Music
A Few Words About How I Write Rounds
Saturday/December/2009 11:04 AM Filed in:
Music
The Truth
I wanted the first half's words to be on one note, like an affirmation, a promise that was easy to sing. That repeating note was so simple melodically that I needed to change the chord in the second bar (iv) for interest. So the progression became I iv I I. I wanted a two-part round, so that became the chord progress for the second half of the words. Second half melody: The first half was only on one note, so I needed skips and steps and movement in the next part. I love oblique motion: one voice repeating a note and the other voice moving up and down. Singing the flat seven on "how" was juicy, and then the minor sixth on "BEAUtiful" was exotic since the next I chord was major, and then it was done.
Tango Tonight
Written last June for Becky Reardon, I played a couple guitar chords that I thought she would like and a little melody popped out of my mouth for the first half of the piece. The second half provided chord variations as if I were writing an instrumental tango. The melodies and words had several incarnations before settling into their current identity. Becky helped me with one word: I had written "The moon is bright." Yuk. She suggested "The moon is right." And instantly I am in a conversation with the moon, and there is a back story one can wonder about. So shortly into the process, the chord progression was set and the second and third voices had to follow that and be either homophonic or polyphonic with the other voices (a brief duet in thirds or sixths, perhaps, with the same rhythm, or some notes to sing when the others voices are not singing, etc.)
Put Everything In Order
Read the sentences I wanted to set to music over and over. Sat down at the piano and sang the first (of four) melodies with accompaniment. Liked it. Kept the chord progression and then worked and worked to find three other melodies that were in different parts of the scale with complementary rhythms . . . melodies that sounded nice together.
Being Awake
"Set the clock of your heart" had to be the drum/alarm clock. "Breathe in the dawn..." wanted to be a floating fifth above that, light, simple, like breath. "Raise high the chalice of your life..." needed more intervalic variety because of the meaning of the words, physically toasting by lifting your arm and the glass. Because the first two voices were mostly on the root and fifth, the third voice was a little above them and then between them. I crafted a short duet between the first and third voices (parallel thirds). "It's the best medicine of all..." needed to go way on top. I loved the crisp rhythm sung on "Being awake," so I wrote a coda with all four parts converging on those words and that rhythm, singing different pitches for a full chord.
Computer notation software (I currently use Sibelius 6) really helped me write "An Irish Blessing." Very fun to see and hear the four voices all together and tweak and tweak and tweak.
I wanted the first half's words to be on one note, like an affirmation, a promise that was easy to sing. That repeating note was so simple melodically that I needed to change the chord in the second bar (iv) for interest. So the progression became I iv I I. I wanted a two-part round, so that became the chord progress for the second half of the words. Second half melody: The first half was only on one note, so I needed skips and steps and movement in the next part. I love oblique motion: one voice repeating a note and the other voice moving up and down. Singing the flat seven on "how" was juicy, and then the minor sixth on "BEAUtiful" was exotic since the next I chord was major, and then it was done.
Tango Tonight
Written last June for Becky Reardon, I played a couple guitar chords that I thought she would like and a little melody popped out of my mouth for the first half of the piece. The second half provided chord variations as if I were writing an instrumental tango. The melodies and words had several incarnations before settling into their current identity. Becky helped me with one word: I had written "The moon is bright." Yuk. She suggested "The moon is right." And instantly I am in a conversation with the moon, and there is a back story one can wonder about. So shortly into the process, the chord progression was set and the second and third voices had to follow that and be either homophonic or polyphonic with the other voices (a brief duet in thirds or sixths, perhaps, with the same rhythm, or some notes to sing when the others voices are not singing, etc.)
Put Everything In Order
Read the sentences I wanted to set to music over and over. Sat down at the piano and sang the first (of four) melodies with accompaniment. Liked it. Kept the chord progression and then worked and worked to find three other melodies that were in different parts of the scale with complementary rhythms . . . melodies that sounded nice together.
Being Awake
"Set the clock of your heart" had to be the drum/alarm clock. "Breathe in the dawn..." wanted to be a floating fifth above that, light, simple, like breath. "Raise high the chalice of your life..." needed more intervalic variety because of the meaning of the words, physically toasting by lifting your arm and the glass. Because the first two voices were mostly on the root and fifth, the third voice was a little above them and then between them. I crafted a short duet between the first and third voices (parallel thirds). "It's the best medicine of all..." needed to go way on top. I loved the crisp rhythm sung on "Being awake," so I wrote a coda with all four parts converging on those words and that rhythm, singing different pitches for a full chord.
Computer notation software (I currently use Sibelius 6) really helped me write "An Irish Blessing." Very fun to see and hear the four voices all together and tweak and tweak and tweak.