17 January
Two thoughts on the trios. One voice of each trio should have the role of being a harmonic support which will tie the trios together harmonically. This will also enable the piece to have an overall harmonic scheme – I can also use this to speed up/slow down the harmonic motion of the piece which will also speed up and slow down the piece.
There can be a separate level to this mini-structure in that the harmonies can move toward a heterophony of the course of a section. I think this is also a way to incorporate my idea of the four-voiced microtonal harmony that will suffuse the piece. The cello and or other strings can provide a version of this in the traffic sections.
I want also to remark about some of the things I thought about yesterday. I have been working with this idea of tempo lanes – whereby each trio is in a particular speed throughout the piece. To combat the overall-ness of this: if everybody is always in one particular tempo then the overall effect will be one of staticness; I’ve created what I’ve called tempo merges in which the various lanes are forced to migrate to a particular tempo over a particular length of time. This way we could have another sense of direction in the particular sections. I had been working with an essentially arbitrary set of lanes, which I’ve altered. Originally the lanes were organized (from top to bottom) as 72; 48; 90; 108 these correspond to quarter; dotted-quarter; quintuplet quarter; triplet quarter. I realized in making the merges that this would result in a herky-jerky tempo motion, not an overall motion. So I’ve reorganized the lanes from fast to slow: 108; 90; 72; 48. This will provide in a merge (say in the case of 108 going to 48) 108 to 90 to 72 to 48. For something more nice like a merge to 72; we would have 108 to 90 to 72 while over a longer period of time 48 going to 72. I think this will provide a real sense of a clean line in acceleration/deceleration layers/lanes.
Let me discuss a moment about the trios. They have their own sort of structure in the way they rotate. The original trio are as follows: these derive simply from my own decision as to what would be an interesting trio as well as trios that will allow me a full scalar complement.
These instruments are simply numbered and the trios go through a rotation process to determine the new member of the trio
Becomes in the next section
This moves throughout the entire piece. From here there is the question of the other instrument in this case (at least in the beginning) the percussion. My thought is to have the extra instrument outside of the structure – riding on the shoulder or making its own road for instance. Now I haven’t decided yet, but I think it would be interesting to have this instrument rotate through the structure, say percussion first and the flute or oboe or whatever. This instrument outside the structure can act like a soloist which I think will perhaps help me to focus the piece around something.
If I do this I will have essentially two structural units: the inter-trio harmonic scheme and the solo and ensemble scheme. Around this the rest of the piece can be built. As well, there are the rather complicated scheme that creates and guides the tempi – first the merging lanes, the ensemble change scheme, as well as a larger mensuration scheme that will determine an overall tempo structure. I think this is okay because when we consider the four tempo layers, they only coincide every twelve beats. This means I will either have to have the piece written in a combination of three and four, or four alone, or else, and this is what I’m leaning toward now – using the mensuration signs, so we will begin in 3/1 meter. Now this is quite nasty for the players and conductor and so I have a lot of trepidation in using it.
I should also mention at this point that the whole piece is essentially in ritornello structure, in which this whole process will get put on hold for interruptions of the A – “traffic” section. This will be long in the beginning and at the end. At the end – the coda – I envision all hell breaking loose.
My thought is to come right out of the opening traffic section into a crazy section that will last about 15 measures before thinning out a bit. I think this will be able to provide me with a lot of melodic material as well as to delineate the characters of the various instruments – that is the primary modes of playing. This of course will not be audible but will give me some help.
January 19, 2007
I’ve actually quite terrified of composing this piece. I’ve put in several hours of actual composition and am not so pleased with the results. I think I need a new method of working with this and should likely think of it as a number of different trios that interact rather than a full score. In this way I think it would be much more manageable. I also think that I can then play with the relation of these trios (all within the structure I’ve set up) – so as to make them sextets. Think perhaps to how someone like Lassus works with a large vocal ensemble. I recall – and perhaps I should listen to it again – Lassus’ Lagrime de San Pietro – in that he has a large vocal ensemble, maybe 7+ that he manages to work with the small sections and bring in the full ensemble for dramatic moments. This could be a model for this piece as well. I’ll order the score.
Two thoughts on the trios. One voice of each trio should have the role of being a harmonic support which will tie the trios together harmonically. This will also enable the piece to have an overall harmonic scheme – I can also use this to speed up/slow down the harmonic motion of the piece which will also speed up and slow down the piece.
There can be a separate level to this mini-structure in that the harmonies can move toward a heterophony of the course of a section. I think this is also a way to incorporate my idea of the four-voiced microtonal harmony that will suffuse the piece. The cello and or other strings can provide a version of this in the traffic sections.
I want also to remark about some of the things I thought about yesterday. I have been working with this idea of tempo lanes – whereby each trio is in a particular speed throughout the piece. To combat the overall-ness of this: if everybody is always in one particular tempo then the overall effect will be one of staticness; I’ve created what I’ve called tempo merges in which the various lanes are forced to migrate to a particular tempo over a particular length of time. This way we could have another sense of direction in the particular sections. I had been working with an essentially arbitrary set of lanes, which I’ve altered. Originally the lanes were organized (from top to bottom) as 72; 48; 90; 108 these correspond to quarter; dotted-quarter; quintuplet quarter; triplet quarter. I realized in making the merges that this would result in a herky-jerky tempo motion, not an overall motion. So I’ve reorganized the lanes from fast to slow: 108; 90; 72; 48. This will provide in a merge (say in the case of 108 going to 48) 108 to 90 to 72 to 48. For something more nice like a merge to 72; we would have 108 to 90 to 72 while over a longer period of time 48 going to 72. I think this will provide a real sense of a clean line in acceleration/deceleration layers/lanes.
Let me discuss a moment about the trios. They have their own sort of structure in the way they rotate. The original trio are as follows: these derive simply from my own decision as to what would be an interesting trio as well as trios that will allow me a full scalar complement.
| Flute Oboe Contrabass | Horn Trumpet Trombone | Clarinet Violin Piano | Viola Cello Bassoon |
These instruments are simply numbered and the trios go through a rotation process to determine the new member of the trio
| 1 2 3 | 4 5 6 | 7 8 9 | 10 11 12 |
Becomes in the next section
| 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 | 8 9 10 | 11 12 1 |
This moves throughout the entire piece. From here there is the question of the other instrument in this case (at least in the beginning) the percussion. My thought is to have the extra instrument outside of the structure – riding on the shoulder or making its own road for instance. Now I haven’t decided yet, but I think it would be interesting to have this instrument rotate through the structure, say percussion first and the flute or oboe or whatever. This instrument outside the structure can act like a soloist which I think will perhaps help me to focus the piece around something.
If I do this I will have essentially two structural units: the inter-trio harmonic scheme and the solo and ensemble scheme. Around this the rest of the piece can be built. As well, there are the rather complicated scheme that creates and guides the tempi – first the merging lanes, the ensemble change scheme, as well as a larger mensuration scheme that will determine an overall tempo structure. I think this is okay because when we consider the four tempo layers, they only coincide every twelve beats. This means I will either have to have the piece written in a combination of three and four, or four alone, or else, and this is what I’m leaning toward now – using the mensuration signs, so we will begin in 3/1 meter. Now this is quite nasty for the players and conductor and so I have a lot of trepidation in using it.
I should also mention at this point that the whole piece is essentially in ritornello structure, in which this whole process will get put on hold for interruptions of the A – “traffic” section. This will be long in the beginning and at the end. At the end – the coda – I envision all hell breaking loose.
My thought is to come right out of the opening traffic section into a crazy section that will last about 15 measures before thinning out a bit. I think this will be able to provide me with a lot of melodic material as well as to delineate the characters of the various instruments – that is the primary modes of playing. This of course will not be audible but will give me some help.
January 19, 2007
I’ve actually quite terrified of composing this piece. I’ve put in several hours of actual composition and am not so pleased with the results. I think I need a new method of working with this and should likely think of it as a number of different trios that interact rather than a full score. In this way I think it would be much more manageable. I also think that I can then play with the relation of these trios (all within the structure I’ve set up) – so as to make them sextets. Think perhaps to how someone like Lassus works with a large vocal ensemble. I recall – and perhaps I should listen to it again – Lassus’ Lagrime de San Pietro – in that he has a large vocal ensemble, maybe 7+ that he manages to work with the small sections and bring in the full ensemble for dramatic moments. This could be a model for this piece as well. I’ll order the score.
posted by Todd Tarantino at
1:29 PM
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