Ideas, ideas

What am I listening to? Kayo Dot and Ravel

The three pieces I've worked on for class are done, bound, and handed in. I feel good about having them done on time - I usually have a bit of trouble ending things in a way that I'm happy with.

Writing for large ensemble is the next challenge. I feel most comfortable writing for choir and chamber groups. I think for choir this is because I can sing each individual part and in the case for SSAA writing, in their proper ranges. I also tend to write horizontally for these smaller groups - the melodic lines create an incidental harmony. I feel like a harmonic structure is more important for a group like concert band, although I can't say exactly why I think so!

I showed two roughly 50 second sketches to class; one is very "safe" and has a folky feel, while the other is more unpredictable. In truth, I'm happy with neither of them. I may start again, which is common for me - I usually have a few false starts when it comes to big ensemble pieces, although usually snippets of previous versions make the cut. For example, I make take the bass melody from the second piece.

I was thinking about how programmatic music is usually very helpful for both the audience and author  - listening for the audience, and coherence in writing for the author. With that reflection, that may be the direction I go with this piece. Today in  class (and in a recent blog post) Dr. Ross mentioned polystylism. That gave me this idea: The Tower of Babel.  According to Biblical mythology, when the people built it, they all spoke one language. After its destruction, they were scattered and turned to different races with different languages.

What does this mean for a piece called The Tower of Babel? It means that in its building, the language of the piece (harmonic, melodic, whatever) would be unified. There could be the 'theme of the people.' This would likely be Bb pentatonic - accessible for band, and if  Bobby McFerrin is to be believed, the pentatonic scale can be sung by anyone. Then, whatever I use to signify the building come begin to appear in the lower voices - growing high and higher and nearer to the sky. There are versions where the tower is not destroyed, but I would take the one where it was destroyed by a great wind. The bass voices would come in first, followed by the tenor voices, ect. Then a fall, a descent, much more frenzied than the gradual building. And the fall, of course, would end with a "gibberish" of voices - they are no longer unified or understandable to each other. The brass are playing a chorale, the upper woodwinds are planing quintal harmonies, the reeds are playing something atonal. That sounds silly when I write it out but I think if it was all hushed and melted into one another, it would make sense. We'll see.