Diabelli Project 191 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's 10-minute sketch is a short piano piece. I wrote out the bass line first to serve as a ground. I then added the melody and filled in the harmony last. If I were to continue this sketch, I'd probably make it a stand-alone composition. Like the Renaissance keyboard fantasies that I modeled it after, I'd keep increasing the complexity of the music above the ground with each iteration.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 169 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week I went with something simple. The opening figure starts on the third, and on its return, starts on the tonic. While I kept adding notes, for the first time in a long time I wasn't thinking contrapuntally. Rather, just lookint for ways to fill out the line in an interesting way.

As I was trained, I wrote this away from the keyboard. Simple though it looks, the latter half of this sketch isn't exactily intiutive to play (at least with my limited skills).

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 167 - Piano Piece

he Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

Even a cursory look at my piano sketches will tell you I don't play very well. But the purpose of these flash compositions is to let the music flow unedited, and sometimes untrammeled by reality. There's been a recurring motif in these sketches recently. It's a series of ever-expanding intervals; a second, a third, a fourth. In other words, C-D-F-B. Or it could be C-D-F#-B, or even C-D-F-Bb.

That's really all that's going on here. Just building on that four-note idea.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 157 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's sketch started with the bass. Once the dotted eighth-sixteen/eighth-eighth pattern popped into my head, I was ready to go. If I were to work on this further, I would probably change the interval leaps in the left hand.

All of these flash compositions are done with just pen and paper -- no piano or other musical instrument allowed to check pitches or harmonies. Part of the challenge is to accurately write down what I hear in my head unfiltered.

In this case, what I heard wasn't quite as it turned out when I checked it at the piano later. The bass seems a little too close to movie cowboy music for my taste.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 155 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's flash composition is more of an experiment than a "real" piece of music. I had an idea for an upwards-ascending pattern. Once I had sketched out the pattern, I simply played it against itself. Because the piece is set in an odd meter, I had lots of opportunities to have the motif enter at different times without repeating the pattern too soon.

Because it's more of an experiment, I left the stems oriented to their original lines. If I were to make this a piano piece, I would rework the figures so to be more easily readable (like the fifth measure, for example).

Also, for some reason, my music-copyist game was off. I should have gone with three bars per system. It would have avoided that crunched fourth measure, and the empty space at the end of the second system. I promise to do better next time.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 151 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's sketch is something fairly simple. I started with a descending figure in the right hand and an ascending one in the left. It didn't take long for things to go off track. I seemed to have kept the notion of contrary motion going throughout the sketch, though.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 138 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week I decided to do something simple and tonal -- a piano piece. Well, that intent lasted almost through the first measure. The left hand's open intervals sort of expands, and contract as the piece moves along, partially influencing the key centers the right-hand melody wanders through. If I had had more time, I think I would have added more articulation and dynamic markings to this. But the rules are clear -- at the ten-minute mark, it's time to put down your pencil and turn in your work.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 121 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

I decided to start with a ground this week and see where it lead. OK, I'm no Henry Purcell, but I think it worked out pretty well. Had I not run out of time, I would have kept adding complexity to the  top three voices. When time ran out, I was wondering how to change the tonal center -- without changing the ground. An easy way would be to slip from G major (two sharps) to G minor (two flats).

It would have been more interesting to just re-interpret the function of the notes. Instead of the G in the bass being the root of the chord, what if it was the third? Or the fifth? Or even the seventh or ninth. I think this is a sketch I'll revisit sometime soon.

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Diabelli Project 101 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

It's doesn't take long to create a Diabelli Project flash composition -- the rule is ten minutes max from the moment the pen (or pencil) touches paper. When time's up, that's it. It does, though, take a little longer to make a fair copy of the sketch (and decipher my hasty scribbles). So when I wrote the 100th sketch, I had no idea how many I'd actually done -- it just got added to the pile for copying. 100 would have been a nice place to end the series, but that's not where I stopped.

This week's sketch is another short piano piece. (click on image to enlarge)

Going forward, I'll be experimenting with longer writing times. Is it really a flash composition if I take 20 minutes instead of 10? I don't know -- but I'm curious to see what comes of it. 

As always, this sketch is available to any and all who'd like to use it. Just share the results. 

Diabelli Project 100 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

It was unintentional, but the 100th installment in this series ends where it began -- with a simple keyboard piece. What's interesting to me, though, is what that term now means. My most recent flash composition runs eight bars with some changing texture throughout. (click on images to enlarge)

By contrast, here's Diabelli Project 001's entry:

It's also in 2/4, but what a difference. When I first started, I could barely manage five measures of a single line melody. And really, that's what a canon at the octave is; a single line repeated over itself (at least in the exposition). 

My weekly flash compositions have strengthened my creative energies, which was the primary goal. What happens next? I'll still dash off some flash compositions when I have a spare moment or two -- but now it's time to take some of these ideas and develop them into full-blown compositions. I might share my progress on these from time to time.

The real challenge, though, won't be completing the compositions, but finding musicians to perform them. But it's past time for me to work on that problem, too. 

Diabelli Project 098 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's flash composition is another little piano piece -- but perhaps not quite as simple as last week's, perhaps. Although the piece has a 6/8 meter, only the right hand is truly in 6/8, with two strong pulses per measure (ONE two three FOUR five six). The left hand is actually in 3/4, with three strong beats per measure (ONE two THREE four FIVE six). It adds a certain amount of tension, I think -- but not too much. (click on image to enlarge)

If this piece were to continue, I'd probably add some additional metric ambiguity to it, so that coming back to this 6/8-3/4 pattern would provide a sense of resolution. But that's just me. As always, this sketch is freely available to any and all who'd like to use it. Just be sure to share the results.

Diabelli Project 096 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This weeks flash composition represents a return to simplicity. I started out with a unison melody, and just kind of when from there. As you can see, harmony is introduced as the piece goes on, while still keeping things light and simple.

If I were ton continue this, I'd probably have the harmony become more complex, and start breaking up the melody into its component motifs. What would you do? This sketch, like all those part of the Diabelli Project are offered freely to one and all. If you do want to use any of this, go ahead -- no charge. All I ask is that you share the results. 

Diabelli Project 093 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

Sometimes the results can be surprising. The whole idea of these flash composition exercises -- like flash prose -- is to spontaneously create under tightly controlled conditions. In the case of the Diabelli Project, I have about 10 minutes and a blank piece of paper. When the clock stops, I don't think -- I just write. On occasion, I have an idea of what type of piece I want to write or what motifs I want to use before hand. Not this time. When time ran out, I had this piano sketch. (click on image to enlarge)

It's quite different than last week's piano piece. And I'm not sure it's part of the same larger work. This one, I think, has a totally different character. But that's just my opinion. What's yours? As always, this sketch is available to any and all who'd like to use it in their own work. Just share the results!

Diabelli Project 092 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's example is a piano piece (or rather, a piece of a piece). I began with the concept of alternating 4/4 and 5/4 measures, and just let the rest follow as it would. And here's where it lead: (click on image to enlarge)

Had I more time, I think I would have developed that little half-step turn, perhaps changing the rhythm from two 16ths and an 8th note to an 8th, followed by two 16ths. What possibilities do you see? As always, I offer this sketch freely to any and all to use as they wish. Just share the results, please!

Diabelli Project 086 - Piano Piece

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

This week's flash composition is a study in tone clusters. Normally my harmonies are much sparser and the intervals open. But part of the Diabelli Project is about challenges; challenging myself to spontaneously create on demand, challenging myself to write for different combinations of instruments, challenging myself to write different types of (classical) music -- and challenging myself to write music I normally wouldn't write.

So here it is. The minor second turns of the melody just seemed to grow out of the minor and major seconds of the harmony. (click on image to enlarge)

As always, this sketch is offered to any and all who'd like to use it in a work of their own. All I ask is that you let me know what the results are -- I'm curious to hear how this turns out.

Diabelli Project 081 - Piano Piece in D

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

Last week's flash composition was a little piano piece in D -- and so is this. My original intent was to make it a string quartet, but when it came time to make a fair copy I couldn't make out my own notation. So a piano piece it is. Perhaps this could be the slow movement to last week's sketch? (click on image to enlarge)

And there are a few more piano pieces in D -- Diabelli Project 078 is a 2/4-7/16 rapid-fire piece; Diabelli Project 054 is a 5/8 study in tone clusters, and Diabelli Project 045 is another 5/8 sketch. I've been thinking about what to do when the Diabelli Project concludes, and perhaps joining and developing collections of sketches may be that next step.

While that's what I may do with this, you can choose to do something else. As with all the Diabelli Project sketches, any and all are welcome to use this as they choose. Just send me the results!

Diabelli Project 080 - Piano Piece in D

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

Just a few weeks ago I posted another piano piece in D (see Diabelli Project 078). Like that sketch, this one also isn't especially concerned about staying within a major/minor or even a modal key structure. Rather, the idea is to use D as a destination point, and as a point of reference. (click on image to enlarge)

So what happens next? Does this sketch somehow tie in with the earlier one, or are these the start of two different works? That's for you to decide. As always, this sketch is offered freely to any and all to use as their inspired to. But you know -- I think I'll be revisiting this one myself sometime...

Diabelli Project 078 - Piano Piece in D

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

As part of the Diabelli Project, I've sketched out two other piano pieces that are in D. One was in D minor (see Diabelli Project 045), the other in D aeolian mode (see Diabelli Project 054). In this case, though, I wasn't worried about scales or modes. D was the tonal center that I wanted to return to or play off of. But other than that, I just let the music go where it will. (click on image to enlarge)

I'll need to look at this in context with those other sketches. Perhaps they're all part of a bigger piano work in D-something? Hard to say -- but remember. As always, you're welcome to use this material as you will. Just share the results. 

Diabelli Project 063 - Piano Piece in C

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.
 
This sketch has four lines moving together. But it's not an SATB choral work, nor any other type of ensemble score. It's really just a piano piece, albeit one with four moving lines. I was thinking of the keyboard works of the rennaisance English composers like William Byrd or Giles Farnby. It's definitely not in the style of what they'd write, of course, but I think the texture is similar -- which was what I was after.

What happens next? That's up to you. As always, you're welcome to use all or part of this sketch. Just let me know what you come up with!

Diabelli Project 062 - Piano Piece in A minor

 The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

I debated whether to actually name a key for this week's flash composition sketch. Although the bass clearly outlines an A minor chord, the right hand ranges a little farther afield. Still, it does have a strong pull towards A, so that's where we'll leave it for now.

Of course, as the piece develops, another key center could emerge. That's up to you. As always, you're welcome to use all or part of this sketch. Just let me know what you come up with!