piano piece

I'm working on a piano piece right now. It's really more of an exercise after reading Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory by Joseph Straus this summer, under the guidance of newton. But I'm trying to make it sound interesting/expressive in the end, at the same time as learning the theory. What's the point really, otherwise?

It is based entirely on one chord [0,3,5,7] taken from the "pond" section of cloud, leaf, pond (see newton's class, first take). This chord's interval vector, (a 6-digit number that shows the # of occurences of all 6 possible intervals, with the first number coresponding to 1 semitone, second number 2 semitones, third number 3 semitones, etc.) is [021120]. This is unusual because it's symetrical. So I used this vector to generate a sequence of chords. The sequence starts with the original chord [0,3,5,7] then transposes this chord to different intervals, with each transposition having first 0, then 2, then 1, 1, 2, and 0, common tones with the chord before it. So there is a sense of internal logic/cohesion to the progression, since the interval vector determines the # of common tones between the chords, and this pattern is a palindrome. I then filled in the space between each of the chords to connect them, by moving one note at time until the new chord was formed.







Now the hard part is using this chord sequence as the basis for some actual music. The plan is to have 6 sections in the piece. The first introductory section, which has 5 chords, will have 4 transitions between the chords. Each of these 4 transitions of the introductory section will correspond in some distinct way (registar, rhthym, other motive) with each of the following 4 larger sections. And then the last closing section I'm not sure what to do about yet.

Having all this planned-out structure and logic is so different from the complete freedom of improvistion. But I think limitations might force creativity in some ways.