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Message Guide To the Interdisciplinary Compositional Process A Pedagogical research project by Soren Moller, The Royal Academy of Music, Denmark 2024.

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How To Use The Guide To The Interdisciplinary Compositional Process ............................................... 4 The Different Layers of Composition ...................................................................................... 5 Music For 18 Musicians..................................................................................................... 6 Starting to Think Differently ................................................................................................ 9 Layer One – The Engine .................................................................................................. 10 A Simple Approach To The Engine ...................................................................................... 10 Engines Inspired By “Clave Like” Patterns .............................................................................. 11 Engines Orchestrated with Common-tones and Pentatonic Motifs .................................................... 15 Engine with Continued and Juxtaposed Rhythms ...................................................................... 19 Harmony .................................................................................................................. 22 Modal Interchange ....................................................................................................... 23 Common Tone Harmony ................................................................................................. 25 Chromatic Mediants ...................................................................................................... 27 Stacking Thirds ........................................................................................................... 30 Jamming The Tenth ...................................................................................................... 31 Fratres ..................................................................................................................... 33 Jamming the Sixth ........................................................................................................ 35 Chromatic Harmony ...................................................................................................... 37 Melody .................................................................................................................... 41 Generating Melodic Material ............................................................................................ 45 Canon ..................................................................................................................... 47 Mensuration Canon ...................................................................................................... 50 Canon in the Engine ...................................................................................................... 52 Orchestrated Electronics ................................................................................................. 54 Delay ...................................................................................................................... 55 Reverb ..................................................................................................................... 58 Shimmer .................................................................................................................. 59 Distortion ................................................................................................................. 60 Stutter Effect .............................................................................................................. 62 Filtering ................................................................................................................... 63 Closing Remarks .......................................................................................................... 64

How To Use The Guide To The Interdisciplinary Compositional Process The Guide To The Interdisciplinary Compositional Process is like a box of tools and inspirational ideas used for composition in any genre. The ideas and thoughts presented in the guide comes from my daily teachings in composition at the rhythmic department of the Royal Academy of Music. Here I teach students from beginners to advanced levels in the joys of being a composer and how they work with their own compositions on a daily basis. In recent years, the development of personal artistic expressions, have played a more significant role at the Danish conservatories in various genres. Therefore, it has been my privilege to develop a compositional teaching system that lends itself to as many expressions as possible and to convey these ideas to a wide stylistic range of students. To use the Guide To The Interdisciplinary Compositional Process we need to think of interdisciplinary music as inspirational textures and techniques that can be applied to the material the student is working on at that moment. An endless World of possibilities where the individual composer through the consideration of available instruments and emotions involved will find the most suitable way to express the message of the work. We are not looking for traditional theory behind the notes and harmonies. Instead, we are looking for texture techniques that can inspire us as composers to create a more interesting, challenging, and diverse music. The examples are short and not functioning as an analysis in a traditional sense. Instead, they work as a spark of inspiration giving us ideas and thoughts about how we can develop our own expression in our compositions. Many of the techniques has already been heard in many compositions throughout the music history. The Guide To The Interdisciplinary Compositional Process is thought of as a bank of ideas that can be used in any way the student wants. It can be anything from a good starting point to a supplement to more serious compositional studies. Composing means “Put Together”. When we start to think like composers, we will also start to think about various terms like texture. In this context a texture means an overall sound. Like a Hymn, a Canon, or a rhythmic drone accompaniment for a melody and so on. Each time we decide on a specific technique for putting the notes together we also reach a specific texture. The different textures can help us to create other elements that a composer thinks of. Things like Contrast and Variation. When we compose, we also take control over what the musicians will be playing and what the audience will hear and experience as our composition.

The Different Layers of Composition To work with the various ideas in our process, a good starting point is to view our compositional material on both a micro and a macro level. To develop our ability to “zoom in” and “zoom out” as we work on different aspects of the composition from the larger Form to tiny details. Being able to switch focus and zoom in and out of details can help us move forward in the compositional process without being stuck and can create much more interesting compositions that reflect the intention and fundamental ideas going into the composition. To help directing our focus we can think of the composition as different layers to focus on. For a start, we can divide the composition into a Foreground, a Middle-ground and a Background. Traditionally these spaces would be occupied by Melody, Harmony and Rhythm, but as we will experience later, we can think about these layers in a much broader sense. Foreground can be anything you want the listener to pay attention to at any particular moment. What was Foreground in the beginning of the composition can later show up as a background and vice versa. In this way we can think about the different layers as textures that will return many times during a composition. Often with small variations as we move forward in the composition.

Music For 18 Musicians Intro: 11 Harmonies Sec. 1 Harm 1 Sec. 2 Harm 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Outro: 11 Harmonies A straightforward way to think about this could be Steve Reich famous Minimalist composition “Music For 18 Musicians”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u70iVBgZMfM In the beginning of his work Steve Reich presents to the listener a swift walk through the 11 harmonies that makes up the composition. The harmonies are in the Foreground. In the score we see the full ensemble taking part in presenting the 11 harmonies. Below you see how harmony number 2 is voiced in the ensemble.

After this introduction, Reich takes us through 11 short moments with classic “Reichian” repetitive figures and pulses – one on each harmony. Here the development of the figures and how they vary are our focus point. The harmony has moved to the Middle Ground and the figures are now in the Foreground. In the score we see the figures in voices and clarinets. The Background is occupied by the pulsating eighth-note rhythm from the pianos and marimbas.

This way of thinking helps the composer to understand that once there is a basic form (See picture of Music For 18 Musicians Form) the smaller details can be worked out in any order. You do not have to compose from beginning to end. It can be whatever is inspirational to you that day. And as you compose the different elements think about the fact that it can be used for much more in the composition than the Melody or the Harmony it is right at the creation.

Starting to Think Differently To give another short example of how your thoughts can help to spark ideas – The Danish composer Per Nørgaard tells a story about a talk he had with the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In his 7th Symphony, Sibelius had used the pitches Eb-G-Bb-D. For most Jazz composers, these pitches make up an EbM7 chord. As a harmony it would belong to the Middle Ground and the composer would be ready to compose a Foreground melody following the Ionian or Lydian scales that suits this chord. But for Jean Sibelius it was not a Jazz chord. It was two Major 3rds placed a Minor 3rd apart. A mirroring interval. Now this opens a whole new avenue of melodic and harmonic ideas. Unrelated to Jean Sibelius and just on an ideas level we can now create chords of any interval mirrored a minor 3rd or some other interval apart. The chords do not have to have any names, instead it is harmony based on intervallic structures and Inversion and the possibilities are endless. On the melodic subject we also have an enormous amount of possibilities. Both with our ideas of intervals and inversion, but we can also combine the Major and Minor 3rds into new scales and cells. A pitch cell like Eb-F#-G that holds both a Minor and Major 3rd remind us of textures used by Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Bela Bartok and many more. In this way thinking in layers and zooming gives us a new set of “glasses” that we can use to create original ideas inspired by tradition.

Layer One – The Engine “The Engine” is a “home-made” term that does not exist in traditional textbooks on composition. But here “The Engine” basically means everything that moves the composition forward. Traditionally in Rock, Pop and Jazz this has been the role of the drums and percussion. But as Interdisciplinary composers we will start to think more broadly about the subject and look at various types of textures that will emerge when “The Engine” is orchestrated into other instruments than the drums. In this way, we can help rhythmic composers to view a traditional “Alberti Bass” as something that also drives the music forward and show us the rhythm. The drums do not have to be present at all. A Simple Approach To The Engine We will start the subject on Engine with a quite simple idea. In Hans Zimmer’s famous composition “Journey To The Line” from the Motion Picture “The Thin Red Line” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpEIoBnQsKs A simple pulsating eighth-note figure creates a contrasting fast layer to a slow moving and slowly developing melody. Orchestrated with great variation in the Woodwinds, col-legno strings and percussion the Engine figure provides a great contrast to the expressive arco string ensemble. This span between fast and slow helps to set the scene for the very expressive and slowly developing low string melody. As more and more strings join, in an orchestrated crescendo, the drama heightens

as we experience the slow development of the composition much stronger in contrast with the fast-moving Engine. You can find almost endless amounts of compositions based on this simple idea of rhythmic elements set against each other. The translation of the word Counterpoint is “Note against Note” and here Hans Zimmer creates a version of that with “Rhythm against Rhythm” “Fast against Slow”. In the Swedish pianist and composer Henrik Lindstrand’s composition Enghave Lys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbRs2krHm0M a steady eighth-note rhythm alternating between a tonic pitch A and its fifth E (with small variations) creates an Engine for a beautiful bass melody harmonized at the interval of a tenth. The melody staying in the key of A Major has a folkloric texture that is both helped and contrasted with the drone-like Engine between the A-E figure. In Darcy James Argue’s award winning big band composition Transit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ERsVuTAkaw a drone-like clave figure on the D octave is set up as a contrast to a slow three part hymn. The composition has many parts as each element is presented on their own before the clave figure drives the music forward through improvisations and developmental ideas. Looking at the Engine we see how it consists of two parts played in each octave on the note D. Together the two parts create an intriguing rhythm with energy and drive. This idea, that the Engine itself can have more layers so interesting an intriguing to the ears that the Engine itself becomes a composition, is something we will look at later. Engines Inspired By “Clave Like” Patterns The amount of complexity in the Engine has an influence on the attention of the listener. The more complexity the less attention we have for other details of the composition. Where Hans Zimmer and Henrik Lindstrand made use of a simple rhythmic idea, Darcy James Argue had a more “clave-like” Engine. How these clave ideas are related to culture and tradition is not something we will concern ourselves with here. Instead, we will look at how we can create our own claves and use these as Engines for our own compositions.

For this method to develop our own original Engine we will think about a clave as a repetitive accentuated rhythm. Having the accents on the quarter-notes or eighth-notes as we have seen with Henrik Lindstrand and Hans Zimmer will create a very simple Engine leaving space for other details in the music. At the other end of the spectrum an Engine can be so complex that nothing else is needed in our composition. Lets start to put the pieces together. Let us briefly look at this snippet of the rhythmic aspect of the Bulgarian Folk Tune Dilmano Dilbero. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H88ouU2NGU First, we observe a repeated time signature in 8/16 going to a 11/16 figure. When we zoom in, we see that the 8/16 are accentuated as 2 + 3 + 3 (=8) and the 11/16 are grouped into 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 (=11). To hear the clave we will clap the figure. On the 2 we will clap on 1 and on the 3 we will clap on 1 and 3. This gives us a clave that sounds like 1-2-1-2-3-1-2-3. For the moment we focus on the sound of the rhythm. The 11/16 clave will then be 1-2-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3. From Central Europe we jump to the Middle East and find some compelling grooves by the Israeli bass player and composer Avishai Cohen. In our fragment of his composition Emotional Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JURBuEQA1sM we see a clear 2 + 3 pattern repeated twice over a 5/4 meter. Now the 5/4 meter acts as a second layer so 2+3 and 5/4 are two layers co-existing creating an energetic, driving Engine.

A similar idea is used in the composition Dreaming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EeyPJZ0ojU. Here we have a 13/8 time signature divided into a 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 segment. Looking at the alternate notated version we can see how the accents are divided between the two parts much like Darcy James Argues Transit clave. When we look at the original 13/8 notation of the clave we see that the complementary rhythm is switched so the rhythm of the treble clef moves to the bass clef every second bar. A great comprehensive way to extend the rhythm. With this knowledge, we can now produce an endless amount of clave like rhythmic Engines based on any set of numbers we can think of. All we must do is to listen for our accents. Are we creating the kind of drive we want and how simple or complex do we want the clave to be? To give an example of how easy this is, I will create a clave-like rhythm based on the first two numbers of my phone number. 2 and 9. For the clave to happen I need these numbers to relate to 2 + 3 in some way. The two is already given and for the 9-part, I will decide to make it a 3 + 2 + 2 + 2. My clave will then be 1-2-1-2-3-1-2-1-2-1-2. Putting the numbers together I now have a clave in 11/8. The 11/8 clave is fine, but I decide to add an extra layer to the clave and fit it into a 3/2 or 12/8 time signature (look at example). Now I’m happy with my clave based on the first two ciphers of my phone number. After creating my clave, I can start to think about in what ways variations to my clave could be used

later in my composition. For some basic ideas, I could think about my original pattern 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2. The number 3 can be moved around – maybe into a 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2, which is similar to the previous Avishai Cohen example. It could also be, that the numbers no longer represent a rhythmic entity, but instead becomes parts in my form. A 2 could mean 8 bars and a 3 would then be 12 bars. It could also represent phrases and I could create a 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 phrase. This would be a palindromic pattern that could also point towards a Rondo Form being A B A C A B A. In this way, what started as a simple clave based on a phone number now starts to take shape in all aspects of my compositional idea. How the numbers start to relate to rhythm, the number of bars and the Form is also what is meant with zooming in and out as described in the beginning.

Engines Orchestrated with Common-tones and Pentatonic Motifs We will now start to look at the Engine as a repeated rhythmic pattern of notes. This pattern can both be used as a steady layer of a larger composition where other layers add textures that variates the sound of the pattern, but the pattern can also undergo its own development and become a composition. Steve Reich Nagoya Marimba is such a composition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtt7qO9160I. Steve Reich is one of the founders of the American classical genre Minimalism. His style is known for repetitive rhythmic figures, canons, pulses and an “add-on” technique to create development in his figures. Steve Reich has travelled to West Africa and is inspired by the rhythms he encountered there. These are some of the elements we will look for, when researching how Steve Reich created Nagoya Marimba and how we can use this knowledge to create our own compositions.

Looking at marimba 1 in the first bar of Nagoya Marimba we see that the notes make up an E-minor pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale consists of five stacked fifth, which is an open interval and this gives the beginning of the piece an open texture. The pentatonic scale is also a common scale in folkloric music in many parts of the World. Looking at the rhythm of marimba 1 in the first bars we start to understand why this composition has an African title and flavour. The rhythm is based on the Afro-Clave which is one of the oldest rhythms in music history, a rhythm, that has travelled the World and is also a core part of Latin American rhythms. One of the specialities of this rhythm is that it can be understood in both a 12/8 (4/4 triplet) meter and a 6/4 (3/2) meter. This duality is also a core element in many other genres inspired by the Afro Clave and is a core theory in the understanding of Jazz rhythm. Returning to the first bar of Nagoya Marimba we see that Steve Reich has altered the Afro Clave to create his own 16thnote subdivided rhythm in 4/4 meter. Looking at the explanatory sheet below, we see that the first 3 beats of Nagoya Marimba are actually an exact copy of the Afro Clave Rhythm notated with a 16thnote subdivision (double speed of the 6/4 8th note subdivision on the sheet). In other words; Steve Reich has used the original rhythm and then added a beat of 16th notes to create a 4/4 clave that is both highly original, but also rooted in tradition. The first 3 beats have the duality, that the rhythm can be understood both with the 16th note subdivision and as a triplet-based figure, while the last and 4th beat can only be understood as a 16th note element. This creates a constant “in and out of - duality” both rooted in tradition and completely new, that

keeps the figure interesting for the listener over a longer period in the Form. By altering the beat in a personal way Steve Reich also shows the purpose of this paper. He takes inspiration from a well-known and documented rhythm and changes it into his own personal expression. Marimba 2 is slowly introduced with a few notes. As more notes are added we then, by cipher 11, understand that marimba 2 is a canon at the unison three 8th notes apart from marimba 1. Before cipher 11 marimba 2 is introduced with the famous add-on technique that Steve Reich has used in many of his compositions as a developing structure. By cipher 11 the full canon is in place and the first element of the composition is ready to be developed. To finish what could be called the A section of the composition Steve Reich makes a quick shift in the canon at cipher 19 where the canon becomes a canon at the unison three 16th notes apart. This completely alters the accents of the melodic motive and works as a short transition towards, what could be called, the B section of the composition. Here new notes are introduced to create more exotic scales, the pitch-range is expanded both higher and lower and the canon is moved around. We will leave Steve Reich Nagoya Marimba here and instead return to ourselves as composers. As we just experienced Steve Reich used a well-known rhythm and added a beat to establish a personal and original Engine for his composition. There are open ended possibilities to make this kind of personalisation of familiar material. Here I will show one that also has a fun anecdote to go along with it. In the dawn of music history, the Afro-Clave rhythm travelled from the Yoruba culture in Nigeria to the Caribbean Islands through Slavery. Here the rhythm became the ground material for the Latin 3-2 clave widely known in the Latin American genres. A funny anecdote from Cuba tells the story, that it was the 3-2 clave that laid the groundwork for the invention of the piano. The 3-2 clave has five accents just like the piano has 5 black keys. Furthermore, the original Yoruba Rhythm (as we have seen) has a 12/8 feel, just like the piano has 12 steps to the octave. Starting on the note F#, playing eight-notes , each black key becomes an accent that creates a rhythm remarkably close to the Afro-Clave. Now taking this anecdote into account and with the personalization of already known material as seen with Steve Reich in mind, we can now think about the piano as a representation of the Afro-Clave rhythm. Starting on F# we get the exact rhythm but starting on any other note we get a new and personal rhythm – 12 rhythms in total, one from each key. Which set of accents do you like the best?

Think about Nagoya Marimba and how Steve Reich added a beat to compose a personal Engine. Just like Reich you can also add a beat and you can place that beat wherever you want! In this way this short little anecdote creates endless possibilities and your possibility to have, not an Afro – Clave Engine, but your own personal and original Engine! We end this chapter on “Engines”, with looking at the fusion band Portico Quartet and their composition Opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdnHyaBHwW4 . As we can hear when listening to the track, this composition too is based on an Engine with few variations. Looking at the notated sheet below we see an Engine that consists of an arpeggiated element that follows a 5/16th groove over a 4/4 beat layer in the drums. Mathematically, the arpeggiated figure will repeat after 5 beats and the drum rhythm will repeat after 4 beats. This tension with the arpeggio crossing the 4/4-meter bar line of the drumbeat can keep this Engine interesting for the listener for quite a while. Through the section, the notes go through small variations but always following the Ab-lydian scale. In this way the four notes are common tones to any root from the same Ab-Lydian scale. The Portico Quartet uses this idea to create a very slow-moving bass line that constantly “shine a new light” on the arpeggio by suggesting the arpeggio as part of a new harmony derived from the Ab-Lydian scale. This creates a contrast between a steady rhythmic Engine and a free-flowing bass line, something strict versus something loose. Yet again, the thinking and efficiency of contrast and variation. Later in the composition the drumbeat vanishes and becomes a “four on the floor” type of beat, while the arpeggio continues in a varied version. This creates a feeling of fading in and out of the three elements that makes up this composition. A technique that is highly used in electronic music.

Engine with Continued and Juxtaposed Rhythms The possibilities for creating Engines are endless and really a matter of decisions from the composer. Therefore, we can also find endless compositions making different use of Engines and hopefully these compositions can help us to get ideas as to how to make our own Engine. In the Brazilian composer Marcos Balter’s piano composition Dream Catcher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-JkbCcbCr8&t=88s, we see a 16th note organisation of a cluster chord with the notes (F#, G, A, B). The left hand is alternating between the notes F# and G a rhythmic Engine in 2/16th, while the right hand performs varied repetitive figure with groupings of 16th notes. Every once in a while, and also in the beginning of the composition we hear a left-hand variation of notes functioning both as a variation, but also like a “call” for a new section. This is similar to the role of the vibraphone in Steve Reich Music For 18 Musicians, that also “calls out” each of the 11 chords. Here in Marcus Balter’s composition we just have one cluster chord throughout, and the development of the composition is based on an expansion and then contraction of the four intervals, before the composition fades out by subtracting notes from the ground figure. Dreamcatcher is interesting for its Minimalist elements. We do not get variation through new harmonic roots or an added slow contrasting melody. Instead, Marcus Balter sticks to his pitch material and takes us through various groupings of 3/16th, 4/16th and 5/16th. Try to follow the top F# notes in the treble clef and see if you can hear the groupings. We will end the subject of the Engine with an example from the Minimalist piano repertoire, by looking at American composer John Adams composition China Gates. Composed in 1977, China Gates is a sophisticated almost palindromic composition reflecting the rain season in California. It is also a fitting example for us to help our understanding of how the Engine as a basis idea for driving the movement of a composition can develop to become the composition itself. For a larger explanation of the Form and Harmony of the composition I will recommend this YouTube analysis that lays out many interesting details about the structure of the composition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ3hEjlwn7o&t=590s Here we will look at the driving force behind the Engine aspect of the composition. In China Gates, each harmonic change is marked by a low Ab/G# played in the bass registrar of the piano.

The sustain pedal is held throughout and the bass note is placed far away from the actual faster moving Engine. The bass note becomes a slow/steady contrast to the fast-moving Engine and with the sustain pedal it functions as a low resonance through each section of the composition. Looking at the higher registrar Engine we see that the Engine consists of a rhythmic counterpoint. Our top line is an arpeggio grouped into 3 + 4 notes, a 7/8 figure notated in a 4/4 meter. Looking at the left-hand figure we see a 2 + 3 + 2, which is also a 7/8 figure, but starting on the 3rd eight-note in the bar. The different organisation of the groupings creates different accents that create a tension or driving element. Here in the beginning of the composition the groupings are both 7/8 in a canon, but as the composition develops the Engine will undergo many changes and variations where the shifting accents becomes a driving force of the structure. Jumping to page 7 of China Gates we see a new set of groupings creating accents. At this moment, our left-hand arpeggio is playing a grouping of 4 + 3, again 7/8 while our right hand is playing a grouping of 3 + 3, which is 6/8. A new variation of the accents has emerged. China Gate is based on 4 harmonies going through a specific almost palindromic scheme. Each time the harmony changes the bass resonance is restated, and the groupings change. Where the outer parts have more simple groupings the middle section has a peak in terms of complexity in the Engine. The way these rhythmic accents develop with the change of groupings is an important and defining element in the composition. It is also an idea that easily lends itself to us as composers as we compose our own arpeggios and find our own rhythmic counterpoint to create accents with a drive.

As we have experienced through the examples, working with the Engine can lead to a powerful energetic background for contrasting melodic statements, but the Engine and the process of the Engine can also stand alone as its own composition.

Harmony The subject of harmony and voice leading has been heavily covered in textbooks throughout the history of music. Here, we will keep our focus on creating a basket of ideas and look at methods that can generate chord progressions and harmonic textures for our compositions. Whether we are setting up a group of harmonies for our Engine to pass through or composing a pop song, the harmony is a defining element of a composition and how the composition is perceived. So let us get started with exploring the harmonic playground. According to Wikipedia “Homophony is a musical texture based primarily on chords”. So, as we begin to look at different ideas on how to create chord progressions, we consider this as an element of the homophonic texture. This means that all music, where the melody is accompanied by chords, from pop to jazz to hymns is homophonic. The basic chord theory comes from the overtone series. A balanced triad consists of the first 5 notes in the series and the root position triad comes from notes 4, 5 and 6 with the fundamental as the root. Once we have established the triad, we also see that triads are connected to scales by stacking the interval of a third. In this way we can create a triad on each step of any scale, so that the Major or Minor scale consists of 7 triads. Major Scale.

Minor Scale. From these triads we can start to create chord progressions. Transposed to our C Major scale above, we see that the verse of Billie Eilish’s famous song Ocean Eyes uses the chord progression F to G to Am and a tail of F to C to Am. In this way the song is in the same key throughout without any modulations. Many songs are built on progressions that uses some or all the 7 chords from the Major or Minor scale. Modal Interchange Modulating between Major and Minor or using chords from the Minor mode in the Major mode is called Modal Interchange. Modal Interchange can create some very adventurous chord progressions and help to keep the progression ambiguous. Let us look at both. Chords from Major (C, Dm, F, G, Am) Chords from Minor (Cm, Eb, Fm, Ab, Bb) This example is quite long and reflects on the sound of the Modal Interchange as well as demonstrating the effect of the bass line, which can be any of the notes represented in the triad. In rhythmic music, progressions are usually a much shorter entity, that can be looped endlessly to create an exciting harmonic background for a song. But the length of a progression can also be used as a variation between a verse and a chorus.

In Arianna Grande’s No Tears Left to Cry, the song starts with a chorus presenting almost all the triads from the A Minor tonality. First, we hear a repeated figure of Am – G – F, followed by a concluding C – Dm – Am and a transitional C chord. 5 out of 7 chords from the scale. Now, in contrast the verse just has 3 chords starting on the A Major chord and then staying in the A Minor mode with the chords F – G. The A Major chord is the Modal Interchange and because of the surprise element of this chord drawn from outside of the A Minor tonality we can listen to the song over and over and be puzzled by this surprise every time we listen. From Modal Interchange we move towards a more freely harmonization of our chord progressions. The goal is to find and compose interesting chord progressions within a texture that relates to the mood of our song or the atmosphere of the lyrics we are working with. At the same time, the use of a specific method creates a context for the harmonies to exist in, that invites the listener to experience our story or mood as composers.

Common Tone Harmony In our next example the triads are related by a common tone. This means that one of the three notes from the previous triad will have to be represented in the current triad and so furth. In this way the chord progressions can become very adventurous and draw from many different tonalities, yet at the same time the chords are coherently connected through the common tone. Let us look at an example. In this example the common tones are: C – E (CT is E) E – Am (CT is E) Am – F (CT is A) F – C# (CT is F) C# - F# (CT is C#) F# - B (CT is F#) B – G (CT is B) G – C (CT is G) A lot of fun and surprising chord progressions can come from this method. If the common tone is kept at the same position in the staff a lot of stepwise voice leading also emerge and makes the chord progressions sound logic and coherent. Again, in pop and song-writing the examples are usually much shorter and the method can be used to produce a surprising and rocky element of the chord progression and then abandoned for other solutions. In Radiohead’s “The Morning Bell” we hear the common tone connection between Am – C#m (CT is E) and between G – D (CT is D). Here on the verse the bass is moving between the new C#m chord and the previous Am creating an AMaj7 seventh chord. Later in the song we hear the progression Em – G#m, so it is fair to say that the song is based on this common tone principle.

There are many ways to analyse this chord progression. The triads Em, G, Am and D all comes from E minor where the C#m and G#m both comes from E major. So just like Arianna Grande, the song could be rooted in the idea of Modal Interchange. At the same time, the song could also have been created using the Common Tone Principle we just explored. But the Am – C#m and the Em – G#m progressions also belong to a principle called the Chromatic Mediant. Let us look at that next.

Chromatic Mediants The word mediant means in the middle and in diatonic music the mediant is always the third scale degree and placed right in between the Tonic and the Dominant chord. In C major the mediant is then E (minor) and the dominant is G major. The submediant is the chord located in the middle between the Tonic and the Subdominant. In C major the subdominant is F and the submediant is A (minor). Now following the C minor scale, the mediant will then be Eb (major) and the submediant is Ab (major). To find the Chromatic Mediants we just think about the roots of both Major and Minor mediants and then further think about these as roots for both major and minor chords. In this way Eb Minor could be a Chromatic Mediant in C Major! This gives us many possibilities for creating chord progressions and we can find them by following this table below:

As we can see in our table, we can think of Chromatic Mediants when the chord progression moves in thirds. Now let us look at a chord progression by the American composer Philip Glass. This short progression is from his Opera Einstein on the Beach and is part of some short interludes called Knee Play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJkHPgWDpwM. In this progression by Philip Glass the chords Fm and Db could belong to Db, and A, B7 and E could belong to E, thus creating a Db to E movement. This is a step of a minor third and a Chromatic Mediant. But the step Fm – Db is also a mediant with Db being the submediant of Fm. Db – A is then a Chromatic Mediant based on the Modal Interchange between Db major and Db minor. It is theoretically interesting, but for the compositional process it is easier to listen to the sound of the chords moving in thirds before the A (subdominant), B7 (dominant), E (tonic) progression. The progression has the sound of a progression in contrast with itself. First, we hear Chromatic Mediants followed by a regular IV – V – I progression – a cadenza - except that we are never really in any key. This instability of the harmonic changes and the 5 bars harmonic loop, makes the many repeats possible. We are never really bored as the violin takes us through a sweeping eleven repeats of rhythmic variations going through arpeggiated eight note-groupings of 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9. A palindromic system, where the energy increases as the groupings get smaller and then decrease as the groupings once again gets higher. All on top of a chromatic pentatonic scale pattern of Fm/C, Db, A/E, B7/F#, E/G#.

As Knee Play has the unmistakable sound of Chromatic Mediants, it also refers to previous methods described here. The Fm – Db has the common tone of F, The Db to A has the common tone of Db (C#) and the A to B7 has the common tone of A and last the B7 – E has the common tone of B. Creating chord progressions through these methods then, can be a good starting point and sparkle your compositions with creative ideas and surprising elements.

Stacking Thirds As we discovered a basic root position triad is made from stacking thirds from a scale – Major or Minor. If we continue building thirds in this way, we get to the chord extensions 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th. The use and how these extensions are treated is an area where all the different genres and traditions start to differ from each other. In general, we can say that, in classical music the extensions must be resolved in specific ways, whereas, in jazz music the extensions are present in all the chords from the beginning and as the chord progressions move some of the extensions will be voice lead, more than resolved. Jazz is also a major influence in soul and gospel that keeps a similar relationship to the extensions. In pop and rock there are a lot less extensions in the harmonic language and mostly we experience an occasional 7th or 9th to colour the harmony at a specific moment. This means that our toolbox from above will be treated differently depending on the genre and the texture of that genre. But nevertheless, the tools are usable for all kinds of music, since our choices should be based on the texture we are trying to compose at that moment and not the genre.

Jamming The Tenth Up to this point we have looked at ways to create intriguing chord progressions through Modal Interchange, Common Tone and Chromatic Mediants. These techniques can establish unstable chord progressions involving many tonal centers without modulations or transitions between the different harmonic phrases within a section. Now, as our chapter on harmony started out in the simplest fashion of using the triads created on each step of the major scale, we will now look at how efficient the interval of a tenth can be used to create melodies and harmonies alike. The interval of a tenth is in its essence a third with the top note displaced by one octave. A consonant interval that has been used throughout the music history for accompanying figures and lines. As we expand the interval to a tenth, we leave room between the notes where accompanying elements and harmonic colours can take place, while we keep the consonant feeling of the third. Both Hans Zimmer’s Journey to the Line and Henrik Lindstrand’s Enghave Lys harmonises their melodies at the interval of a tenth. The spacious open sound leaves room for the “Engine” element of their compositions, yet it creates a strong sense, that there is something harmonic going on. In reality, the harmony becomes modal. To establish a technique from this sound we want to be able to play small melodies at the interval of a tenth with a colouring note in the middle. To keep an overview over what is going on we work on this technique inside the church modes – strengthening our relation to the modes Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Inspired by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, to whom we will return later, we will keep the accompanying note in between our tenth as part of the tonic triad. This means that in A minor Aeolian our accompanying notes comes from the Am triad and in A Ionian our accompanying notes are from the A major triad etc.

To start the jam, it is worth mentioning that the accompanying note from the triad is worked out in a way so there are no unison notes. A unison will make our tenth based triad into a dyad, which drastically changes the sound of the harmony. If we transpose our lowest note up the octave to re-establish our consonant interval of a third, the middle harmony note is then placed on the first available note from the accompanying triad notes and then moved to the next note of the triad when it becomes available. In this way we both practice creating melodies in a mode, voicing in tenth and keeping a common tone in the middle, while always having three notes in our harmony. As we go, we can loosen up and let our ears decide on the placement of the middle note. We can start to change modes and key centers to create excitement and get familiar with the sound. The system can also be more complex when it turns into a composition of its own as we will now see in Arvo Pärt's famous composition Fratres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNVoZVFpW58.

Fratres Fratres is a composition for piano and violin by the famous Estonian composer Arvo Part. In this paper we will be engaged with the piano part and how this part uses the interval of a tenth to go through a scheme that makes the form of the piece.

Looking at our overview we see that the melody of the piano part has a series of target notes following the D harmonic minor scale down in thirds. Each target note is approached through a specific pattern. First, the note is approached from one step above, one step below. Then two steps above, two steps below and finally three steps above and three steps below. This process is followed by an inverted series of approach notes. One step above to one step below etc. After our final three notes above – three notes below the process has completed and a pedal tone A5 is played in the bass before the process starts again on the next target note. Looking at the accompanying middle note between our melody voiced in tenth, we see that this note is in the Tintinnabuli style always coming from the A minor triad. In this way our accompanying notes from A minor and our A pedal tone suggest that the composition is in A minor, while the D harmonic minor suggests a D minor melody over the A dominant pedal. The A-minor and the D harmonic minor creates a tension between the natural C of the A minor and the C# of the D harmonic minor. This tension gives the composition a wonderous excitement that follows the composition from beginning till the end. The piano part functions both as a set melody and as an accompaniment for the violin variations. In this way Fratres can inspire us to use the “jam of a tenth” in various situations – Tonal and Poly-Tonal and as both melody and accompaniment.

Jamming the Sixth The inverted interval of a third is a sixth and just like the third we also recognise the interval of a sixth as consonant and an interval that has been used to harmonize melodies of various kinds. So, for the interval of a sixth we can perform the same techniques that helped us to create a very consonant sound on the interval of a tenth. With the sixth we will go directly to Arvo Pärt for inspiration. As we see in Arvo Pärt's composition Spiegel Im Spiegel the harmonies are now in the interval of a sixth with the “Tintinnabuli” accompanying note in the middle. The composition is in F Ionian and thus, the accompanying notes are derived from the F major triad. This creates quite a unique sound both as a chord and as an arpeggiated harmony. In Spiegel Im Spiegel the harmony is accompanying the melody in such a way, that the chord is always placed a third above the melody.

Inspired by the Renaissance period Arvo Pärt's music is often modal. The sound of his Tintinnabuli style comes across as serene and is highly copied by film composers throughout the World. In his choir composition O Schlüssel, Pärt once again builds his Tintinnabuli style around the interval of a sixth and doubles the arrangement in octaves for the tenor and bass part in his choir arrangement. Between the parallel sixth, Pärt is making room for two accompanying notes. The melody is in A minor Aeolian and thus, the two-part accompaniment is from the A minor triad. This creates a strong expression that sounds far more sophisticated than most choral hymns.

Chromatic Harmony A triad has a root, and the root gives the chord a name – like C minor. But there are countless ways to create harmony without a root and thus without a name. For classical composers, these harmonies are known as Pitch Class Sets or Set Theory, or groups of notes emerging from Arnold Schoenberg’s Twelve-Tone Technique or any group of notes put together. It can also be chords built from one or several intervals – the possibilities are endless! Yet, no matter what technique we are using, the goal is the same; To create the harmonic texture that suits our initial idea of what we want our composition to sound like. In his composition Dark Days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_-rNl60IoY, American composer Scott Wollschleger creates a full piano piece (and a very haunting one) from re-ordering the pitches of one harmony through-out using the notes Bb, B, C, D, E. Orchestrated for one instrument and following the same rhythmic motive through-out, the re-ordering of pitches is the only developing material. Yet the composition is still full of life and storytelling. A strong proof of how a Pitch-Set can create an intriguing atmosphere that makes the listener pay attention. To look further into these chromatic chords, we will look at the simplest possible method; Sitting at the piano and listening for the sounds that captures the composer’s ears and selecting the sounds we like for further use. Now, this composition method - simple as it is, might be the one common method that has been used in all genres from classical to pop, but it is far from the only method, and especially in classical composition it is just one tool out of many. Looking at the American composer Morton Feldman, whose composition Palais De Marie we will now turn to, the idea of just listening to sounds made on the piano was quite exotic. The classical scene around the time of Morton Feldman was full of European technique, such as serialism – a technique bounded by rules and methods, as well as American aleatoric music, invented by Feldman’s friend and teacher John Cage. Morton Feldman once described his own compositional process as: "I sit at the piano and I just try to find the right notes. And it might take me a whole day to find the right notes." From listening at the piano Feldman managed to create a world of harmonies with a strong personal signature sound. The Feldman sound is the sound of chromatic harmonies and ideas,

not bound to any system or rules. The music flows freely in the universe without tonic and dominants and in a very capturing way. To work with the Feldman chromatic harmony sound is to experiment, listen, and make choices based on the sound that comes from your instrument. Looking at the first measures of Palais De Marie we can create a chart of the chords created by Feldman. In the chart we see that the collection of intervals for a harmony can be interpreted as a segment of a larger scale or notes belonging to a key and function. Many times, the harmonies consist of a couple of chromatic intervals with an extra note added at a different interval. Looking at how the harmony is voiced; we can easily understand that the chords are made from listening and not with any particular theory in mind.

After listening to the chords of Feldman, we turn to the actual composition of Palais De Marie. As we can see in the music each harmony is composed into a gesture. Either with single notes stated with the sustain pedal down (to hold the chord and create artificial reverb though-out) or as a harmony of a specific duration. It is quite fascinating to view how Feldman composes with the cells and combines material and returns to previous cells etc. With this in mind, I recommend

listening to Palais De Marie and experience this chromatic sound with no key-centre. A free music that floats in space in a unique way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M466YTlK8UM&t=120s.

Melody Now moving towards the subject of Melody, we will focus on the aspects that can be applied to any melody regardless of genre and regardless of what emotion the melody is about to express. Looking at the melody from this general perspective, it is my hope that the process of composing a melody can be both easier to compose and lead to stronger results. A very general mindset that help us create good melodies right from the start, is to think about a melody as a physical object like a ball. To throw the ball up high in the sky we will have to collect some energy first before the throw. The more preparation, the higher the melody can go! Once the melody is in the air it will lose energy and after a curve it will start to come back down as gravity sets in. But as the melody finally reaches the ground the energy has been so strong that it does not just come down and lie still; No, it bounces back up several times, each time losing a little more energy until it finally rests. To think about these physical laws as we compose our melody, we get a melody with an organic flow that feels natural. To learn the general terms used in melodic theory we will look at jazz saxophonist and composer Walter Smith III’s composition River Styx https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp1zr6zRCtA. River Styx is both and actual river in Oregon, USA, and it is also a part of the Greek Mythology. We will look at how Walter Smith III creates a great jazz composition full of tides and turns. River Styx is in a ¾ meter and based on a rhythmic motif. A motif is the smallest unit of a melody and is a short fragment repeated many times. A Motif can be both melodic and rhythmic. As the tempo of River Styx is quite fast and because the motif is just one bar long it will be heard many times during the composition. The off-beat motif is contrasted and accompanied by some strong downbeats on 1 by the rhythm section. Put several motifs together and we have a phrase. A phrase is usually 2 – 4 bars long and two phrases often make up the Antecedent or what can be called the “question”, since this part of the melody often lands on a different harmony than the tonic. Followed by the Consequent – what is also called the “answer”. Traditionally, the answer would take us back to the tonic in sophisticated ways. The Antecedent and the Consequent makes up a Period. In this way the melody now has become a set of building blocks, where elements can be repeated and put together to create larger building blocks that then becomes periods and finally the Form of the melody. To mark a new moment in the melody of River Styx, Walter Smith III uses a variation to his rhythmic motif. Either a pause, that is marked by the full band or a variation of the motif marking all the off-beats in the bar.

Motivic variation with a pause: Motivic variation with all off-beats: When a Period comes to an end, it is often marked by a long resting note: Looking at the Antecedent of the first period we hear a raising melody that quickly moves away from our starting point and establishing a free-flowing energy that will become the character of the composition. Notice how the rhythmic motif is repeated and how the moving harmony creates a contrast to the static rhythmic figure. Also notice the counterpoint as the bass line moves in the opposite direction of the melody. Last, the harmony has a chromatic passing chord on EMaj7. A chord that is unrelated to Gm and creates a sense of unpredictability and a rivers tide and turns. The five-bar phrase does feel like a question that now needs answering. Starting off with a motivic variation beginning on the eighth note pause, the answer quickly descents over two bars before starting a new raise that does not materialize before a descent takes the answer and the period to an end on the resting dotted half-note.

The longer consequent can be viewed as an augmentation of the period, while the quick first descent of the consequent is a diminution of the idea of going up over 5 bars and then coming back down in just 2 bars. The resting A/E chord feels like a resting moment even though it is far from our starting Gm and creates a great vibe of twists and turns just like a flowing river. From here both our motivic variations combine to create a 4 bar transition towards a contrasting C minor Bridge (bar 15). Listening to the B part, we hear the bass pedal tone as a contrast to the fast-moving harmony from before. Also, the melody notes settle in and centers around the notes G and C. This movement also sets the tone for the solo harmonies that follows. Before the solos kick in, we have a C part where the melody once again like our consequent from before makes twists and turns like before. Once again, we reach the A/E harmony as a resting place. This makes the whole C section feel like a recapitulation of the Consequent in the beginning. Finally, we reach a repeat of our transitional melody, this time bringing a pedal tone and a set of chords for soloing.

From this first part of Walter Smith III’s composition River Styx we have introduced the melodic concepts of: Building Blocks: Motif Phrase Period Antecedent/ Consequent Variation Augmentation/Diminution Rhythmic Variation Concept: Contrast (Harmonic rhythm vs Pedal Tone)

Generating Melodic Material After our introduction to the basic building blocks of melody we move towards some concepts that can help us to generate more melodic material. Based on some processes that we apply to our motif we generate more material that connects to our original idea. These processes can be applied endlessly so once we move from initial motif to longer motif or phrase we can once again apply our concepts. To view this in action we will look at a short theme Miles Mode by legendary jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy and recorded by the jazz legend John Coltrane on his famous album Coltrane’s Sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS5V_8s2ak4. The short length of the theme has an element of a “Riff” or a “Call” and in the Jazz repertoire we have several examples of songs that almost work as a springboard for the improvisations to come. One Finger Snap by Herbie Hancock and Knozz-Moe-King by Wynton Marsalis are examples of this. To understand the melody of Miles Mode we will first look at the Minor Pentatonic scale since this scale plays a second role on the composition. Just analysing the scale we see that it consists of some specific intervals. From the root we get the intervals m3, 4, 5, 7. Going from note to note we get the intervals m3, 2, 2, m3. These intervals are highly present in the composition Miles Mode. What we will learn once we look at the composition are some of the basic concepts that are applied to small fragments of the pentatonic scale. In Miles Mode we have two melodic motifs that are used to create the full composition. Motif 1 is the first three notes of the Minor Pentatonic scale. Motif 2 is skipping the second note so it consists of a three-note motif from the first, the third and fourth notes of the scale. The first concept that is applied to these motifs are inversion. Inversion has been part of music composition since the Baroque period. Inversions can be done on the scale (tonal) and chromatically (atonal). The notes from the D Minor Pentatonic scale holds some important notes from the D Dorian Mode so we will use this scale to do a tonal inversion. Using this process our notes from motif 1 D-F-G now becomes D-B-A. In other words when our motif moves up a Minor 3 our inversion moves down a Minor 3 from the same note. Since our Motif can be transposed through the scale so can our inversion once we have it. This gives us the opportunity to work with numbers. Thus our 1,3,4 (low to high) motif 1 now has the inversion 1,2,4 (low to high). Our second motif 1,4,5 (D-G-A) thus becomes 1,2,5 (D-E-A). Do we read these numbers backwards a new process comes to light called Retrograde. If we read the inversion backwards it is called Retrograde Inversion. Now let us apply these processes to the composition Miles Mode. As we will realize in just a second, the composition has no key. It is atonal and using all twelve pitches following techniques

introduces by the Austrian composer and educator Arnold Schoenberg in the thirties Vienna. So we will have to look for our 1,3,4 – 1,2,4 and our 1,4,5 – 1,2,5 in a chromatic environment. Since Miles Mode works as a “call” before an extended improvisation, it is worth mentioning that John Coltrane in his recording uses a small Coda establishing the key of B Minor. B is also the first and last note of the composition. Let us have a look: When we divide the theme into three note fragments, we quickly realize that all fragments fit our process from before. Looking at the Antecedent (question) ending on the long Eb note in bar 2, we can order the theme into the numbers: 1-3-4, 1-4-5, 2-1-4 (inversion and re-ordering of motif 1) and 5-2-1 (Retrograde Inversion of motif 2). Next, we look at the Consequent (answer) bar 3 and 4. Following the notes here, we see that the notes are similar to the Antecedent, just in reverse order. Yet another Retrograde process on the full opening phrase! In this way Eric Dolphy’s Miles Mode both leans on the pentatonic sound so popular in the sixties jazz, but also applying some very sophisticated classical compositional techniques. In John Coltrane’s recording the unison theme is followed by a short Coda establishing a B Minor tonality, then followed by a 16 bar improvised interlude before the theme is repeated and catapulted into the stratosphere with some serious energetic soloing by John Coltrane accompanied by one of the best rhythm sections at the time. From this analysis of Eric Dolphy’s Miles Mode we have become familiar with some basic processes for generating extra melodic material from the material we already have through: Inversion Retrograde Retrograde-Inversion

Canon As children many of us have tried to sing canons like Row, Row, Row Your Boat or Frére Jacques in school or at our first music lessons. Canons are a terrific way to “hold your voice” while listening to others. It is also a fantastic way to create harmony from single lines and this has been done throughout music history from communal singing to sophisticated classical compositions. Let us look at several ways to use canon to produce harmonic textures and even engines. According to Wikipedia a canon is a contrapuntal compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g., a quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader (or dux), while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower (or comes). Repeating canons in which all voices are musically identical are called Rounds. To create the simplest form of canons that we already know so well, we simply start with a phrase A, then move that phrase to our second voice, while creating a phrase B on top of phrase A. Now phrase B moves to the second voice and thus we continue for as long as we want until we have formed a full canon. To create the new phrase, we see in our example, that having the intervals of a third, fifth or sixth, consonant intervals, on the strong beats, will help us create satisfying results. A canon can take place at different intervals. Having a canon in unison is the simplest form of canon, but it can still sound quite intriguing. In Bach 3rd variation of the Golberg Variations he creates a canon at the unison and then uses a third voice to outline the harmonic foundation in a free-flowing voice. In the last bar of the third voice, we also see that Bach uses the accompanying voice to create a short cadenza on the dominant D. This is how you end a canon, that is not a Round, but a regular Canon.

We have already looked at Steve Reich “Add-On” canon process in his composition Nagoya Marimba. This time we want to return to Steve Reich and his composition Electric Counterpoint, composed for the jazz guitarist Pat Metheny in 1987 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP0e6FGAqew. Here we will look at Movement 1, that uses a lot of familiar Reich techniques to create an almost other-worldly sound of a pulsating mode. Just like the famous composition Music For 18 Musicians, Reich starts out Electric Counterpoint by pulsating us through the harmonies of the composition. As we can see on the chart below, we first hear three harmonies from the G Ionian/ E Aeolian Mode. These harmonies are followed by four harmonies from the Eb Ionian/ C Aeolian Mode (a Chromatic Mediant) before returning to the original three harmonies ending on E Aeolian Minor. From here the canon starts it phrase, which has a clear G Major flavour to it even though we will never hear this phrase with a G as the root. Now, in the extended canon section Reich establishes the canon at the unison six beats after – or two beats ahead of our initial phrase. The canon is established through the “Add-On" process and once the phrase is completed a new phrase is started, also through the “Add-On” process. As we can see in the chart below, these new phrases are doubling notes from the original canon thus becoming canons at various intervals. The order is; Guitar 1 – original phrase. Guitar 2 – Canon at the unison. Guitar 3 – Perfect 5th below Guitar 1. Guitar 4 – Perfect 5th below Guitar 2. Guitar 5 – Sixth below Guitar 1, with a changed note to keep the E Aeolian Mode. Guitar 6 – An octave below Guitar 2. Guitar 7 – An octave below Guitar 1. Guitar 8 – An octave below Guitar 3. With all the guitars sounding, we both hear the initial phrase and a cascade of possible melodies in this web of notes. We also sense a pulsating mode. In a way, the Canon at multiple intervals has taken us back to the beginning pulses and the basses set in with the pulsating roots to establish this momentum. At the key change the phrase continues in the same octave, but with the added accidentals and we hear the pulses here, before returning to the original mode that ends the movement.

Mensuration Canon According to Wikipedia, “In music, a Prolation Canon (also called a Mensuration Canon or Proportional Canon) is a type of Canon, a musical composition where the main melody is accompanied by one or more imitations of that melody in other voices. Not only do the voices sing or play the same melody, they do so at different speeds (or prolations, a mensuration term that dates to the medieval and renaissance eras)”. In other words, the Mensuration Canon was, during the Renaissance, an efficient way to create Polyphonic textures by running the same melody at different speeds and intervals. To further explore this sophisticated technique, please check some score-follow videos with the music of Josquin Des Prez – a true master of this technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbvJ17cL9a0. The technique has also been highly influential on some of today’s composers. Here we will return to the famous Estonian composer Arvo Part and his famous composition Cantus In Memory of Benjamin Britten https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImKBJ1jQfU.

Following the leader of this Canon we see the divisi first violins playing our initial theme in the motivic rhythm of “half-note + quarter-note". Starting on A the melody line descends stepwise by constantly adding an additional note from the A aeolian scale before starting over again from its original A departure. This movement will continue until the violins reaches the “middle C” two octaves and a sixth below its starting point. Looking at the second part of the first violins we observe the previously described Tintinnabuli style of Arvo Part so our melody is accompanied by notes from the A minor triad. When we look at the divisi second violins we see the Mensuration Canon in play. Starting on a whole-note, the Canon at the octave melody runs at half the speed of our leader. The second violins too have the Tintinnabuli accompaniment. From here we can guess the role of the rest of the string sections; The violas play a Canon at two octaves below at a quarter of the speed, the cellos perform a Canon at three octaves below at an eighth of the speed including the accompaniment and lastly the basses arrive four octaves below at a sixteenth of the speed. The resulting Mensuration Canon is a shimmering daunting scale falling from the highest point to a dramatic low register before settling on an ending A minor triad. The same chord that all our accompanying notes were coming from.

Canon in the Engine As we have seen a Canon can have a folkloric texture as a Round and a Polyphonic texture like Bach, where the Canon is complex and have a free flowing third voice that marks the harmonic movement. As we move towards contemporary uses of the Canon texture, we will look at the Canon as accompaniment. Or “Canon in the Engine” - to refer to some of the techniques from the first chapters of this paper. In Nico Muhly’s composition Double Speak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZYQTeUPoys we hear an energetic web of notes that first appears as a “delay-like” complex musical effect. Looking at the score we realise that the dynamic markings of Forte in the violin, Mezzo Piano in the piano and Piano in the clarinet creates this leader – follower effect. We also see that the notes form a Canon at the unison- one beat apart. After two repeats on the 5/8 motivic figure, Nico Muhly uses a different “Add-On” technique, by repeating the first beat of the motive to create a rhythmic variation with a 7/8 figure. Both the 5/8 and 7/8 figures are set in a general ¾ meter. As the canon moves through different harmonic changes it functions as an accompaniment for dramatic calls from other instruments in a quarter-note triplet feel. These rhythmic differences between the pulse and the calls make each separate element stand out in the composition. The Mensuration Canon, that we have looked at previously, has also inspired contemporary composers in many ways. Returning to the American composer John Adams and his overture for his famous opera Nixon In China we hear a haunting web of the raising A aeolian minor scale.

Looking closer at the score we see a mensuration canon unfold. The leader is the raising eighth-note A aeolian scale spanning one octave. Also starting on beat one is the first follower, playing the aeolian scale in a dotted quarter-note time – three times slower than our leader. The second follower is half the speed of the first follower and six times slower than the leader. Below our beautiful and haunting mensuration web we have a deep bass note marking the A as the tonic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKT9SbL-lI8

Orchestrated Electronics Where the fast Canon of Nico Muhly could be perceived as a “delay-like” effect, the John Adams mensuration texture sounds like a reverberating synthesizer pad. This amalgamation of electronic effects and the classical orchestra is an important development in contemporary music. It has been going on for a while using a wide spectrum of techniques. You could argue that there is a movement or a curiosity for making acoustic orchestrated music sound electronic, while the electronic music with the invention of Plug-Ins and more computer power sounds with clear references to more acoustic landscapes. To think in these terms can be a very inspiring tool to create various textures in the orchestra or the ensemble you are working with. Suddenly, an orchestra can be perceived as a drum machine or a strange drifting synthesizer going through imaginative harmonies. How would you orchestrate a distortion guitar with the instruments of a classical symphony? To give you an idea of how composers have previously thought about these elements we will look at some textures from composers in our time.

Delay As we have already experienced with our accompanying canon from Nico Muhly’s Double Speak, the canon can have striking similarities to the delay effect. In a delay effect, we can control a set of parameters like Feedback (the number of repeats), Amount (how strong the repeated notes are) and Time (how fast the note will repeat). In a multi delay we can use these parameters multiple times to create rhythmic delays and much more. All of this can be imitated in orchestration. Looking at the third movement of Gyorgy Kurtag’s Stele we see a “one shot” orchestrated delay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiqCwQ8nJhY. One shot meaning, that the chord sounds like it is stroked once and then the delay has four repeats at lower and lower dynamic – from Forte to Piano. As we can see in the score the delay is written in both eigth-notes and sixteen notes creating a chaotic multi-effect vibe. The complexity of the chord and the full orchestration creates a fantastic dramatic effect.

Now, what happens when the delay is continuous? As we move between harmonies or arpeggios the delayed effects will melt the harmonies together to create a complex web, where the delay from the previous arpeggio will still sound as the new notes enters. Depending on the texture of the effect the web will also have rhythmic accents that can both be connected to a specific tempo or a syncopated pattern. If the music is reflecting a multi-delay unit, more syncopated rhythms and accents can be present to create a rhythmic web or a chaotic texture. David Lang’s composition Sweet Air has this rhythmic and accentuated multi-delay texture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IkDVPSl_2E. Looking at the score we see that the five instruments are orchestrated into two different canons resembling an A/B delay. Canon 1 is based on selected notes from Canon 2. With its different delay time – one beat apart, Canon 1 creates accents, and a slower layer compared to canon 2, which is an eight-note apart. Since Canon 1 is based on Canon 2, we start with Canon 2. As we see, this Canon is based on a 5/4 meter phrase with the top note of the harmonies suggesting a progression alternating between A minor and E, with a top note guiding us through a chromatic movement from A, G# to G and back to G#. The violin is the leader, though all instruments in the Canon plays pianissimo. The second follower is the cello, while the piano left hand is the third follower on beat 2. This follower phrase of the piano is also the first phrase of Canon 1. As we see in the score the clarinet is the leader and plays selected notes from Canon 2. These notes will now sound accentuated and add a different fuller sound to these notes doubling the piano. The first follower in Canon 1 is the flute, while the piano right hand ones again finish this canon. As Canon 1 is placed a full beat apart these notes sound both as accents, but also as a separate layer of delay.

The 5 beat phrases will move across the bar line of ¾ meter and create a free-flowing texture that changes with the harmonies and the groupings of the phrases.

Reverb Once we start to understand the thinking behind imitating electronic effects in our orchestration it becomes obvious how endless these inspirations can be. To consider what a reverb is in basic terms, we quickly realize that this effect can be obtained through holding notes while new notes arrive. The effect of this is equally effective as a single instrument or a full section. An extreme example of this effect is the Knut Nystedt version of J.S. Bach’s setting of Kom Süsser Tod, also called Immortal Bach. After a sing through in a usual choral version Nystedt starts a Mensuration Canon, splitting the chorus into five separate small choirs, that sing each phrase of the hymn at 5 different speeds. Starting with Choir 1 at 4 seconds per chord, then 6,8,10 and 12 seconds. The sound of these held chords creates a very sacred and reverberated sound that feels like listening in a very big Cathedral of sorts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foyQDp74vNY.

Shimmer A very inspiring element of the orchestration of electronic effects is the fact, that it is open for experimentation and ideas to try things out and name them according to what they mean to you. This also means that the name “Shimmer effect” could be a personal definition of how a texture feels to you, just as well as it could mean a reverb generated effect that emphasize enhanced harmonics from the input source. A texture that I have always perceived as Shimmer is the rhythmic reverberation of Brazilian composer Marcos Balter’s composition Bladed Stance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c56zKd31L0w. The high-pitched pulsating rhythms creates a beautiful web of fast rhythms in different subdivisions. The rhythmic differences and the waving dynamics of the phrases creates this shimmering chaos rather than a rhythmic delay.

Distortion In many ways, distortion belongs to the orchestration category where various techniques such as multi-phonics for wind instruments and over-pressure and bow pressure can create distorted sounds that add the distorted element to notes that are composed. In its original form distortion is an alteration of the audio waveform created by gaining the input signal. So is there a way to talk about distortion in the compositional process as well. Again, just like with our Shimmer effect we move further away from rules and tradition and into a more personal perception, where we can conclude something as representing distortion to us, rather than having a general rule about it. In the Danish composer Bent Sørensen’s work Sterbende Gärten we can get a glimpse of a compositional distortion effect where notes are added to distort the original pitches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqbhQf06jJk. You can think about this distortion of pitch in a sense where accompanying notes are placed remarkably close to our original pitches and thus creates what could be viewed as a chromatic distortion to the accompaniment. In this way a simple almost tonal idea can suddenly appear complex and without relation to tonal harmony.

In Bent Sørensen’s composition Sterbende Gärten we can observe this effect in the second movement. As the solo violin enters on the notes Eb – G – surrounding pitches appear very soft in the accompanying strings. Violin A play the notes C (quarter-sharp) to C#, Violin B doubles the Eb, but at a moment where the solo violin has moved to D, violin C plays an A, and violin D prolongs the G from the solo violin. Violas play F (quarter flat) and an Ab close to the low G of the solo violin. From this we percieve the melody as being the solo violin playing Eb – G. But the chord we hear after the full bar is; Ab-G-A (both chromatic side of the melody) and C (quarter sharp)-C#-Eb-F (Quarter flat). Two chromatic clusters surrounding our melody and distorting it.

Stutter Effect The stutter edit, or stutter effect, is the rhythmic repetition of small fragments of audio. It consists of layers of digital signal processing operations in a rhythmic fashion based on the overall length of the host tempo. Translated to our compositional process this means that a stutter effect often is a small, repeated rhythm against another layer showing the tempo of the composition. Our stutter can both be a locked entity like 16th notes against our host tempo, but it can also and often it is fun to contrast the host tempo with confusing and free flowing stutter, in what is called feathered beaming (see example below). Below we see a brief excerpt from Caroline Shaw Its Motion Keeps. Caroline Shaw is an American composer, singer and viola player, who with her composition Partita won the Pulitzer Price and established herself as an inventive and melodic contemporary composer. In the example you see that only the vowel “na na na n n n” indicates the stutter effect, as the notes are indicating the three-part harmony. The length of the harmony is decided by the tempo of the composition and the rhythm of the stutter is free flowing and as fast as possible. Listening to Its Motion Keeps we hear that the effect is almost otherworldly and a beautiful and surprising effect for the voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18yXqcBT-Ec.

Filtering We will end our chapter on effects with a filtering effect. This example is from James A. Moorer’s composition Deep Note used for the logo theme by the THX Movie Studio. The theme consists of 30 voices starting in a narrow range around the middle 200 – 400 Hz and slowly over seven bars diverging to pre-selected pitches spanning five octaves by the fifth measure. The composition gives the impression of a filter slowly opening. It is a haunting effect as an unstable cluster of quiet noise slowly opens up to a strong and loud D chord https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PavUjiUkRY.

Closing Remarks As these examples show, The Guide To The Interdisciplinary Process is a bank of ideas that suits many styles of music. Hopefully, these examples can bring ideas and inspiration to new ways of composing different roles and textures in your music and every once a while make you move on in sections where you are stuck or out of ideas. In general, to compose means to place. But composition is also telling a story, showing an emotion or present an energy in a process from A to B. Whatever it is, we as composers needs tools to construct the elements that make up the composition and for that we need inspiration. It is my hope that this paper, with its short examples of ways to think about how these structures are constructed can help you to develop your own unique sound and tell us all the stories that you hold inside you!