The definition I heard when I was in beginning band, in 6th grade, was that music is anything meant to be music. Lately, though, I've considered removing "pop" from this category to some extent, because if we redefine "music", we can say that what something was meant to be is not "music". It's a rather circular definition, but it might be better to say that it's a recursive definition. Makes it sound more sophisticated.
But really, we know what music is. Music is organized sound (where the level of organization can be arbitrarily small). But what makes it go? My answer used to be a very nonhesitant "Why, tension and release, of course!" Some people, when asked about their favorite music, will answer (with a desire to be inclusive) that it is "anything with a beat". If you think about it, though, you'll realize that a beat works on a completely different principle from tension and release, and if you give a piece of music enough of a beat, it will overshadow any tension and release present. It feels like there is some sort of innate "beat" response that makes you want to move your body, and it is a completely different response from the exhileration you might get from a buildup in the music. "Pop" music uses this beat response rather than the tension response, and while there's nothing wrong with that, in an interesting way, that completely changes music.
So I would consider cutting that part out of the definition of music, by making the beat effect, like the lyrics, extramusical. And then I would quickly unconsider that, because while it makes some sense, it's also extremely silly to disqualify large swaths of music. Still, I consider the beat effect nonmusical, and rap "music", for instance, as poetry for the most part. For the most part only; there's some good music in there as well sometimes, rhythmic effects, and various other nice things.
The more interesting music, I find, is way on the other side of the "spectrum". I think of the effects of music as an asymptotic series of sorts, with the leading terms usually dominating the "higher-order" terms. I see beat as dominating, rhythm and tension following, then pitch and dynamics, then sound. This is fairly loose, of course. Any effects of the set of pitches chosen -- tonal effects -- are under the tension heading. As music becomes more abstract, higher and higher terms dominate, leading to new ways to listen to music.
In particular, once everything is stripped away except for the sound term, we can have music as an experience rather than as something to be listened to. I've heard that being high is similar to this. You can pay attention to the sounds around you as if they were music, and though they weren't created that way, you, the listener, have essentially created their musicality. If all it takes to create art is a frame, then one can simply carry an inside-out frame and frame in the entire world. Music as an experience, in this sense, is music made up of random sounds of nature and artifice like the hallway lights and fans, like the chirping of the traffic lights (this is Cambridge; they make actual chirps), like impromptu organization. Like people who fail at singing in tune and create beautiful grating microtones, like multiple trucks backing up, like the subway door beeps. It's an intense immersive experience that requires nothing more than the will to hear the world in that light.
This is why, no matter my disdain, I can't chop off the beat from the set of things that make music music: so many people will much more readily end music at tension and release, or possibly require that it be the dominant term. It would be a horrible double standard to restrict my definition so. As much as I am a fan and student of harmony, and harmony in all its forms is my chief concern on this blog, I cannot ever neglect the intense musical experience possibly by mentally willing to be music what was not originally intended so. In that case, the heater isn't music. But draw a metaphorical shell around you, and you now have an instrument that produces whatever sounds pass through the shell -- the heater's sound becomes music! It's a cheap mathematical trick, of course. (: If you have not experienced music this way, you may be skeptical, but I encourage you to think deeply about the sounds you hear when walking -- do not get distracted by speech or more conventional music. Music will never be the same again.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A Chord
When I was listening to my old college singing group (the Harvard Noteables) rehearsing last year, one thing struck me quite a bit. The seniors were singing "Hear My Song", from Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World, and towards the end, from 5:03 to 5:08 if you have the recording, they sang a wild chord! I keep thinking now that, if I were writing a marching show of Songs for a New World, this chord would be the point in the closer where the entire audience starts screaming. So what is it?
That section of the song is in the key of B. I'm doing this by ear, by the way, so feel free to correct me. This is Jason Robert Brown, so his chords are all 2's and 4's -- in the key of C, these would be the tonic CDG, the subdominant CFG (though the bass player would most likely play the F), and the dominant GCD (which actually makes it equal to a 64 chord). While this looks rather drab, with a C present in the important chords, it's important to note that his music's harmonic interest comes from having other chords besides those three. My point is really about the character of the primary chords he uses.
Back to the music. Starting at 4:50, we have repeated melodic precadential material over a dominant F#4 chord (or B2/F# if you prefer, but there is ambiguity between the V and I64 feelings). The bass alternates the F# with an E, so this could also be a quartal dominant 7th in whatever inversion it is that has the 7th in the bass (3rd in CP theory -- CP being Common Practice -- but that isn't very meaningful here). After three bars, this is followed by a chord with an A in the bass guitar and soprano, a B in the man's voice, and possibly an E somewhere, for an A2 chord (though I hear it as an A chord with an added 9, since that B is important). The next bar features a B2 chord, with mostly parallel motion (though the male voice goes to a different note to jump instead of moving in parallel), and the next bar, that wild chord, has a G in the bass, an F# in the man, D in the woman. I think. And possibly an A someplace else. If I can get a hold of the score, I'll check. But at least on the piano, G A F# D sounds about right, with a ninth between the G and the A. This looks like a D/G chord, which would be -- ahem -- bIII/b6^, if that makes any sense. However, it's clearly a G9 chord of some sort, in this case a Gmaj9 with no third. It's hard to fit non-CP chords into CP conventions! In that case, this is a bVI chord, but there is no third because that would make a minor chord with the F# and D and that would change the energy of that chord. But it's ambiguous enough that it could be both a D/G and a Gmaj9.
Where does the chord get this energy? Partly from that beautiful major ninth, I think. The major ninth, where the top note is tonicized, is a very harmonic interval that does not resolve as might be expected, since the bass and not the soprano is the source of tension. As I hear it, it has no directional pull, but it clearly can't end a piece. Another example is in Meadowlark. This major ninth could actually be considered a diminished tenth, possibly. I don't know. One possible resolution is for both notes to resolve a half step in, to an octave; an example would be (in diminished 10th form) D# f to E e, but the idea can be expanded to resolve to E g instead, which is the same harmony in this case. Consider the following progression of two-note chords: F e, Bb d, F e, D# f, E g. The D# f chord is pretty much an Eb9, but since it's so foreign to the key, it might be better to interpret it as D# dim10, or however you want to write it. It's the inverse of the augmented 6th, but since it's a major 9th it sounds much more open (since the 9th is made up of two open fifths stacked) and therefore much more powerful. IF IT'S IN TUNE. I'm also hoping that the 9th really is in the chord, or I'll look stupid. (: The chord two chords before the chord in question is a 9th chord with this property.
Another part of the power of that chord, I think, is that the (human) voices all leap up to the note. Persichetti uses this as well, for great effect, in his Psalm, for a similar I - bVI progression that could be written C c e g, C c e g, C c e g, Ab eb ab c'. The bVI is a very powerful chord, since it's new to the scale in major and just a major chord in minor, but if the upper voices leap up to it, it's a gigantic swell of excitement. In our example, the chord is a bVI in the bass, giving it this powerful function, even though the other notes aren't those of a bVI major chord.
Finally, that chord is powerful because it's in tune. I can't pick out the notes of the singers at all, yet they're so crunchy!
Thoughts?
That section of the song is in the key of B. I'm doing this by ear, by the way, so feel free to correct me. This is Jason Robert Brown, so his chords are all 2's and 4's -- in the key of C, these would be the tonic CDG, the subdominant CFG (though the bass player would most likely play the F), and the dominant GCD (which actually makes it equal to a 64 chord). While this looks rather drab, with a C present in the important chords, it's important to note that his music's harmonic interest comes from having other chords besides those three. My point is really about the character of the primary chords he uses.
Back to the music. Starting at 4:50, we have repeated melodic precadential material over a dominant F#4 chord (or B2/F# if you prefer, but there is ambiguity between the V and I64 feelings). The bass alternates the F# with an E, so this could also be a quartal dominant 7th in whatever inversion it is that has the 7th in the bass (3rd in CP theory -- CP being Common Practice -- but that isn't very meaningful here). After three bars, this is followed by a chord with an A in the bass guitar and soprano, a B in the man's voice, and possibly an E somewhere, for an A2 chord (though I hear it as an A chord with an added 9, since that B is important). The next bar features a B2 chord, with mostly parallel motion (though the male voice goes to a different note to jump instead of moving in parallel), and the next bar, that wild chord, has a G in the bass, an F# in the man, D in the woman. I think. And possibly an A someplace else. If I can get a hold of the score, I'll check. But at least on the piano, G A F# D sounds about right, with a ninth between the G and the A. This looks like a D/G chord, which would be -- ahem -- bIII/b6^, if that makes any sense. However, it's clearly a G9 chord of some sort, in this case a Gmaj9 with no third. It's hard to fit non-CP chords into CP conventions! In that case, this is a bVI chord, but there is no third because that would make a minor chord with the F# and D and that would change the energy of that chord. But it's ambiguous enough that it could be both a D/G and a Gmaj9.
Where does the chord get this energy? Partly from that beautiful major ninth, I think. The major ninth, where the top note is tonicized, is a very harmonic interval that does not resolve as might be expected, since the bass and not the soprano is the source of tension. As I hear it, it has no directional pull, but it clearly can't end a piece. Another example is in Meadowlark. This major ninth could actually be considered a diminished tenth, possibly. I don't know. One possible resolution is for both notes to resolve a half step in, to an octave; an example would be (in diminished 10th form) D# f to E e, but the idea can be expanded to resolve to E g instead, which is the same harmony in this case. Consider the following progression of two-note chords: F e, Bb d, F e, D# f, E g. The D# f chord is pretty much an Eb9, but since it's so foreign to the key, it might be better to interpret it as D# dim10, or however you want to write it. It's the inverse of the augmented 6th, but since it's a major 9th it sounds much more open (since the 9th is made up of two open fifths stacked) and therefore much more powerful. IF IT'S IN TUNE. I'm also hoping that the 9th really is in the chord, or I'll look stupid. (: The chord two chords before the chord in question is a 9th chord with this property.
Another part of the power of that chord, I think, is that the (human) voices all leap up to the note. Persichetti uses this as well, for great effect, in his Psalm, for a similar I - bVI progression that could be written C c e g, C c e g, C c e g, Ab eb ab c'. The bVI is a very powerful chord, since it's new to the scale in major and just a major chord in minor, but if the upper voices leap up to it, it's a gigantic swell of excitement. In our example, the chord is a bVI in the bass, giving it this powerful function, even though the other notes aren't those of a bVI major chord.
Finally, that chord is powerful because it's in tune. I can't pick out the notes of the singers at all, yet they're so crunchy!
Thoughts?
Monday, October 1, 2007
Bare Necessities (Terry Gilkyson)
3 clarinets, bass clarinet
This song is totally awesome. I don't remember how it ended up being sung at the summer program I went to before senior year of high school, but it is just really cool. The intro is beautiful, and the rest of the instrumental parts are masterful. This is the kind of stuff you don't always notice in Disney music, but back however many years ago it was, it was really good. Even the solos are amazing. So I figured I'd arrange it for my clarinet quartet as a crowd pleaser -- though we never did perform, but still. The bass clarinet is instructed to ad lib, which can only be approximated by grace notes and odd rhythms, so the recording isn't perfect. And "Oh, man, this is really livin'!" is supposed to be spoken, but it's not there. Oh, well. The bass clarinet has the solo most of the time, but during the instrumental section, the other three clarinets each get a solo. There was nothing special about the second solo -- the piano solo -- that would be interesting to reproduce on clarinets, so I replaced it, though I won't tell you with what. ;p
Listen to Bare Necessities (right-click to download)
This song is totally awesome. I don't remember how it ended up being sung at the summer program I went to before senior year of high school, but it is just really cool. The intro is beautiful, and the rest of the instrumental parts are masterful. This is the kind of stuff you don't always notice in Disney music, but back however many years ago it was, it was really good. Even the solos are amazing. So I figured I'd arrange it for my clarinet quartet as a crowd pleaser -- though we never did perform, but still. The bass clarinet is instructed to ad lib, which can only be approximated by grace notes and odd rhythms, so the recording isn't perfect. And "Oh, man, this is really livin'!" is supposed to be spoken, but it's not there. Oh, well. The bass clarinet has the solo most of the time, but during the instrumental section, the other three clarinets each get a solo. There was nothing special about the second solo -- the piano solo -- that would be interesting to reproduce on clarinets, so I replaced it, though I won't tell you with what. ;p
Listen to Bare Necessities (right-click to download)
Tennessee Waltz (Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King)
3 clarinets, bass clarinet
A clarinet quartet (see the note for Carinhoso -- there are NO STRINGS in a clarinet quartet, since then it wouldn't be a clarinet quartet; it would be some sort of mixed ensemble) version of this famous tune. I've always liked it, so I wrote it for my quartet. I don't know much about the piece except the melody, so I can't really talk about it, but hey, it's pretty. (: I should mention that while I haven't ever performed this, I have given other people the sheet music and they have performed it with some success, though not in my presence. This probably applies to the rest of my clarinet ensemble music.
Listen to Tennessee Waltz (right-click to download)
A clarinet quartet (see the note for Carinhoso -- there are NO STRINGS in a clarinet quartet, since then it wouldn't be a clarinet quartet; it would be some sort of mixed ensemble) version of this famous tune. I've always liked it, so I wrote it for my quartet. I don't know much about the piece except the melody, so I can't really talk about it, but hey, it's pretty. (: I should mention that while I haven't ever performed this, I have given other people the sheet music and they have performed it with some success, though not in my presence. This probably applies to the rest of my clarinet ensemble music.
Listen to Tennessee Waltz (right-click to download)
Carinhoso (Pixinguinha)
flute, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet
So once upon a time I had a clarinet quartet (for those of you who aren't well-trained in musical terminology, a clarinet quartet consists of four clarinets, which can be of various sizes -- this one contained three sopranos and a bass). We met once a week for half an hour each time for a semester, and we never performed, but I did get to write music for it -- nothing original, just arrangements. I figured I could transcribe some chorinhos, and those sound so much better with a flute that I figured I'd add one. Thus I wrote Carinhoso for mixed woodwind quintet (which is different from a "flute quintet", which would consist of five flutes, perhaps including a piccolo and an alto flute; this quintet only contains one flute and therefore it can't be a flute quintet). It can be said that chorinhos are to Brazilian music what ragtime is to American music. They sound quite similar, in fact. But like the Australian and European wolves, they're not related. Only later were chorinhos influenced by jazz and evolved into bossa nova. But anyway. Carinhoso is one of those "signature" Brazilian songs, something like Stars and Stripes forever in the US. It's about as famous as famous gets. I hope to be able to play it on guitar to a girlfriend at some point, but until then we'll have to be content with this recording.
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
UPDATE: While not played on guitar specifically, a much cooler, sung, recorded version (by me) is here!
So once upon a time I had a clarinet quartet (for those of you who aren't well-trained in musical terminology, a clarinet quartet consists of four clarinets, which can be of various sizes -- this one contained three sopranos and a bass). We met once a week for half an hour each time for a semester, and we never performed, but I did get to write music for it -- nothing original, just arrangements. I figured I could transcribe some chorinhos, and those sound so much better with a flute that I figured I'd add one. Thus I wrote Carinhoso for mixed woodwind quintet (which is different from a "flute quintet", which would consist of five flutes, perhaps including a piccolo and an alto flute; this quintet only contains one flute and therefore it can't be a flute quintet). It can be said that chorinhos are to Brazilian music what ragtime is to American music. They sound quite similar, in fact. But like the Australian and European wolves, they're not related. Only later were chorinhos influenced by jazz and evolved into bossa nova. But anyway. Carinhoso is one of those "signature" Brazilian songs, something like Stars and Stripes forever in the US. It's about as famous as famous gets. I hope to be able to play it on guitar to a girlfriend at some point, but until then we'll have to be content with this recording.
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
UPDATE: While not played on guitar specifically, a much cooler, sung, recorded version (by me) is here!
Concerto de Choro
clarinet, piano
After listening to a CD of Brazilian guitar music in the summer of 2005, I decided that it would be cool to write a chorinho, and as a clarinet player, I wrote it for clarinet and piano. I made a concerto out of it because, hey, why not? So here are three chorinhos in a concerto, for clarinet and piano accompaniment. A chorinho is kind of like a rag -- it's explained below, since Carinhoso is a chorinho as well. The first movement is a fast, bird-like choro; the second is a melodious waltz; the third is a boisterous samba. The second movement in particular should quiet you critics that think I can't write melodies; it's one of the most beautiful things I've written. The movement titles are just colors -- the -inho ending is a diminutive, so the first movement is entitled Yellow Chorinho (with a diminutive yellow), the second, Black Choro (where "choro" rhymes with "ouro", gold, and Ouro Preto is the name of some city somewhere, maybe), and the third, Greenish Chorado (where -ado is the ending for the past participle). So not very meaningful, but very, very pretty!
Listen to Concerto de Choro - I - Chorinho Amarelinho (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - II - Choro Preto (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - III - Chorado Esverdeado (right-click to download)
After listening to a CD of Brazilian guitar music in the summer of 2005, I decided that it would be cool to write a chorinho, and as a clarinet player, I wrote it for clarinet and piano. I made a concerto out of it because, hey, why not? So here are three chorinhos in a concerto, for clarinet and piano accompaniment. A chorinho is kind of like a rag -- it's explained below, since Carinhoso is a chorinho as well. The first movement is a fast, bird-like choro; the second is a melodious waltz; the third is a boisterous samba. The second movement in particular should quiet you critics that think I can't write melodies; it's one of the most beautiful things I've written. The movement titles are just colors -- the -inho ending is a diminutive, so the first movement is entitled Yellow Chorinho (with a diminutive yellow), the second, Black Choro (where "choro" rhymes with "ouro", gold, and Ouro Preto is the name of some city somewhere, maybe), and the third, Greenish Chorado (where -ado is the ending for the past participle). So not very meaningful, but very, very pretty!
Listen to Concerto de Choro - I - Chorinho Amarelinho (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - II - Choro Preto (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - III - Chorado Esverdeado (right-click to download)
Beren and Luthien
soprano, tenor, piano
This recording is missing the words. Beren and Luthien is a duet for soprano and tenor, accompanied by piano; the text is J. R. R. Tolkien's poem about Beren and Luthien Tinuviel sung by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. I finished it in June 2006 and started it in the summer of 2005. It was originally meant to be a duet for myself and someone else, but the someone else lost interest and the piece wasn't finished until I picked it up again the following summer. I revived it as a work dedicated to the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. It will hopefully be recorded one day by HRSFen. If that happens, I will post the live recording here, of course. If you will be in the Cambridge area and want to help me record this, email me.
The poem is nine stanzas long, with each stanza containing eight lines of iambic tetrameter. That's a lot. The melody, then, is sung about eighteen times, but it's different every time: the embellishments vary, the shape varies, the chords vary, the mode varies, etc. The piano part is mostly tonal, though not always, making this one of my first successful uses of atonal material. When listening to this, I recommend also reading along in the poem. There are no repeated lines, though occasionally the singer not singing the text will sing "Tinuviel!" or "Beren!". There is also little melisma, but almost every iamb is a full beat (eighth quarter) in 6/8, so the 16th notes in "ri-i-i-sing la-a-ark and fa-a-a-al-li-ing rain" are somewhat clear. This poem, by the way, can be found at this site.
Listen to Beren and Luthien (right-click to download)
This recording is missing the words. Beren and Luthien is a duet for soprano and tenor, accompanied by piano; the text is J. R. R. Tolkien's poem about Beren and Luthien Tinuviel sung by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. I finished it in June 2006 and started it in the summer of 2005. It was originally meant to be a duet for myself and someone else, but the someone else lost interest and the piece wasn't finished until I picked it up again the following summer. I revived it as a work dedicated to the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. It will hopefully be recorded one day by HRSFen. If that happens, I will post the live recording here, of course. If you will be in the Cambridge area and want to help me record this, email me.
The poem is nine stanzas long, with each stanza containing eight lines of iambic tetrameter. That's a lot. The melody, then, is sung about eighteen times, but it's different every time: the embellishments vary, the shape varies, the chords vary, the mode varies, etc. The piano part is mostly tonal, though not always, making this one of my first successful uses of atonal material. When listening to this, I recommend also reading along in the poem. There are no repeated lines, though occasionally the singer not singing the text will sing "Tinuviel!" or "Beren!". There is also little melisma, but almost every iamb is a full beat (eighth quarter) in 6/8, so the 16th notes in "ri-i-i-sing la-a-ark and fa-a-a-al-li-ing rain" are somewhat clear. This poem, by the way, can be found at this site.
Listen to Beren and Luthien (right-click to download)
A Day at the Fair for Keyboards
A treat for you! This set of works is performable only by computer. I plan to somehow release the sheet music so that anyone can attempt to perform it, but that's after I'm done writing it. (: So far I wrote only the movements you see here; I'll add more as I write them. My goal is about an hour's worth of short pieces, with maybe a long one or two, but nothing too complicated. Each movement is set for a different synthesized instrument or sets of instruments; the Intrada is for Hammond organ, the Serenade is for vibraphone, the Carnaval is for music box, the Primera Danza is for an electric piano sound, the Temple is for sitar and bass, and the Club Groove is for a synth "orchestra". I write this partly to celebrate the memory of the composer Gyorgy Ligeti, who passed away June 2006. His music was my first true introduction to modern music, and the first piece I heard -- Ramifications -- that made me really like minimalism. That piece was for 12 strings, 6 tuned a quarter step sharp.
A Day at the Fair is in that spirit -- it uses two sets of staves, one tuned a quarter step higher, to create micronotal music by MIDI. (: However, I don't treat them as separate voices in any way: melodies, harmonies, and everything all use quarter tones whenever I can fit them in. I'm writing this for two main reasons: the first is to learn to sing and become familiar with quarter steps, which have intrigued me for a while, and the second and more important is to find out what new harmonic and melodic possibilities exist with an expanded scale. One thing you will surely notice is that much sounds "out of tune". You can only really tell in chords, since the chord members don't have the expected relationships with each other. I often use the note between the major and the minor third for triads, which has an interesting neutral sound, and I flat the minor seventh of a dominant chord an additional quarter step (which brings it closer to, albeit on the other side of, the "natural" overtone seventh). Leading tones should be raised a quarter step to make them closer to the tonic. So a dominant 7th chord in C can be spelled (where d means half flat and t means half sharp) G Bt D Fd or G Bd D Fd. In the first case, the interval between the 3rd and 7th is a perfect 4th; in the second, a tritone. The normal 12-tone scale has a good solution for this that sounds fine, but in the 24-tone scale, these changes make it a bit odd. So I'm experimenting. One of the big problems is that the most important relationship, the fifth relationship, doesn't generate any quarter tones, so it doesn't bother anyone that these are normally missing -- to show you what I mean, 12 stacked fifths will take you from C to C, but if these are natural fifths, the final C will be 23 cents -- a quarter of a semitone, so an eighth tone -- sharp. That's not much. That interval (called a comma) will spoil unisons, but that's about it. Thirds will give you a quarter tone quite quickly, but our system of tonality is based almost entirely on the fifth, so that leaves little room for quarter tones. Therefore, fundamentally quarter-tonal melodies and harmonies are less intelligible to the ear. Hopefully this experiment will discover some pretty ones. (: Try the Serenade, for instance!
Listen to A Day at the Fair - I - Intrada (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - II - Serenade (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - III - Carnaval (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - IV - Primera Danza (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - V - Temple (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - VI - Club Groove (right-click to download)
A Day at the Fair is in that spirit -- it uses two sets of staves, one tuned a quarter step higher, to create micronotal music by MIDI. (: However, I don't treat them as separate voices in any way: melodies, harmonies, and everything all use quarter tones whenever I can fit them in. I'm writing this for two main reasons: the first is to learn to sing and become familiar with quarter steps, which have intrigued me for a while, and the second and more important is to find out what new harmonic and melodic possibilities exist with an expanded scale. One thing you will surely notice is that much sounds "out of tune". You can only really tell in chords, since the chord members don't have the expected relationships with each other. I often use the note between the major and the minor third for triads, which has an interesting neutral sound, and I flat the minor seventh of a dominant chord an additional quarter step (which brings it closer to, albeit on the other side of, the "natural" overtone seventh). Leading tones should be raised a quarter step to make them closer to the tonic. So a dominant 7th chord in C can be spelled (where d means half flat and t means half sharp) G Bt D Fd or G Bd D Fd. In the first case, the interval between the 3rd and 7th is a perfect 4th; in the second, a tritone. The normal 12-tone scale has a good solution for this that sounds fine, but in the 24-tone scale, these changes make it a bit odd. So I'm experimenting. One of the big problems is that the most important relationship, the fifth relationship, doesn't generate any quarter tones, so it doesn't bother anyone that these are normally missing -- to show you what I mean, 12 stacked fifths will take you from C to C, but if these are natural fifths, the final C will be 23 cents -- a quarter of a semitone, so an eighth tone -- sharp. That's not much. That interval (called a comma) will spoil unisons, but that's about it. Thirds will give you a quarter tone quite quickly, but our system of tonality is based almost entirely on the fifth, so that leaves little room for quarter tones. Therefore, fundamentally quarter-tonal melodies and harmonies are less intelligible to the ear. Hopefully this experiment will discover some pretty ones. (: Try the Serenade, for instance!
Listen to A Day at the Fair - I - Intrada (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - II - Serenade (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - III - Carnaval (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - IV - Primera Danza (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - V - Temple (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - VI - Club Groove (right-click to download)
The Mask of the Elven King
Full Band
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
To Sepharad (Full Band)
Full Band
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
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