opening screen
sound bank
resources
composers
 
 
CLIMAX: TENSION AND RELEASE
contrast
events
silence
tension and release
  texture
 
Why is the climax important?
  Without a high point - a climax - somewhere during a piece of music the ideas would probably ramble. In an hour long television drama, for example, at what point does the crisis occur? What are the events that lead up to the climax? How do they cause the tension? What happens afterwards to resolve the tension?
 
 
 
 

Alien Complete (Ciara McGinley, 2004, 66")

1. Does the composer introduce all of her sounds at the start?
2. Is there suspense? Is there a climax?
3. Can you say what the main events are? Do they relate to each other?
4. Does the composer keep our attention? How?
5. Is there unity in the piece?

   

 

 
 


Here is a note played on a brass instrument.
After a few seconds it becomes monotonous because nothing seems to be happening. Use this file as the basis for a 30" piece. It is longnote_horn. The wav version is in the sources-sounds folder. Make something interesting happen between 18 and 24". Use as few other sounds files as possible.

Possible ideas for a climax include dynamic change, sudden silence, a new rhythmic figure, a combination of many sounds together and extremes of pitch.

   
Another aspect that could add to a climax is