This first composition project began with creating a series of atonal chords, or chords that did not have any obvious tonal sonority. These chords would in turn be used as the progression for 3 short character pieces. Though this exercise was not extremely difficult, there was a few interesting things about attempting to write chords this way.
The first was that many times I found myself coming across common sonorities that were just in different inversions whenever I tried to have some sort of structure to my chords. For example when trying to stack notes in certain intervals (a 4th apart possibly), I would eventually come across a note that was in fact the 3rd of my first note. Other times when trying to do an odd stretch between notes I would come across a minor or major 7th and lead the chord to being a common sonority. These were especially obvious in the middle register of the piano.
Another interesting observation came when I played the chords in class. When I was writing them, it was on an electric piano. I actually remember while writing, thinking to myself and finding that the chords were not tense at all. On an acoustic piano in class however, almost every one of my chords sounded extremely tense. The acoustic piano allowed the chords resonated more openly, and the dissonances were displayed more fully. This is something I'll definitely keep in mind while writing these pieces.
