Though I was unable to attend this class meeting due to illness, I did go and reach out to my fellow classmates (including several of those that share this class with me) and ask for their input.

For the second prototype rush showcase, I tried to compose a snippet or two of the kinds of music I was going for. Obviously, given the time constraints between these prototypes, what is being shown is neither final nor representative of my own skill, but simply to have something to represent the pieces. I hope to gain better insight into exactly what people would enjoy more in the music: minor versus major key? Faster tempo versus slower tempo? And so on. I also wanted to use this prototype to determine whether or not I wanted the percussion to be an interactive element, a baked-in element, or simply not be present. Thankfully, with input from my classmates, I was able to decide that it should remain as a component to the music, just not able to be given different voices in order to prevent confusion.

I gained this information by playing the short piece I threw together over the past week both with percussion and without and asking the listener which they preferred. Given that the piece is not final, it would be unfair of me to ask if it was thematically accurate to the conceptual area it would be in (in this case, a sort-of fantasy, town setting) or if they would change specific elements about the piece itself, so I restrained from doing so.

As a bonus, I also realized that clapping as a software instrument is a poor choice for percussion and will be avoiding it in the final compositions.

Here is a link to the piece I composed over the past week for this showcase: Prototype 2 Composition