Holly Mead - Composer, Pianist

"Minimalism means using less to achieve more." - Russo, Composing Music, pg. 199. 

In the final chapter of Composing Music, we will explore several minimalistic musical procedures.

Pointillism is the procedure of dividing a melody between two or more…

During quarantimes last fall, I composed a piece of music for Bay Area's Awesöme Orchestra featuring a full compliment of strings and accordion soloist Diana Strong. Catch it live on July 10th, 2pm-5pm at Sports Basement in Berkeley alongside…

I was inspired by Ernest Bloch's Suite ​Hébraïque and my friends at String Assembly to compose something new for viola. Here is "Lithia."

Imitation is the repetition of a musical figuration. The figuration can be varied with fragmentation, transposition and/or inversion, and the intervals and rhythms of an imitation may be exact or modified. In a poly-phonic setting, successive repetitions may overlap with

Organum is the name for two or more voices that share the same rhythm and move by the same interval.

I modeled this next piece after Russo's Example H in Composing Music, pg. 124-125.

Measures 1-8 make up the small…

Second-species counterpoint (i.e. two-to-one counterpoint) involves two tones in one part to one tone in the other parts.

Strong beats (downbeats) in second species are always consonant. As in first species, imperfect consonances (thirds and sixths) are preferable to to…

Counterpoint is the relationship between two or more melody lines that are played simultaneously, and the study of counterpoint is a tried and true method of developing a deeper understanding of harmony and voice leading.

Species Counterpoint requires adherents to…

Changing Tones

Changing tones are two non-chord tones that are on either side of a chord tone, to which they resolve.

Reverse Neighboring Tones

A reverse neighboring tone is preceded by a chord tone…

Chapter 8 is a great primer on the various types of accompaniment: Oom-pah, Alberti Bass, etc.

Chapter 9 is another chapter about harmony and begins by introducing three special chords:

I decided to combine these three special chords in the…

Ostinato

When an isomelody and an isorhythm are in sync and repeated persistently, they create an ostinato. "Ostinato" is the Italian word for "obstinate."

Isomelody and Isorhythm

An isomelody is a series of pitches that differs from a standard row and a 12-tone row in the following ways; each tone may be used only as originally given (123456; not 1112234566), and octave forms of…

12 Tone Row

The development of the 12-tone row is associated with Arnold Schoenberg and 20th century contemporary music.

To construct our 12-tone row (sometimes called a note row, series, or set), we're going to order the 12 pitches of…