MY PROCESS: WRITING A PIECE FOR ORCHESTRA AND DANCERS PART III

Now onto the second half of the first part!

I wanted to keep and develop the idea of stacking pitches and having a sort of “clashing” gesture in the last bar of each repetition. In the following section this is done if three variations with three different pitch collections. This also marks the first tempo change to quarters equal to 108 to 112.

The pitch collection is a very straight forward Bb minor chord with all pitches from the root to the minor 6ths. Basically just stacking minor and major seconds whilst having a more driving bass line played by cello, bass and percussion.

 

On top of this crescending structure is a layer of a contrapuntal melodies in the horn and bassoon.

To break the isorhythmic structure and give the horn more presence some more notes are added to the melody:

As you can probably already hear in the examples there are also gestures in the upper woodwinds emphasizing the “clashing” gesture:

Near the end of the first variation we have some added aleatoric techniques in the strings as well, which will carry into the next variation. There is a tempo change, as well as a reduction in the amount of bars per repetition.

Besides the atonal material this variation is also based on a simple D Minor chord; but with inverting the direction of the buildup of pitches.

The entire material was raised by a major 3rd.

A few other variations in the woodwinds and horns, as well as having a 5/4 “interrupting” the usual 4/4 meter.

After a few repetitions the piece progresses into the third variations. Drastically upping the tempo again, changing the meter into a 3/4 with the driving bass hits (bassoon, bass clarinet, cello and bass) on the last beat of each bar, in a first it changes the build-up scheme to just having a full chord each time.3

Transposing the bass note by another major 3rd (Bb to D to F# —- essentially an augmented triad), the piece ends up in a F# maj7 b9 b13 tonality with alternating bass notes in each 4/4 bar at the end of the repeated gesture (as seen below).

The upper structure consists of wildly played woodwinds - doing arpeggios as fast as possible on the beat for flute and oboe, and fast 32th notes in the bass clarinet and bassoon towards the 3rd beat on the bar.

Again after a couple of repetitions (at rehearsal mark 36) a big ritardando is introduced, slowing the tempo from 160 to 80 (quarters per minute), but taking up the idea of stacked 4ths in the woodwinds only again.

Introducing a now - in contrast to before - very calm flute solo, isorhythmic woodwinds playing chords, and a bowed vibraphone.

The pitch collection of this part: a repeated chord made of stacked 4ths G#, C#, F# and the odd A on top (can be thought of as an A 13 omit 11 chord) followed by a E9.
In the 3rd and 4th bar we have a D9/A, B7, C#min7 - pretty standard chords.

This part will grind to a complete halt with long fermatas to prepare for the next, very agitated part.

MY PROCESS: WRITING A PIECE FOR ORCHESTRA AND DANCERS PART II

Now let’s get on to the next part

Specifically the little segments with the roman numerals I, II, and III

The following sketch was the groundwork for this part. Taking the idea of stacking 4ths and developing them more vertically, note by note until they culminate in a high point of the crescendo, as well as taking other gestures and developing them further.

For the following segment I made a little summary:

Those two score reductions summarize the tonal content of the whole next few minutes in the piece.

Upper harmonic structure and bass notes. You will notice that the bass notes don’t seem to “belong” to the upper structure. It was purely an aesthetic choice to broaden the general soundscape with pitches that would only appear when you kept on stacking 4th for a while.

Right at the end of the first big segment everyone but the violas stop playing.

It starts with the D (as seen in the sketch above), followed by the 2nd violin and then they start intertwining their voices for a more homogeneous sound.

Once they reach the end of the gesture, the other instruments (Cello, Double Bass, Horn, Bassoon, Harp and percussion), taking the same idea of developing tonal material from (somewhat) non-tonal material from the previous part, play their own gesture. Like waves crashing into each other after a build up.

Though two new elements are introduced:

First this rhythmic “irregularity” is taken straight from the final part of the piece (IV Fire), which will mostly involve 7/16 bars. Thus building a … probably more metaphorical … bridge between the two parts, as I don’t think it is noticeable to the audience. But who knows … maybe someone will notice and tell me about it afterwards.

And secondly, flourishing solos. Played mostly by the flute, which is later joined by the violin in antiphony, at the same time the 7/8 bars appear (but not exclusively)

The tonal material, once again, mostly based on 4ths

You can also see more of the “crashing waves” sounds in the percussion, bassoon and oboe and down below in the celli and double basses.

This part is special because it also pertains a tonal shift down by a minor second in all the upper harmonic structure as you can see in the 3rd bar in the picture below. This tonally will stay till the end of this whole segment.

Here is an example of a violin solo, copying the gestures of the flute.

The Flute picks up the melody and continues, but also emulates the harmonic glissando of the violin, which goes to an unspecified extremely high pitch on the E string.

The same process repeats, basically just working with the material that is given.

  1. Flourishing melodies using 4ths and minor seconds

  2. Horizontally built up chords made up of 4ths

  3. “Crashing waves” gestures in the lower instruments going from non-tonal to tonal

The climax of this section ends on a high C in the flutes, whilst the strings play a sforzando chord (Fm 7,maj7, 9, 13).

Not to be confused: the top 7/8 bar is the same as the 7/8 bar in the bottom picture. Showcasing once again the intertwined melodies of violin and flute.

That is the end of the first segment of the first part (getting a bit convoluted here). Next is the second half of the first part which will still work with the element of non-tonal to tonal change but introduces a very different gesture on top of it.

My process: Writing a piece for orchestra and dancers Part I

In the second half of 2023 my collective (https://acantunkollektiv.com/) and me decided upon our next project.
We wanted to do a project surrounding the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich in 2024. We quickly found an orchestra to collaborate with (Sinfonietta Dresden · Kammerorchester (sinfonietta-dresden.de)) as well as a dance group (Perform[d]ance e. V. – Zeitgenössische Tanzvermittlung (performdance.de)) for choreography and dancers.

As it is unfortunately the case with organizing concerts as a non-institutional, independent group, it is always unclear (until the financial situation is set tight) whether the project is going to happen, has to be changed a lot of might even fail. So I hope there is going to be recording later that I can share.

Regardless of the circumstances I still wanted to share my compositional approach give an analysis of my work in parts and explain how i turned this into a score.

Basically the whole piece right there…

The Idea

In search of an idea/concept I researched Caspar David Friedrich and found something I found very inspiring. In order for himself to find inspiration he traveled alone into the wilderness, exposing himself to the forces of nature, only taking a sketch book with him to draw in it.

It quickly dawned upon me to somehow recreate this situation only in a slightly more abstract way:

The orchestra is the force of nature

One single dancer is the lyrical subject

The next decision was to divide “the force of nature” into 4 big formal sections corresponding to (albeit a bit esoteric) Water, Air, Earth and Fire (in that order).

Since my piece was going to be the first we had the idea to already have music and dance happening whilst the audience is still entering. So I divided the first part into two sections: one somewhat improvised-free-form section (which I will analyse in this post) and a second one which follows a more traditional approach. The first part is mostly decided by signs gives by the conductor and can last from 8 to 15 minutes.

For this part the orchestra is divided into two groups: Instrumentalists with lighter instruments (like violins, viola, flute, etc.) are placed in the room around the entering audience, whilst the remaining heavier instruments remain seated at their regular position.

The first group is given material and gestures to experiment and improvise with (also with each other) whilst the second group will be gives signs by the conductor to play their corresponding parts.

Since the score is pretty big - too big for this format - I can only present little zoomed-in snippets, but I will try my best to keep it coherent.

Enough exposition, let’s dive into the main part.

On the first page, the woodwinds are instructed (in German) as followed: they are given pitch material and a little example of how to play with it but are free to break away from it. For them the other notations (like senza misura for 2-3 minutes) do not concern them as they are placed in the room.

Same goes for the upper string section.

Their pitch material can be summarized as followed:
Stacked 4ths with one of them being a tritone (C-F#)

Since the first part represents water, I wanted to use a harmonic landscape which in itself has an archaic feeling to it.

With the F# it also kept a somewhat “major” feeling to it since stacked 4ths tend to become “minor” really fast.

There are two elements: A long sustained chord with improvisations section, followed by a “con misura” section which is conducted in regular time. It begins with the former sections and changes back and forth between the two.

For the Horn and Harp I also gave improvisational instructions , though they stayed at their regular place in the orchestra.
The Horn will play long, sustained notes, whilst the harp will arpeggiate with increasing tempo corresponding to the dynamics.

There is a division and change in this “bar” which has to be synchronized by the conductor.

And at the bottom you have the celli and doublebasses play a very long sustained chord which will change at the same time the harp and horn have their material changing as well.

All Instruments stick to the harmonic system of stacked 4ths in some octave in one way or another (so far).

Basic quartal harmony in the strings

Following this idea of waves, of having two elements going from one to the other, I wanted to also apply the same process to the sound itself: by having it become “deconstructed” and “constructed” - “tonal” and “atonal”

This is an example following the first improvisational part. Now were do have a meter (4/4) and you can see a crescendo-decrescendo (and crescendo again).

Coming from a type of “non-sound” -playing on the bridge - and developing into a way more concrete, ordinario, Cmaj#11.

I tried to use a lot of extended techniques in combination with “regular” sounding techniques to further the contrast - but not always. Sometimes it stays a bit more in the “sound design” category rather than a “pitch” category or sometimes it is only very directly tonal.

This process will repeat throughout the first part.

Similar the horn is also instructed to take the mouthpiece off, flip it around and blow just air through the instrument (this technique creates a much more audible wind sound). First playing a fluttertongue effect and then going into single “breath attacks”.

This gesture happens at the same time as the strings in the example above do their gesture.

In the second iteration of this figure the horn plays as follows:

Again, with a development from air to a concrete pitch, but this time with a little twist: Whilst the player will try to play the low F# (C Score), he or she is instructed to sing a small melody on top (which might have to sung an octave higher if it is too low).

After the second repetition there is going to be a big change in tonality. We are coming back to a senza misura section, which will last 2-3 minutes.

The second group of instrumentalists does a dramatic shift away from the previous quartal harmony.

Since group one will still stick to their material (basically a G major scale) and group two will drift to a “Bbmaj7,#9,#11,b13” scale it will create a tonal disconnect between the two groups resulting in a much more dissonant soundscape.

Reduction

From here the whole tonality will find its way back to the initial “Gmaj” tonality by going first to Eb and then back to C maj. Same process once again: going from sounds to concrete pitch (cello on the bridge, doublebass playing a flageolett glissando with a lot of pressure in the first gesture and cello playing a vertical tremolo - bowing up and down - and the doublebass playing a pitch with a lot of pressure).

Having arrived in Gmaj again we come to the last senza misura part.

This time it is only half as long and ends with the crescendo, ending the first big section.

This is also the point where the roaming instrumentalists are instructed to walk back to their seat by the conductor.

I will cover the second part of the “water section” in my next blog post where we will go into the next bit from the image below. So stay tuned.

How does one make a good loop?

For my very first blog post I will examine and talk about my process regarding this question.

Probably everyone playing a video game has encountered following event happening at some point: There is a big theme in the music, which is cool when hearing it the first time. It’s also still ok on the second go - maybe even the third. But after some time it will feel a bit stale. After all you can hear exactly where and when it loops - most likely right there where you put your big theme.

To circumvent that , I noticed, music in video games often shies away from showing themes and melodies and would rather stay on a rhythmical and/or harmonic layer exclusively (which in absolutely valid and I would argue in certain instances even warranted). But this leads to the music becoming bland very quickly and forgetful, as it is often the melodies that resonate with us.

So, what's the solution? Is it too repetitive or too bland?

 

One approach is to craft longer music pieces with evolving structures, taking players on an auditory journey that mirrors their in-game experiences.

The music would have to set up in a larger scope - often aiming at the 5 minute mark and/or going beyond that.

But sometimes that is not an option - sometimes the music has to be tight, constant: like for a boss fight!

(I'd also like to mention that music in the style of John Williams works well for this - his compositions for action scenes feature ever-changing music that provides a complex listening experience worth revisiting.)

I was faced with this during my writing of the music for the game “Pentaquin: Deeds of Twillight”
Pentaquin: Deeds Of Twilight bei Steam (steampowered.com)

I want to share with you my process and my thoughts, which is by no means a comprehensive analysis and guide.

Initially, I tailored the piece to match the atmosphere in the usual fashion - though in hindsight, this approach may require adjustment based on lessons learned.

 

I chose to begin the piece straight into the action: no big introduction, no swells, cymbals or anything similar.

To make it loop better I decided to begin a melody at the very last bars, which is supposed to carry over into the beginning of the new loop - so essentially it was longer than the piece. Bear with me here as this is later solved in FMod without any cutting of overhanging tails is required.

I should also note that the accompaniment and general structure remained consistently the same very end, as it is in the beginning. The highlighted Melody is played by the horns in big marcato gestures.

Ending

Beginning

This made the loop very smooth, but what about melodies within the piece?

I wanted to approach it in a “modular” fashion so I thought about how could I achieve it and also fit it into a workflow without having to essentially write the same piece several times with variations but also keep it small on the footprint for later implementation via FMod.

I used Cubase’s Lanes function to create a second track within the instrument track to write a alternating melody in there. And - as mentioned - in hindsight, I should have begun working like this:

Writing parts where you know that it won’t be affected by change in a lane and leave it empty for parts where you know it will have a modular part. Those you can then write in the other lanes.

So I had to remove melodies from the main track and copy it into the lane (but perhaps this approach still works for you)

First I would export the “skeleton” with lane 1 (don’t forget to solo the lane) and second I would export every other lane as a solo track setting markers just about before the melody starts and where the reverb tail ends.

This eliminated concerns about reverb tails and avoided the need to cut or copy anything into short clips.

Now I had a big “main” audio file and a few small melody modules. Time to implement!

 

I began by closing the loop with a transition phase at the end of the music clip, allowing the beginning to start immediately and the ending to fade out smoothly - with overlapping melodies.

Loop begins before the reverb tail (and overlapping melody)

Next, I added the melody modules to their corresponding places in the piece, exporting them synced to the bars in my DAW for easy integration into FMOD (after setting the tempo and meter there).

 

This is how the project window looked like after I imported all the files. There are only a few variations, as it is not going to repeat too often, but it is a technique that is way more expandable.

Look at the beginning. Here I put 3 different Multi Instruments. When composing this part I gave 3 Instruments (piccolo, flutes and trumpet) each their own variation but by them separately being chosen it creates up to 6 possible variations.

Here is a short clip of the beginning:

That is basically it.

This way I established a workflow for myself that lends me a lot of flexibility in writing variable music, which can be applied to pretty much any point in the piece:

  • the overlapping elements at the looping point

  • melodies within the piece

  • it can stretch even a bit further and change larger parts of the ensemble including instrumentation, rhythm and harmony

  • or be even more modular and be divided into a lot of small “chunk” that each get chosen by the game engine either randomly or by player input