Duo Work
This week, the composers worked in randomly selected teams to double the creativity and create beautiful pieces.
Ava Arasan x Richard zhang
"Galaxy" swirls a touch of fantasy in with poetry to express that although being alone may be easier at some points in time, ultimately, being together is what connects and comforts people in times of need. We started our collaboration with some chords and the rest of the melody and lyrics just kind of grew from there. Richard's great producing skills made the final instrumental very cool. Partner work was super fun and memorable. :))
Ava
"Galaxy" describes the wishful thinking we experience while alone, longing for other human contact. It seems as we're alone in a galaxy, distanced from the ones we love. This was my first real collaboration over zoom, and it turned out well. Ava's melodic writing and her vocals and harmonies really brought the piece together.
Richard
Wild
Atri Banerjee x Johnny Kuehnis
Out of all the pieces I have composed for The Outlet so far, “Wild” is definitely my favorite one because I really like its relaxed feel. In terms of the composing process, using Zoom to work with a partner was a unique experience. First, we decided on our instruments. After we came up with a main musical idea for those instruments, we split the piece into different sections and worked on writing melodies for our individual sections. We peer-edited our these new melodies at meetings. Finally, we added chords, completed the bass line, and smoothened the transitions between sections. I’m pretty proud of writing the guitar chords and their rhythm, and I would guess that Johnny is pretty proud of the drum part because it sounds so cool.
Atri
This piece that I wrote with my partner, Atri Banerjee, is probably my favorite piece that I've worked on so far. It was difficult to come up with a place to start, but once we got the first 8 measures or so finished, it became much easier to expand upon our previous ideas. Pretty much every part of the piece was enjoyable to work on. For example, we both wanted to write a piece with a guitar in it, but neither of us had any experience. However, the process of coming up with the cords and melodies on it was very fun. The saxophone, bass, and drums that we added also helped spice up the piece, and coming up with saxophone melodies, bass lines, and drum sections was very entertaining.
Johnny