Posts Tagged ‘composition’

Rotating Intution

Jun 26th, 10 / 0 Comments

I think I’ve come up with a way of generating pitch, rhythmic, and textural rotation in the brass fanfare I’m working on while repressing my own intuition (which can’t always be trusted!). I started with the harmonic series–like I’ve been doing a lot lately. I created a chord that looks kind of like the harmonic series, although it is crammed into equal temperament (at least for now) to make it more manageable for a microtonal novice like me. So, this chord begins with wide intervals in the lower range and proceeds, as one would expect, to smaller intervals as the pitches get higher. (Without looking at my notes, I think the pitches are C2, C3, G3, C4, E4, G4, B-flat4, C5, E-flat5, F-sharp5, G5, A5, and D6).

I decided to go a little Messiaen and assign each pitch in this chord to a certain rhythm. Initially, I simply made the harmonic’s ordinal number the denominator of a fraction of the lowest note’s duration. In other words, C3 would be half the duration of the bottom note C2, G3 would be 1/3 of C2, C4 1/4, etc. This presented the practical problem of dealing with 13 against 12 against 11 against 10 against 9, etc. Of course it wouldn’t phase a composer like Ferneyhough, but with a deadline looming I just didn’t have the stomach for it today. I adjusted the rhythms to a simpler (think Ligeti) model of native subdivisions with a triplet and quintuplet thrown in for good measure (no pun intended). So now each pitch in the chord is assigned a value that corresponds to it’s place in pitch space (the lowest note being the longest, the highest note being the shortest). That seemed intuitive to me, but intuition often leads to dull and monotonous, so I devised a system of rotation.

I collapsed the chord into a stepwise 8-pitch (not octatonic) C scale (C, D, E-flat, E, F-sharp, G, A, B-flat). I then rotated the first pitch to the end of the scale (D, E-flat, E, F-sharp, G, A, B-flat, C) eight times and transposed each rotation to begin on C (C, D-flat, D, E, F, G, A-flat, B-flat). Thus I had eight C scales that each have a different pitch content. If you look at each of these scales, they are out-of-order transpositions of the first scale. For example the first rotation above is tonally analogous to the original scale, but transposed to B-flat. In other words, all the pitches in the first rotation correspond to the pitch B-flat in the same way that the pitches in the original scale correspond to the pitch C. So I’m thinking tonally here–the original scale is “in C” and the first rotation is “in B-flat”.

In the original, the tonal relationships are root, 9th, sharp 9th, 3rd, sharp  11th, 5th, 6th, 7th. This is important because durations are attached to the note’s relationship with the active root. The root (bottom note in the original scale) is the longest duration, etc. In the first rotation (in B-flat), the tonal relationships are 9th, sharp 9th, 3rd, sharp 11th, 5th, 6th, 7th, root. The root is now at the top and the 9th is on the bottom.

Don’t forget that these scales are only pitch collections which will be ordered differently in the actual music.

So, here’s the important outcome of today’s work. As one chord morphs into another in the music, individual voices will move to the closest pitch in the new collection. That means that the bottom voices will probably stay on C throughout. The tenor voices might change to a D-flat or D occasionally and so on. But, the durations will change according to the operative collection at any given moment. So if C is the “key,” the B-flats, for example, will be about 1/7 the duration of C–fast notes. But, later, when B-flat collection takes over, the B-flats will be longer and the C (now functioning as a 9th) will be much shorter. But, the actually pitches won’t move much. The C’s will still be in the low voices and the B-flats in the high.

The basic result will be a texture that has the fast-moving lines slowing rotating through the ensemble. This system will force the tubas to play fast and the trumpets to play slow, or in other words, counter to my intuition of duration related to position in pitch space. Rather, now duration is attached to harmonic relationships which will constantly change.

OK–now gotta write this sucker.

Composing, fanfare

Jun 9th, 10 / 0 Comments

I made it to the end of a brass fanfare today. There’s still a lot of editing to do. It’s about a minute and a half, which is only enough room for one idea, but I’ve got two and I can’t decide how they fit together. The first is an embellishment of a small brass motive from The Wanderer, over low clusters in the tubas and euphoniums. It’s ok, but the more interesting idea is a composing out of a technique I started working on last fall. Last fall I wrote a PD patch that would play random pitches from the overtone series of whatever pitch the computer heard. (I really need to write a piece that uses that patch!) For this fanfare I’m thinking of the low notes as the fundamental pitches and letting muted trumpets play “random” notes from the overtone series. The effect–a cloud of soft overtones–would really be enhanced in an especially reverberent space.

I think the next step is expanding on the overtone cloud and minimizing or eliminating the Wanderer rehash.

Composing, fanfare

Sketching

Sep 20th, 09 / 0 Comments

Got down to making some firm decisions on a new work I’m composing for wind ensemble.  To avoid rewriting a summary, here’s an email I just sent the conductor of the ensemble planning to premiere it next spring.

The form and generative/governing concepts are fairly clear to me now.  It is all inspired by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the folk music traditions of the southern Appalachians. . . .  I have transcribed a recording of “Wayfaring Stranger” made in Beech Mountain by Horton Barker, as exactly as possible.  The oddities of that recording (asymmetrical meters, accidental/incidental microtonality) will generate some of the music.  I also plan on using that transcription later in the piece.

I also want to incorporate some abstractions on Appalachian instrumental music, especially variations on traditional banjo and fiddle conventions.  I want to emphasize, however, that I do not want to compose a “bluegrass” piece for band, just abstracting and reworking some hallmarks of that music–like fiddle portamentos and clawhammer banjo rhythmic gestures.

These ideas are perhaps tangential, however, to the main thrust of the piece.  I am fascinated with the timbral possibilities of the wind ensemble and plan to exploit timbre and texture, sometimes to the obscuring of melody and rhythm.  I am planning to include a fair amount of improvisation in order to achieve the kind of intricate textures and independent playing that I want (3 to 5 notes in a box, or melodic fragments played independently of the tempo, etc.).  The harmonic interest will come from a conflict between E min. pentatonic and the octatonic scale C, Db, Eb, etc.  At the end, I plan on using timbre and wide separation in pitch space to help these two harmonic worlds merge naturally.

To help bring together all these inspirations floating around in my head, I got a sketch pad and went to work.  I sketched a few shapes intuitively, with no thought of any concrete ideas.  The top portion of the sketch, which I decided to make my guide for percussion timbres, textural density and volume, is clearly mountainous.  The right side, especially, reminds me of the Blue Ridge Mountains with ribbons of fog below and stars above.

I’ve sketched out pieces before, but this is more graphic than I usually do.  There are, of course, some words and, on the left, some notes on staves, but it’s mostly visual.  There is also a lot of empty space.  I kind of know what’s going to come there, and didn’t feel the need to fill up all the available space.  I found this very useful to me (I’m a visual person) to organize my ideas.  It makes perfect sense to me–the visual representing the aural.  I realize it doesn’t for many people, but I’ve always found it very easy to compose a sculpture or a painting…  makes me wonder why I don’t do it more often.

Of course, the visual doesn’t mean the same aural for everyone (and vice versa).  I’ve often thought it would be a good exercise to give several composers the same sketch and have them write a piece from it.. just to see all the different outcomes.

sketch

After sketching, I notated a more detailed version of the first minute.  It’s convenient that the first minute is so sparse.  Of course there will be a lot of details to work out for the final version, but it will come faster than the more dense textures that come later–and fast is good right now (I want to do a string quartet as soon as this piece is finished).  As the initial sparse clusters/tectonically-slow melody give way to a churning rhythmic section that begins the buildup to the climax, there needs to be a bridge or a transitional section.  For now, I have several 3-5 note motives that can be rhythmicized in many different ways.  These will be building blocks that I could use as improvisatory cells or work out and notate exactly.  They will begin in isolation, then combined into duets and trios, etc.  Either way, it’s too much for today.  I thought about going on to the rhythmic section that will come next, but I want it to evolve organically from the transition, so I need to do that first.  I might start working on the chorale, though, later this evening.

Composing, The Wanderer

from “Composition as Process” by John Cage

Sep 19th, 09 / 0 Comments

The
mind may be used
either to ig-
nore ambient
sounds, pitches oth-
er then the eight-
y-eight, dura-
tions which are not
counted, timbres which
are unmusi-
cal or distaste-
ful, and in gen-
eral to con-
trol and under-
stand an avail-
able exper-
ience. Or the
mind may give up
its desire to
improve on cre-
ation and func-
tion as a faith-
ful receiver
of experi-
ence.

Aesthetics

Is Music Grading a Bad Thing?

Feb 16th, 09 / 3 Comments

Here’s a blog post from composer Daniel Wolf regarding the Texas Board of Education’s University Interscholastic League.  This is an organization that controls athletics and music in Texas schools.  For those of us in music education, the UIL governs a lot of what we do.  The North Carolina Bandmasters Association uses some of the UIL structure in its own concert festivals regulations.  Now, it may seem strange to combine scholastic sports with music.  Goodness knows the two seem to be in constant competition with one another.  I think there is something utilitarian and super-efficient about this Texan bureaucracy, and I think that’s part of what has appalled Wolf.  We artists shun the notion of categorization (at least explicitly), and the idea that some group of jocks in Texas might somehow influence music education around the country is intensely offensive.  I’ll leave it to the linked article above to explain the details of the UIL and how this influence is wielded.  I will say, however, that the North Carolina system does not govern marching band festivals, nor is it governed directly by the North Carolina Board of Education.

I think there are obvious benefits to grading music for adjudicated festivals–mainly, it is necessary to divide bands by their levels of proficiency.  Comparing bands of greatly differing abilities isn’t very useful.  Thus, the bands choose their music from a list that arranges a finite number of compositions by difficulty.  My middle school band is playing Grade I, the easiest because we’re a small band with mostly beginners.  It wouldn’t make sense to be compared with larger bands with more experience.

However, where I am most interested in Wolf’s point is the idea that this set-up introduces bias into music education.  I agree wholeheartedly that it does.  The list is finite.  There is a procedure for adding other pieces, but I haven’t looked into it.  The system makes it too easy to buy from the publishers and composers on the list.  I can’t see why the list can’t be evolutionary and infinitely expandable.  Sure, have a panel of conductors to review new music for difficulty, but not for anything else. There’s no reason to exclude any new music; let the individual teachers decide what they want to play.

Not only is there an exclusionary bias inherent in having a list, there is also a bias in the band world against new music, and that doesn’t help our students.  I am rehearsing Terry Riley’s In C this semester in honor of the groundbreaking piece’s 50th anniversary.  The piece has no meter, no key, no phrasing indicated, no dynamics, no parts, and not even any instruments indicated.  A typical adjudicator wouldn’t have anything to judge.  But, the notion that music must have all these elements was discarded decades ago–at least outside the band world.  Inside the band world, these are the foundational elements of music.  I’m not suggesting we stop teaching students these concepts, but let’s keep going.  Let’s show them aleatory music, improvisatory, atonal, music.  That extended techniques and experimental timbres in the music of George Crumb are powerful.  And most importantly, that these new music concepts aren’t novel or weird–that you can phrase Schoenberg just like you would Brahms… or Swearingen.

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And now's the time; the time is now

Feb 10th, 09 / 0 Comments

Welcome to my new music blog.  I plan to write occasionally on new music, composition, popular music, aesthetics, and anything else that pops up.  I’ll also share links I run across.  Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, and feel free to leave any comments you have–I enjoy discussions more than pronouncements.

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