For this week’s podcast I’ve sketched out the beginnings of an orchestra piece. I kept with the method of verbally describing how I imagined the piece before actually working on the music. Here’s a rough score if you’re inclined to follow along.
Verbal Pre-Sketch
Quiet staccato rhythm in the woodwind section — at first higher registers to give it a quick feel. Major seconds (clustering, with accents emphasizing wider intervals). The different instruments’ timbres are used to create accents and eventually shapes. Almost like formants shifting (eg. the nasal qualities of the oboe against the breathy and clear flutes). Brass weaves into the texture. Lower notes come in, also staccato (avoiding the oompah sound).
Basses (arco) slowly come in from near-silence and form a slow ostinato pattern, crescendoing.
Engergetic drum kit?
Horns add to the bass timbre.
I actually veered off course a bit. The idea of using timbres as formants to create shapes hasn’t materialized yet. I also brought in a shimmering harp figure that I hadn’t thought of when I did the pre-sketch, which leads back into the staccato stuff. When it comes in the second time, it’s pared down to fewer instruments, and I started varying it, adding grace notes here and there, etc.
So far there’s no system for generating the notes or harmony except my ear. I’ve been hung up on creating some kind of musical language or logic for a long time. The method I’m using now actually brings me back to my “roots” as a composer. I sit at the keyboard and my computer and improvise lines, layering tracks. Then I tweak in the piano roll display (the Matrix Editor in Logic), moving notes, quantizing, etc. Usually I thin things out of what I play. I have a general idea of how dense things should be, and how dissonant and just keep layering until it sounds about right and then add more to the end. It’s sort of a sculptural process. I sometimes think the computer is a crutch and I shouldn’t have to hear things as I go (real composers just need pencil and paper, right?), but this is the most natural way for me right now. The main drawback is that you can start to limit yourself to whatever sounds you have available (for example, the sounds I’m using don’t include Bartok pizzicato strings, which is when the string players pluck with such force that the string slaps against the neck). I either have to buy more sounds, or just be content to imagine them and hope for a real performance some day.
The score is quite rough. There are dynamic markings on the first few pages, but there’s a lot missing. I’m still learning how to use the built-in score editor of Logic Pro. It’s certainly not going to replace Finale, but the results are pretty good for what it is.
I’m not sure where this piece wants to go next, but I think I like the sound of it so far. It’s got a sort of modern vibe in the rhythmic parts, and flows in and out of a more cinematic sound. I’ll have to chart out a longer term plan when I come back to it. Then again, this ad hoc method is working pretty well.
I love what I’ve heard. Especially at the minute six mark and on…Can’t wait to hear more of this one. As for your process. I admire how you are returning to your “roots”. I’m also delighted to see the score! – Ally