Minuet in F

The past 6 weeks were a joyful adventure for me.

I'm glad you have decided to make this course and I hope you will make a second part in the future :)

-Jakub Niemyjski

Minuet in F

Here is the homework assignment for Lesson 6. I started with the Minuet, as I’m more familiar with the form and have played various beginner level minuets. I’m not 100% satisfied with my attempt, but I’m not sure how to improve it either.

Thank you for creating such a wonderfully creative and challenging course. I never thought I’d be able to write any type of music, but this course has gotten me to improvise a little during my normal practice sessions, and if I like something I’ve come up with, I try to write it down.

-Jen Spohn

Minuet in Eb

So here is a new Minuet. I hope is modulated correctly.

-Tim Denson

Minuet in C

I could not come up with a really catchy title for my piece (although I did think of a few cheeky/silly ones such as "If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it" and "Bach in the Saddle Again" (sorry J.S.)), so it's just plain old "Minuet in C".

After working thru this minuet I can see how the structure is almost a mathematical form. It was like putting together a puzzle or solving a sudoku with all the "rules" for cadences, modulation, and baroque-style baseline.

Anyway, here is my submission. I have learned so much over the past 6 weeks, and I am continually amazed at the creativity and talent of the other students who have shared their work.

-Charles Frost

Gaussian Sarabande

Here is my attempt at composing a Baroque piece in a dance style. I choose to do Sarabande, and I "layered" it with a Gaussian Distribution (you might be more familiar with the bell curve, or normal distribution). I wired the distribution in my composition, "Gaussian Sarabande" by assemling the notes in each bar that resemble the expected bell curve shape (it some cases it is bimodal - this is where I tried modulating the melody).

I don't think I fully grasped the modulation yet. My compostion is in Dmajor, so I was expecting to modulate it in Amajor which would add G# to the play. However, my melody was not going in that direction, so I let it be :)

Instead, I tossed the melody back and forth between the right and left hand. It resulted in a dialog - a conversation between two entities :) (thus a subtitle "Dance of the bell curves").

-Snejana

Courante

I chose a courante for my baroque dance composition. After listening to a few of the other dances the courante, especially Handel and Bach's courantes, stuck with me the most. Obviously a few bars in i realised how much of a challenge it was, especially after choosing to write it in minor. Melodic minor seems to over complicate cadences and modulation. 

Also, in the Handel and Back courantes there is a lot of polyphony and the left hand seems to do as much as the right (i obviously gave up any chance of playing this fairly early on!!). I really enjoyed the challenge though and went down a bit of a counterpoint rabbit hole. Trying to get all the notes to sit right was like a puzzle. Fix one and you break another - loads of fun!  

Anyway hope you like it and thanks so much for a great course. I've only just started learning music theory but having this course to push me to write has me hooked. Would definitely be interested in more of the same!

-Kevin O'Brien

Minuet in C - Vicki Lamplough