No Man is an Island

Yes he is! He totally is. Every man is an island. Composers are on the tiniest island in the biggest sea. The better they develop their craft the further out they paddle. In some ways, this weblog is a message in a bottle. Thanks for the uncorking.

I've taken some time off for a few months because of good news. Here, in San Diego I put out a call for classical composers to get together to talk and drink beer or do what classical composers do. I got very few responses scattered over a broad swath of a broad county. Not quite critical mass. Too bad.

Then, one day I see a Craigslist post for a classical music group that gets together to perform on a monthly basis. "Wow, that's paydirt!" It was contact for the caswtaways. I had to check it out.

The group meeting is well attended: 25 or so zealots of classical and opera at a church venue just a few miles from my home. The acoustics are stunning. The meeting, cleverly labeled Operatifs, was better than I expected it to be. Outstanding performances and better yet-- appreciative ears.

So I have had the pleasure of unveiling 2 compositions that surprised me at their positive reception. The first a sonatina for Piano and violin, that utilized the gifts of my comrade Matthias von Herrath on violin. And the second a cappriccio in Dm. There is wine and comraderie. Its nice when people go out of there way to communicate their appreciation. At the last meeting there was even someone who understood what a diminished chord was. I devoutly wish anyone reading this will experience similar validation. Divinity!

So I've been working on my newest Cappriccio, the third of a 6 part series I am calling a hexachrome. This one is in Em. I addressed it in the last weblog. It has liberal use of diminished chords as both transition chords and as tension builders.

Narrative Composition

Every piece is a story. They have moments of tension and moments of release. I am working on a Narrative approach to composition where, much like a story, there is a conflict or obstacle that is introduced and it is only through the climax that the conflict is finally and fully resolved. Much as in any story, there are moments of partial resolution, but in some way, each early resolution is somewhat incomplete and simply facilitates the move toward a greater crisis towards the end.

This is a little abstract, and its a little ambitious, because in my world, music has to please. That is, it needs to have enough diversity, tension and predictability to satisfy. It must stimulate the audience and not annoy. It must challenge the listener and not up-end them. Finding the right balance is the challenge. And ultimately it can't make Mozart spill his cookies.

So there.

Ignorance is Bliss

I keep a notebook of chord progressions that "work". They all sound good and have a classical feel. They are also easy. They are 4 or 8 measures upon which I can build pieces in a flash. They are like floor-plans for a building. They are not compositions because until you string them up with the appropriate furnishings you can't abide in them. Furthermore, each represents just a segment of a piece. But upon any given segment, I can compose a theme that sets the direction of the piece.

What's surprising is how little I use the notebook. It's just not stimulating if I am not discovering or rediscovering. So it's more engaging to sit at the piano and craft new progressions (that ultimately, I know are old progressions). In essence, I veer away from progressions that are "perfected" to create those that are imperfect.

My notebook includes dozens of major progressions and dozens of minor progressions, all in the key of C. I needed a fixed anchor point so I don't recreate a progression, just transposed, and think it was new. This is the crux of my observation today. It is when we diverge from the known and the comfortable that we grow.

So I'm working on a sonata in E minor. Not a big stretch, this key. Em traditionally has one sharp if your scale uses a dominant 7th. So it would seem to fit under the hands well. Or does it? Not my hands. And really, since I have begun stringing everything together with diminished chords the idea of just a few flats and sharps goes out the window. But there is a bigger issue. Namely competence.

Every key has its strengths and weaknesses for the piano player. As we modulate through a piece we may go from comfort to discomfort. Sometimes this is a positive vex. It troubles us but we like the trouble. It becomes a challenge and an opportunity to witness our increasing dexterity as we practice the akward passage or run. As a composer, though, I am creating not performing. I am looking to get ideas out in as fluid a way as possible. When I encounter a hurdle of my own incompetence it shuts the process down.

In the Sound of Music, the mother superior tells the young novice, Maria: "whenever God closes a door he opens a window." This is true also of composing. When we encounter a block, our attempts to cope with it can sometimes make for creative solutions we would not have thought of had we not been so incompetent.

The Key of Em (which is oh so nice on my guitar), has this silly little B major as the V chord. Sure, probably comfortable for many, but not for me. The chord is easy enough, but when I want to arpeggiate down through the 3 inversions of the chord I have to stop and think. That is my shut down. I am no longer fluid, and my composing tempo has been dealt a blow.

So what window opens as this door shuts? Picture this: You are reaching a traditional I V I turn around. Here, that would be a E minor, B major, E minor. Not inventive, but comfortably traditional. So I am arppegiatting the turn around and finding that I can easily run through the inversions of the E minor chord as arppeggiated, but the B major-- a little more troublesome. So I freeze a bit and just arppeggiate on a single position of the B. Ultimately, I find this quite satisfying in its diversity. Two inversions working downward on the E minor and a single position on the B. The accident of my incompetence makes for richer complexity.























MP3 Sample

So in the end my incompetence is working for me. Rather than a more predictable arppeggio down 2 positions of Em and 2 positions of B, I get 2 of Em and 1 of B for each octave the arppeggio descends.

Stupidity rules!