It's been a while since I last posted. My main accomplishment since then: finished editing my score, got it printed, and passed it in. Did that ever feel good!
And now we're into the final project of the semester. I'm doing the second option: to set a text for voice and 2-3 other instruments. I've chosen a poem by A. A. Milne called "Spring Morning" - it's fun and lighthearted, as you might expect from Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh. Lots of opportunity for word painting. And I'm writing for soprano, cello and piano.
I've been having some trouble starting this one. I think I've been thinking too much. I want to keep it light, but not overtly tonal - we're supposed to use more original harmonic language... So I've been playing around with different scales like the whole tone scale and octatonic scale. I want to make sure the voice part sounds somewhat logical so the singer will be able to find all the notes. I want to make sure the piano part plays nicely so I don't get stuck rewriting huge bits again when it comes time to perform it (I've learned my lesson!). The cello part wants to be playable too - which is more difficult to judge since I don't play cello... And then I've been anticipating comments I'll get in class -- "free up the rhythms," "try extended techniques," "use the full range of the instruments," "think about harmonics and double stops and all in the cello".... And of course I've got the deadline in mind - not much time left in this semester!!
All this thinking has been paralyzing me. I've found the progress slow and the results not super satisfying.
I shared what I had in class Tuesday, and it was somewhat encouraging. Ideas included to play around with the chords you can make out of WT/octatonic scales and see what I like; also to consider using another scale or two, or maybe modes of limited transposition. Dr Ross did suggest to free up the rhythm of the voice to reflect the text; for example, be hesitant/thoughtful when it says "I don't quite know"... Good ideas, and I'm trying to incorporate them.
It has been going a bit better since then, in part because of a completely unrelated assignment. I had to write a 16 bar etude for Post-tonal music using contemporary rhythmic techniques and a specific scale and chord type. I was assigned a G pentatonic scale and added note chords - awesome! Really anything I wrote would sound good! So I just made spontaneous decisions, played with non-retrogradable rhythms and added values and odd meters and isorhythm... and the piece pretty much wrote itself. It was super fun to do. And it made me think (yes, thinking again) - could I use techniques like that to direct my composition for this class? Find ways to limit myself, to provide structure, to develop material, to cut down on the number of decisions I need to make when I'm writing?
And so I went back to my text, and come up with a bit more of a plan for this piece - which scales to use where, which elements of the text to highlight musically, how I see the roles of each instrument... it's still a bit elusive, but I definitely have more of an idea what I want with this piece now, and that's giving more to draw from when I sit down to write. It's progress!
Yes. That's where I am now. Still tons of work to do, but I'm feeling less overwhelmed. And that is good.
I'm in the middle of working on my piece too. Took a break to catch up on some comments and when I read your title I literally was like, "THAT GIRL IS IN MY HEAD!" Haha!
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew how many times I've written out a few bars, played it back, changed a few things, played it back, changed a few things, DELETED EVERYTHING...
But! The end is near. And it'll come whether we like it or not... Good luck!
Great post! Yes, we can overthink things, just as we can underthink them, and spontaneity has a role in the creative process as well.
ReplyDeleteMy sense, from reading about composers' work habits, and talking with numerous composers, is that some rely heavily on the planning, "thinking before doing" side of things, and others are more inclined towards spontaneity and improvising on a musical idea until something good comes about. I'm pretty sure, however, that both of these are involved in the creative process for most people — that is, there has to be some planning, both pre-compositionally, and as the composition evolves (is this section too long? Will it work well with the length and character of the next section? What form am I using, and does it work in this piece?), and some some spontaneity (this section needs to be longer/shorter than planned, because it just doesn't feel right as it currently is; I thought it would be cool to use whole-tone scales here, but now that I am writing them, their appeal seems pretty limited to me; etc.).
Your approach of going back to the text to let it guide your choices of scales, instrumental roles, mood, etc., is a great one, so hopefully this will help you to move forward. Feel free to use any of the techniques you learned about in Post-Tonal Music too… There are so many choices that it's can be a challenge to choose a limited number that resonate in some way for you, and that would seem to work with your choice of text, but hopefully there will be something there that will inspire you!