David
Rowbory
About • Work • Software • Music • Writing • Photos • Events • Links • Fun
music > Figure of Eight Programme Notes
Higher Music Invention:
Figure of Eight -- Program Notes
An imaginative minimalist figure for eight instruments
Listen
|
Usual
instruments: |
|
Background
In this piece, I decided to try my hand at a more modern 'classical' style of music and saw it as an opportunity to investigate further the methods of minimalist composition which were initially completely unfamiliar to me. The influence of Steve Reich's music is probably apparent since I spent a great deal of time listening to various CDs and reading his commentaries on his experiments in minimalist styles of composition. In particular I found his 'Three Movements' very relevant and helpful in understanding how to apply the ideals of minimalism where simple ideas are repeated and played off against each other with little development.
I aimed to produce a moving texture of music on which many similar themes being played on different instruments could be built. Gradual changes would be made all the time to keep the texture of the music varying. Generally, I took a fairly simple ostinato or fragment of a tune &emdash; perhaps even a rhythm &emdash; and introduced it simply at first before letting other instruments imitate and vary it. Ideally, a truly minimalist composition should have only 1 or 2 themes at the most and should be able to sustain variations of these for some time, but I felt happier with more similar themes and a fairly short length for development.
There were many ways I found of varying a simple theme, including changing the rhythm or timing of the figure while keeping the notes (pitches) constant, or the opposite - changing the notes while keeping rhythm constant. Also changing instruments and dynamics to develop different textures and changing the general feeling of speed (whether this is actually reflected in a tempo change or whether it is an illusion created by changing rhythms).
One technique I liked to use was to appear to speed up the music just by diminishing the lengths of the notes in some instruments. This effect is used several times in the piece. Also, moving the accents onto different notes can significantly change the effect while rhythm and pitch stays constant. Other similar subtle techniques were used to keep the music changing while on the whole making these changes fairly unobtrusive to the listener.
Structure
The piece has 2 sections with no noticeable gap between them. The first is, in about 1 minute, a gradual swelling of sound built on 2 themes which are mentioned again later in the piece. From the opening pulsating beat, the pianos form a moving texture on which tuba, trumpet and flute build and play against each other. Tuba generally provides a solid bass with trumpet and flute playing out the main themes.
Just at the climax of the first section, the cellos start a very quiet, almost imperceptible pulsating bass on which the new timbre of a clarinet in its lowest register can enter, again almost imperceptibly. Clarinet and flute slowly rise, playing against each other &emdash; sometimes separated in rhythm, sometimes a third apart &emdash; before allowing a piano to enter with an ostinato which is suggested first by the cellos. Two of the cellos gradually fade out from now on as clarinet and flute rise to begin the main set of thematic variations. The second piano enters gradually during this, with snippets of its quick counter-ostinato before launching into its quick scaler runs and the main part is ready to begin.
The flute briefly mentions a theme which the clarinet immediately picks up. Clarinet and flute in thirds are joined by the trumpet and then tuba with piano sometimes echoing some of the 'melody' line. The remaining cello adds a slower, more solid, rhythmic bass line with a rhythm similar to the first piano which serves to anchor down the higher-register pianos and woodwind. All the conflicting parts come together for the moment when there is a sudden change of key from E minor (or more correctly, just based on E) to a key based on G major.
In this brief G major section the texture is quite dense and it is almost a relief when the flute turns the melody back to E major. However this starts a whole chain of modulations each time going up a minor 3rd (the notes of a diminished 7th arpeggio based on E) which builds up to the final climax. At the end of the piece the instruments play a quick irregular rhythm, coming together to end quite suddenly with a solid chord based around the note E.
Role of Computers in the Composition
I have a great interest in computers and so was keen to experiment with composing the piece entirely on computer using the resources available at school. I mostly used Cubase Score on an Apple Performa 630 interfaced to a synthesiser. This involved teaching myself how to use the Cubase package and I learnt a great deal about what sort of things computers are useful for in helping musical composition.
The great advantage I found over more traditional methods of composition, even using an electric keyboard, was the ability to play in a melody or even tiny parts of one and see it displayed in a score, ready for instant playback and editing. This was particularly useful in my style of minimalist composition where similar themes could be repeated many times and often only required small adjustments. Notes could simply be copied and pasted wherever I wanted them. As the piece became more complicated, I could review my work &emdash; playing up to nine parts at once &emdash; after every change to ensure I achieved the effect I desired.
Problems Experienced
As yet the piece has not been recorded completely acoustically since, in its complexity, it requires a relatively large group (8) of a variety of musicians of good ability. Particular problems which would be faced in performing this piece live would be trying to ensure that all the timing worked properly, since the coordination of parts is very complex at times (particularly towards the end) and requires a great deal of concentration. Naturally, a computer is excellent at reproducing the sorts of things humans find difficult, like timing amidst conflicting sounds and I found the computer recording I made worked well. However, computers cannot adequately simulate the group interaction and variation in dynamics and tempo that humans can easily handle.
One possible partial solution might be to set up a group of synthesisers with people controlling just the volume with the midi data already programmed in. This would work best for the piano parts and possibly the cellos, but the clarinet, flute, tuba and trumpet parts would all sound best played acoustically.
As far as the sound quality of the recording is concerned, recording directly off a computer or synthesiser is likely to give more accurate sound quality with less interference or noise which might occur in a live recording. In fact I found when I played the midi file at home on my Macintosh computer, it could give better quality sound (full stereo CD quality, using Apple QuickTime 2.5) than using a specialist synthesiser. Unfortunately quality was lost in recording the sound output to tape due to the quality of the tape recorder.
© David Rowbory 2004 Report a problem