Statistical Learning

Scenario

You are a film composer working on a period piece set in the late 18th century. You are given a scene that takes place at a concert hall, and are asked to create diegetic music for it (that is, music that sounds like it is being performed within the scene by the performers on the stage). The director of this project is a real stickler for historical accuracy, and they REALLY know their stuff! You've written a couple of pieces, but to no avail. Each time, the director says "no, that won't work, it sounds too much like film music for this scene," or "no, no, no, this is 1780, not 1820! Try again!"

Your task, then, is to try to create a new piece of music that sounds like it could have been written by a professional composer in the late 18th century. But your favorite composers are Korngold and Williams, and frankly you find Mozart a bit dry and boring. Writing in his style doesn't come natural to you. How do you proceed?

In the following pages, you will go through a process to try to come up with just the opening melody (roughly 4 bars) of a piece that convincingly imitates 18th century music.

Assignment Instructions

In this assignment, you will engage in a process of statistical learning -- learning inductively about how something works by simply immersing yourself in an experience and getting used to the norms -- to learn an idiomatic melodic gesture in classical music. The assignment consists of four short parts:

1.) A listening activity

2.) An improvisation activity

3.) An analysis activity

4.) A composition activity

You will find instructions for these activities on the pages below.