not needed to my surprise, all the things I wanted to do I was able to do in three days.
Evaluation and reflection
I believe my final product is very well done. I presented it to my collaborative partners in the media class and they instantly loved it. In fact, they found it so good they didn’t actually want anything changed or added. This is why I was able to complete everything in three days. My skills as a musician and as a producer showed in my composition, with use of effects like reverb to make my composition sound fuller and less like a demo and more like a professionally produced piece. Also with my keyboard playing I was able to demonstrate my skill as a pianist and my creativity, as I played with a very dark mood in mind which I managed to succeed in. I decided to play my piano parts in C# Minor because as previously mentioned, it parallels with the conflict of words and sounds of the poem. For example, the words speak about positive things like having a wife and children yet the sounds you can hear in the video are dark and depressing: leaves blowing in the wind, a clock. The images seen also. In the video the scene portrayed by the actors is very dark and serious in contrast to the actual words spoken. This is why I chose a scale that is in conflict with the theme of the words spoken. After going with a minor scale with happy words I soon discovered it worked perfectly and it actually turned out better in the opinions of the media students, than if I’d have played a happier scale. I believe if I was to go back and change anything I would have probably taken more time on it if anything. I now feel like maybe adding more sounds and effect into the composition may have made it even better than what it already is. It is a good composition, I just believe any work I do could be better as there is no limit to creativity.