Category Archives: Songs

Why add dynamics?

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It’s often one of my least favorite things to do, and I often push it off to the very end. I wrote a song a few months ago called Thou shalt call and the LORD shall answer. My first draft that I gave to the group had no dynamics on it at all. While we rehearsed it, it became evident that we needed to all be on the same page, so I put in some dynamics. It proved difficult to communicate clearly enough for everyone to catch exactly what I meant though, so I updated the score and gave them new ones.

I also noticed at rehearsal that the viola part was a little bit overpowering a few times, and I took out several notes to give the singers more space. It’s a reminder that rehearsal often clarifies things and it’s ok to change things. With the software I have available, it’s a quick thing as well.

Last night at dress rehearsal for the TSO (concert tonight! it’s sold out at the UVU) we were playing an arrangement for Ding Dong! Merrily on High by Heidi Rodeback. We played her arrangement with the choir for the first time, and she was listening. After we had played through the entire program, we got new parts, and played through it again. The entire viola section was disappointed because she had taken out our favorite part. But it’s not important. She decided our favorite part had to go, so that’s how it’s going to be. When you sit in the middle of the orchestra, it is difficult to judge how the balance is working as a whole.

Another note about dynamics. It’s one of the easiest things to change in a piece that’s written. It may say forte, but as you rehearse, your conductor tells you to change it to mezzoforte. Or any other change. But the dynamic marking is a placeholder for a change as much as it is a marking for how loud it is supposed to be. I think I’ll be more careful to put in dynamic markings for any pieces I write. I was going to send in a song to a competition, and I realized I had put in zero dynamic markings. So that’s why I worked through the song again, put in my markings, and wrote this post about why it’s a good idea.

Poetry attacks in the night

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Have you ever been just about to go to sleep, but then you get the first two lines of your next song? It’s almost physical, the words just come to you.

You grab your notebook that you keep for such occasions and a pencil and try to keep up as the words just keep flowing to you.

You know the title of the song, and you have a draft of the lyrics, when you start thinking of a melodic line to start out with. But it doesn’t stop there. You get the next four lines, and you don’t have staff paper or a computer with you so you just write down pitches, ideas that is a kind of shorthand that will help you know what you’re thinking when you get to the computer after the weekend.

You write in the chorus, the repeats, and through it all, you weep because you know the song has several depths and you have a hunch it will work well both for an instrumental solo or possibly a song if you choose to make it that way sometime. No, you weep because it’s your grief pouring out of you at the same time as the song is taking shape.

Well, I had one of those experiences Saturday. I haven’t had a lot of time to write down the music in my software yet, but my notes have been extremely helpful, for when I had a few moments to start on it.

The grief kept attacking me Sunday, and I could hear new rhythms that needed to be included. Because I like to take sabbath, I just wrote in a shorthand note to be able to retain the idea until later.

Adding the middle part

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After yesterday’s work on my song, I have a melodic line for the soprano, and most of the bass line for the piano (which I’m thinking might be played by a contrabass instead), and I’m filling in the right hand of the piano, which might be played by a guitar.

I’m finding that the line is kind of just flowing today. I finish the right hand of the piano part, and I think a guitar will play it very nicely, but it can work on the piano too.

I go to work on the rest of the bass line, and it feels like it’s almost writing itself. I save, and I guess it’s time to make a new score for the new instrumentation.

I’ve printed a score, and I’m ready to try it out with some musician friends.

Time to gather inspiration, and more work on the song

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Yesterday I delivered the parts and ended up doing very little to write more music. I prioritized playing my viola for a half hour when I had the opportunity because I think it’s easier to get back to the sound I love if I do it more frequently. Then when the kids were climbing, I had my viola part for the Mendelssohn quartets and listened to Opus 13, 80, and just barely started on 44 when it was time to wrap up.

How deeply emotional they are! I’m trying to put my finger on why they are triggering such profound emotions when I listen to them. I think it is because they have a certain melodic turn-shape, and then it’s the repetition of that same shape. It’s coming from one instrument, then from another. It’s in one octave, then in another. It’s at one dynamic level, and then it’s at a different one. It’s the lovely development of ideas, and then the juxtaposition of a very different sound. It’s the dance-like structure to some of the movements that make me want to get up and dance.

Studying the quartets with the viola part helps me hear that part especially well, and I know when to anticipate what I think is a general pause in the musical flow.

Today I’m looking at my song again. Adding in a measure of rest for the vocalist, because I think it’s too much to keep singing for so long, and it’s good for the people listening to have a break in listening to the text as well. I know I need to add in the piano part, and it’s more than I think I can do in one sitting. So I’ll just get started and we’ll see how far I get.

I decide to work on a bass line in the piano part, from right before I stopped on the right hand line. I’m realizing I am writing the part so that a contrabass could play the bass line, and I like it. It would sound great with a contrabass and some other instrument, maybe a clarinet, and soprano. Well, a clarinet could only play one note at a time. A guitar I believe could do it well, with the few chords I have written, and mostly melodic line accompanying with a single note at a time.

So I think I might write another instrumentation for this song once I finish all the lines. Maybe tomorrow.

Adjustments, more lyrics discovered

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Today ends up being a lot of different things. I start working on the hymn arrangement for Thanksgiving, go on to the wind symphony project, and finish on the Return of the King song project.

At choir practice yesterday, one of my earlier suggestions was revisited, and therefore there were some adjustments to make today. I’m writing in a verse of a different hymn in the middle of the song, and a small instrumental intro to that right after the first verse.

I’m taking a couple of risks here. I don’t know if the guitarist and/or cellist will struggle with the high notes, because I haven’t given them notes this high before, and I figure it could be a challenge – it is on many instruments. The violinist says she can do either octave from the part I sent her, so I will have us test it out on Sunday to hear how well it sounds at the high register.

The middle hymn is more subdued, and it’s in SSA instead of SATB format. So I don’t have all the instruments accompanying that verse, only coming in at times, and counting rests part of the time. I’ll want to have the choir test part of it a cappella, and have the piano optional for the entire song.

No key changes within the piece because I don’t want it this time. Some transposing had to happen to have both hymns in the same key, but it’s totally doable for the sopranos to go up to an F, so I don’t worry about that.

Because it’s fun to work on a big piece, I look in my folder for “Wind symphony,” and discover that I had started a score for the second movement months ago. I listen through the first movement, just over 3 minutes long, and I still like it. That’s good. I think it could go a little bit faster, but I like the themes, and the ideas and the development. It’s obviously needing the next movements though! So I guess I’ll get to that in the next little while.

Well, that song I worked on last week? I look at it, and it seems I’m missing something. I go back to the scriptures, and decide to include some more lyrics. Maybe I won’t need to repeat the lyrics, just melodic material, to make a more catchy song. It sure is superior to work with lyrics that are poetic (and these are definitely poetic). I add in what kind of amounts to a second verse of the “aria” if you can talk about this piece that way. I’m pretty excited. I think I’d like to sing this song some time.

Before quitting for the day, I add in the rest of the song (melody/vocal line). Its running time is five minutes now. Time to deliver the parts for the Thanksgiving song and maybe get dinner on the table.

Create something each day

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I give out two parts this morning from yesterday’s work. I have never actually written for guitar before, and I’m uncertain how it’s going to go over with the guitarist.

It turns out he’s been reading TAB notation, but that is something I am completely unfamiliar with. I’ve written it on a normal staff, and he reassures me that he can translate into the format he knows better.

I get to my computer, and I’m kind of dragging my feet today. That song I started working on earlier this week is itching at me, but I don’t know what I’m doing with it. I decide to just do something. I write in the right hand of the piano to accompany the melody line I wrote a couple of days ago. I find that adding in one more voice actually does a lot to inform the way the song will go – harmonic changes, interplay between voices, and in turn, the bass line, if that isn’t one of the first two.

Yesterday I did a scripture hunt for the word “Perfect.” I don’t know who will be wanting to play it, but I have this idea for a three-movement piece for wind symphony. I wrote the first movement some time ago, but I never got it performed, and I kind of lost heart and didn’t write the second and third movements yet. But I had found my notebook with my ideas for the second movement, and yesterday I worked on the ideas for the third.

It’s easy to just go on being busy without creating something. But I made a goal to create something each day, even if it’s small. One thing it has done for me is appreciate the Sabbath more. I’m kind of spent after trying to create something for six days straight, and it gives me a better rest.

Last year, I was practicing my viola so much all the time, that I started to feel an inflammation develop in my arms. After starting to observe a Sabbath rest one day a week from practicing, my inflammation went away, and I don’t have that problem anymore.

Another thing I notice is that when I play music, I am happier. So when I feel heaviness lowering down on me, it’s usually a good cue to go play some music.

I write some more of the piano accompaniment. Last night, I also listened to Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht. It is not quite as esoteric as his later works, and I felt it was very moving. Somehow, as I’m writing today, I find that his harmonies are still ringing in my head.

And I fill in the rest of the accompaniment to how far I’ve written. I’ve long looked up to Franz Schubert, who cranked out hundreds of Lieder in his short life. Or Charles Ives, who wrote lots of cool songs, which I was first exposed to from a piano teacher at Södra Latin. Maybe that is how it is: once you find the harmonic/melodic language you favor, it’s much easier to put out a lot of music quickly, if you just show up and keep doing it, a little each day.

After getting in a good practice on my viola, I feel very happy. I’m back working on writing the song, and I find the melody flowing to me easily. Suddenly I’m out of lyrics. Is this the end?

Unlikely. It feels like it needs some repetition. So I’ll figure that out, sometime soon, but not today. I add in the right hand of the piano accompaniment for the next 41 measures, and I’m starting to feel tired. I’ll leave it for tonight, and get back another day to this song.

Thanksgiving song arrangement

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I got a call from our assistant choir director yesterday who requested a simple arrangement of a song for Thanksgiving: Come, Ye Thankful People. So I guess I’ll make a score for this. The instrumentation is still not completely settled, so I’m wondering how this is going to turn out. But part of the decision making process obviously will be to write in all the melody and harmony that is already there, so it may be ok to just get going anyway.

I’m looking at the notes. I accidentally chose the wrong key, and when thinking about whether that could work, I saw that the setting was pretty low already in F, so going down to D was not going to happen this time. I am considering a key change to A flat major though, which I think would sound beautiful.

After talking again to the assistant choir director, she makes it clear that she does not want any key changes, so I scrap that idea. We settle on the instrumentation guitar, violin, viola, cello.

I write in a cello bass line and then a guitar part. The guitar sounds an octave lower than notated, and will be easy to drown out as it’s pretty soft. I’m thinking maybe to let the violin and viola pluck so they don’t get too loud. I’m listening through it now, and thinking that a piano actually isn’t necessary… I guess we’ll see what they think once we start practicing.

I start on the second verse, letting the guitar take the bass line. I want the violin to play an octave higher than the sopranos, but I am not sure how comfortable our violinist is with the high register, so I write it lower and the octave doubling, and ask the violinist to pick one octave. I add in some more phrase markings for the instruments. It can be hard to guess sometimes as an instrumentalist, unlike for the singers. It’s usually pretty obvious as a singer, because of the lyrics and punctuation.

I’m printing off parts and sending them off.

Reflections on rhythm

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I have been reflecting on rhythm a bit the last day or two. I guess I sometimes keep the rhythm very simple, and other times I play with it a lot. I’m not a percussionist, and I know they play with rhythm a lot more. Sometimes in the string section, we get to be percussive, and it’s all about the rhythm. Like when we played Mjölnir or The Imperial March for example.

I have learned about music for pretty much as long as I can remember. At first, it was all in Swedish, because I lived in Sweden until 2002, when I entered Brigham Young University as an undergraduate student in music. I had taken plenty of music theory, aural skills, composition and arranging classes, harmony, choir, vocal ensemble, piano, and I had also rubbed shoulders with lots of talented musicians in other fields (instrumentalists of most kinds, jazz players, etc.) which gave me some insight into their world.

But it wasn’t until I was in college that I learned the terms “simple meter” and “compound meter.” It’s very intuitive once you apply it to all the music you’ve heard and studied for 15 years or so, and it becomes another useful tool or term to use when talking about music. I’ll explain here briefly for those who may not know about it.

Simple meter is when the subdivision is 2. You have 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, etc., and the subdivision is the eighth note. Compound meter is when the subdivision is 3, and you have, for example, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, and so on. For a conductor, you beat one, but there are three notes to each beat (or you feel it if it’s not subdivided right there).

We were just playing the music from Avatar last week at our Halloween concert. One of the intriguing parts about the music is that it switches from simple to compound to simple subdivisions several times. Harry Potter symphonic suite is all over the place as well, and you get to play both. You can simulate compound meter by writing in triplets in a simple meter. And you can simulate simple meter in a compound meter by writing in tuplets.

When I write music that is based on words, the lilt of the language helps inform the rhythm. That is one reason I love working with lyrics, because inherent in most poetry is an interesting rhythm, and it helps me create what I think is an interesting line.

Try these:

“and the calf” with the rhythm two eighth notes and a quarter note

and

“cover the sea” with eighth note triplets and a half note.

You get the stress on the strong part of the beat, which makes it easier to sing, and easier to understand when you listen.

This way, the way you write rhythm reflects your interpretation of the lyrics, much like a reading would convey the way you understand the poetry.

As I’m working on the melody for my new song, I listen through, and find that there is one point where the word “and” lands on the downbeat of a measure, and it seems wrong. I fix it by adding in an eighth note to the previous beat, and moving all the rest of the notes one beat closer to the beginning, and it’s like I was imagining. It’s easy to make a mistake, but I’m glad it’s pretty easy to fix too.

I’m trying to decide which parts of the scriptures I’d picked to include, and which to skip over. Trying to include all the scriptures will be tedious, and people might struggle to understand certain wordings because they’re so archaic. For a song to be “catchy” like I suggested yesterday, repetition is extremely useful. Nobody can learn a song that doesn’t repeat anything except by practicing a lot, and that kind of is the antithesis of “catchy.” I would like it if people hear my song, and then start humming it, and that will only happen if I repeat an idea enough. So maybe I’ll settle with the material I’ve come up with and then repeat the ideas again, with some interesting (hopefully) twists.

Writing a melody

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For a song, the melody will be important. As I’m walking this morning, before it really starts snowing, my mind goes to the beginning of the lyrics, and I’m playing off the intro to get the beginning of the vocal line. My walking friends probably don’t notice that I just zone off for a moment while figuring this out.

I pull up my score and start writing in the first lines. I add in some accompaniment. I like sequences, because they make it so you feel like it’s not all new. As usual, I’m wondering if it’s any good, but decide to just keep writing, and edit later. Hoping that it’s not all going to get trashed. Hoping I can write a piece that has just enough challenge to be interesting, but not too difficult so nobody will want to sing it. Or maybe catchy, so everybody will sing it after they hear it. Hm, that would be something new, it hasn’t really been my style before.

At least the chosen selections from Isaiah are pretty powerful, and I’m glad to have some poetry to base the song on.

I don’t get very far today on this piece. But I talk to a friend about writing a piece for her, and that’s exciting.

Adding a title

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Having just finished two projects – one that took six months, another that took a couple of days, I’m thinking of how to start the next few projects. I guess it’s easier to have several running at once, so that if inspiration is low on one piece, you can always work on a different piece.

I resolve to just start a score, and I’m met with numerous choices. I’d decided on what instruments to include, so that was easy. Next, time signature, ok I decide on 3/4 because I worked in 4/4 last and I want some variety – key signature (I often pick atonal because I like to work with accidentals independent of the regular tonal modes) – title! Yikes, I don’t know what to call my piece. I think I’ll go help my son with his math and get back to figure out what to call my new piece a little later.

I go back to the computer, and my mind is blank. I find an article online that talks about how to choose a song title. And I see that Espie Estrella among many other things suggests turning to books that inspire you. I guess I’m listening to Return of the King, and decide to go for a working title, even though I have no lyrics. I have no idea what the piece will be yet. I’ll go watch the boys climb for a few hours and see if my mind churns up any ideas.

While they climb, I open up my Orchestration book (Samuel Adler, I’ve kept this one from my studies – it’s a treasure!) and I’m thinking of reading about the brass, as I want to write some brass pieces again soon. However, I am drawn to a section that talks more about scoring for orchestra, and transcribing one setting to a different one. I see an example on Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, and I decide I want to listen to the piece. I keep listening to a few different piano quintets, and I am thinking about how a piece really doesn’t need much to get started. A simple theme that can be varied in so many ways is enough. It’s the variation that is the most interesting part of the craft, although a compelling melody helps.

As I reflect on this process, it strikes me that writing a piece of music can be kind of like a hunt. You’re looking for a spot that’s a little warmer than complete blank. One thing leads to another, and eventually you find something that helps you continue creating. Last night, I made a playlist for the music my orchestra is playing for our next concert. I’m excited about the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves, because he seems to favor the violas, and I guess I kind of do too. This is not necessarily leading to anything tangible for my composition (this time I’m not including any violas), but I’m hoping I’ll be better prepared for rehearsal on Thursday.

I turn to scripture, a reliable source for inspiration. Return of the King is obviously a work of fantasy, but some of the images invoked in the story remind me of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I decide to do a search for scriptures about the return of the Lord, and I feel like I’ve struck gold. I listen to a conference talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson and I put some of the scriptures quoted into a document to prepare for making the song I want to write.

Back at the computer, I start working on an intro. I’m hoping that I can play out a melody to the lyrics I’ve started putting together, maybe tonight.