More Examples

During the last few days I spend a lot of time sketching the outlines of every segment. I discovered that it seems to be almost inevitable to have narrativity; I can see the already in this preliminary state. But I am still confident that the brevity of the segments and their quantity will prevent narrativity from ensuing.

Examples

I collected some examples on how the different parts might be based. Every part starts with a chord: This is the connection between the parts. Since the chord does not change throughout the piece there will be no development in the music. The snippets themselves will comprise of completely different material. So the entire piece will, hopefully, have cohesion but not narrativity.

Examples 1

Fresh start

I dismissed everything I wrote so far. I am feeling very bad about having three equal sized parts which meet my requirements in itself but are likely to fail as a whole. Sorry about that!

So I have to think about a new concept. Why am I so inclined to write something non-narrative in the first place? I guess that I like the tension in a piece of art which ensues, when something very different is forced together, something that would never be together under normal circumstances. In the past I wrote some pieces which forcefully glued together different types of antithetic musical material. But maybe I have improved over concepts which deal with such huge parts.

Instead of this I sketched a new form with consists not of three but of 31 parts. That's a real difference! So every part is now at most 80 seconds long, but in most cases much shorter. In doing so I expect the listener not to hear every part on its own but rather all parts flowing together. So the appropriate term for "part" might be "segment" now. Here are some calculations:

Some Calculations

In every row you may see the total duration. E. g. in the first row, the segment will be 15 seconds in total. I reserve four seconds for a chord which will initiate any segment. In a tempo with Quarters = 72 this segment will have 18 quarters. Let's see where this will leads us.

First Draft

I sketched a first draft for my composition. I assumed a duration of 15 minutes, which I divided in convenient part of 5 Minutes, of course, without the claim to set this in stone, yet.

I also computed the quantity of bars in each of the parts according to a certain time signature. It proved very helpful to me to outline these proportions of the piece at the very beginning, even if I dismiss them later. Thus I get an overview over the piece and can work on different spots at a very early stage. The following image shows the first draft:

So I know I have a total of 342 bars. Each of the three parts should comprise very different types of music, which I drafted on the next sketch:

The first staff shows an ascending line (for the first part) and the third a chord, extended by a fermata and a solo figuration (for the second part). The three staves at the bottom show an idea for the last part. I wrote "Regentropfen", which is the german word for rain drops. I envisioned a tone slowly flowing down a given interval like a rain drop running down a window, producing a tail of water behind it.

But what about the organization of these ideas inside the three parts? Here are my suggestions for the first and the middle part:

Each box stands for one bar. The peaks in the upper figure represent a high point in the ascending motif. A break in the line represents silence where such a high point is omitted. As the part develops, I add parallel lines of ascending motifs, maybe in a constant interval.

The lower graphic shows the second part. A huge chord works like an inital point where a solo is starting. The chord is slowly fainting and eventually renewed after a short period of time.

I have yet no idea how this solo may be look like, nor have I thought about the third part. I am sure these two parts have cohesion and avoid narrativity as well. But do they work together? Isn't the composition falling apart as soon as the first part ends and the second begins? We will see.

What's the story?

As a composer, one of my main interests is how coherence in music can be achieved, maintained, or avoided.

In classical music there are several devices which can be employed to achieve coherence, such as tonality, cadences and so on. This often leads to certain forms like sonata form, rondo form, which engender expectations in the listener. An expectation might be, that after a dominant comes the tonic, or that after a development section comes the reprise. In general, a certain decision of the composer is justified by what comes next, it decides if there is coherence or not. I call that a narration - a story, - which is based on coherent decisions.

But how to avoid narration but keep coherence? Philip Glass' famous opera "Einstein on the Beach", as well as other works by composers of minimal music, achieves this by employing repetitive patterns, which never narrate but keep coherence through the repetitions itself. 

I am inclined to find my own way to discard narration but keep coherence. My first choice is to use a string orchestra. It is, even more than the brass section, the most homogeneous section of the orchestra, though capable of lots of different playing techniques to generate different sounds. Thus I get a coherent and smooth sound with the possibility of making scratches to this glacial surface. 

We will see, what scratches that might be.

This is neverstory

Hi friends of new music!

my name is Benjamin - I am a composer.

In this blog I will document the development of my new composition neverstory. This work for string orchestra is not commissioned by any ensemble; I mainly write it for my own pleasure, however, I would be delighted if somebody is interested in performing it.

In the next weeks you can follow the genesis of a new work of music from scratch. I am going to post the sketches I made as well as the actual composition itself in every stage.

In the next days I am dwelling deeper into the concept of neverstory, my choice of instrumentation and other decisions.

I would be happy to answer any of your questions. Please consider following me via one of the social networks of your choice.

Let's get to work!