This semester, my focus has been on surrounding myself with as much music as humanly possible and exposing myself to the infinite genres and niche sub-genres the music world has to offer. I have been particularly interested in creating some shoegaze-inspired music, heavily influenced by bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins.
☆ I have also found myself trying to step outside of my comfort zone in terms of composition, trying to explore outside of the jazz feel that I am so comfortable in, making a concerted effort to explore other influences aside from the jazz greats that have served me so well in the past, such as Hancock and Coltrane. ☆ This semester I have become particularly interested in film scores and analysing the works of great film composers such as Hisashi’s work with Studio Ghibli and Desplat’s work with Wes Anderson, 2 completely different styles of music. I have also taken a particular interest in A24 movies and their film scores. I have explored the compositions of American saxophonist, Colin Stetson, who composed the soundtrack to the film Hereditary, the 2018 horror/spooky drama produced by A24 film studios. I find it really interesting to pick apart the way in which he uses a lot of dissonance without resolution to create suspense and tension, but in a way that is different to a lot of horror films from the past. Stetson uses ambient sounds such as those in ‘Funeral’ and ‘Second Sèance Pt. 1’ in a haunting way. I found it really uncomfortable to listen to these pieces on their own, which was a really interesting concept to explore. Having seen the film before, upon listening to the soundtrack on its own separated from the film, I found myself being almost transported back to what was happening in the film at the time. ☆ Finally, I have also been really interested in making music of compound time signatures, something I find pretty uncomfortable to do, as I haven’t had much experience in it. Influences I have found for these are composers such as the ‘math rock’ band, American Football, and their songs such as ‘Never Meant’ which is played in 6/4 time. I also find the song ‘Myxomatosis’ by Radiohead really interesting in that I thought it was in some kind of bizarre compound time until I tried to figure it out and realised it could just be counted in 4/4 and just had uncommon accents which my ears weren’t used to hearing, which has been a cool concept to explore. I have always found Radiohead to be a really big influence on most of my compositions but I could go on for days about them. ☆ I would say my biggest challenge this semester has been learning to notate for instruments other than saxophone, which is really the only instrument I have experience in reading music in. I have found it quite a learning curve (but an interesting one) to write for the piano with pedal notation and cross-staff beaming. I have also found it a lot of work to learn all the details of bowed string notation, and how things like bowing have such an impact on the sound and the feel, something that I have found to be a whole new form of expression I never previously worked with. I have found Alice Humphreys’ notation and orchestration class to be extremely helpful in guiding my journey through orchestral arrangements such as these this semester, as well as Behind Bars : The Definitive Guide To Music Notation, by Elaine Gould. |
speak up
Speak Up is my original one-page composition written for a single-line instrument; the tenor saxophone.
This piece was intended to sound pleasing to the ears (i.e not intended to be uncomfortable to listen to), and is meant to allow the saxophone player to feel like they can express themselves through performing the piece in terms of adding personal inflections etc., a skill essential to any jazz saxophonist. It is loosely influenced by the works of jazz composer Kerin Bailey, the works of whom I have become very familiar with playing. I rarely work with a single-line instrument when composing, so I found it pretty tricky to adjust to, as I’m pretty used to having at least 3 voices to create harmony. I found it kind of freeing to work with a single line instrument and not to be bound by a single key (not that you necessarily are when you work with multiple voicings), and being able to step out of the set key freely without creating unintentional dissonance and having to work around stuff like that. I initially struggled a lot trying to write a classical piece - a genre in which I find myself out of my depth, when I realised there was nothing stopping me from writing it in jazz/swing style. I had no intention for this piece in terms of structure, and sort of let it flow as the ideas came to me. It started off with picking up my own tenor and recording myself freely improvising, and then listening to it back and notating parts that stuck out to me that I liked. This is a compositional process that I find has helped me a lot with getting started with a piece and finding fresh ideas, especially in the “free-flow” jazz form in which I am experienced in. I had quite an issue with writer’s block after I finished section A, struggling to come up with ideas I was happy with for the next section, and after a while of writing some stuff down and experimenting with random things on the saxophone I was eventually satisfied. The next problem I had was making the 2 parts join together so it didn’t sound like they were 2 completely different songs. I eventually came to the solution of leaving elements of repetition to create some familiarity and bridge the gap between the 2 sections. I wrote the details (articulation, grace notes, dynamics etc.) In a similar way to this, but playing the notes back on my sax and making a creative decision on how I wanted that particular phrase to sound, as well as how I want it to contrast/blend with the rest of the piece as a whole and how I phrases to transition. For example, I decided to have complete silence in bar 17, marking the end of section “A”, before returning to a tweaked version of the repeating phrase from section A in bar 21, evolving the melody and not conforming to the way that the phrase had been played previously, defying listeners’ expectations and giving them something completely new.. I found this a nice way to vary the melody and rhythm of the piece so not to sound too repetitive, and to catch attention by using a version of the same melody to start with and then adding on a completely new melody. Speak Up is a piece that exists to tell the story of someone who has really good ideas and things to say, but is constantly being silenced by other people/things in their environment. This is conveyed by the saxophone starting off with playing a short phrase to ‘test the waters’, starting off almost ‘shy’. As the piece progresses, they continue to repeat this phrase between small breaks of silence, adding quick licks and riffs in between to vary the melody, increasing in complexity over time. Through this I was hoping to convey the development of a person’s confidence when they are finally listened to after being so used to being silenced. They start off shy and unsure and eventually get used to their environment and start to more freely express themselves and build their confidence as time goes on. In terms of this piece’s application in the real world, it would go well as a piece for an intermediate-level tenor saxophone student to learn, perhaps from online on something like scribd, which would allow them to build on their pre-existing jazz skills and learn new little licks to work into their improvisations. here is the piece being performed by the incredibly talented Blake Faulkner at Shock of the New. soundcloud.com/user-835489013/speak-up/s-ZNRo9mE3OVJ?si=abcb57c151e5467d8dd30e4a4b6c8cf3&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing |
blue light
Blue Light is my composition for the Break it up: The Birth of HipHop WAAPA composition showcase earlier this semester. I immediately knew I wanted to get involved with this because electronic music is something I really enjoy listening to and definitely have a lot of ideas floating around my head for, and I figured I might as well give it a try. It was definitely a big challenge composing a track for this, and in the end I ended up starting over completely about 6 times, because I wasn’t happy with the piece.
Working with Elise Swensen was really cool in the workshops, she gave me heaps of ideas to work with, and I had fun messing around with the samples she gave us. She also hugely helped me with a big issue that I have in composing anything, which is how to create variation in a piece. She helped me with repeating phrases in my logic session and tweaking them ever-so-slightly each time to help switch things up, as well as add different sections.
In the end, I went with the track that I made based on a sample of the song ‘Obtener un Si’ by Shakira. I’ve become really interested in sampling lately and the huge influence it has had on the hiphop industry since the birth of the genre. Artists I found really influential for my use of sampling were MF DOOM, Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar. The song I used is an upbeat Latin-style instrumental with Shakira singing over it, which I sped up, chopped and slowed down at different parts. It took a really long time for me to figure out what I wanted out of this piece in terms of timbre and how I wanted the tracks to blend, as well as making it a rappable track.
Working with rapper Marksman Lloyd for this track was super fun and it was a really cool experience for which I am really grateful to have had. I was originally pretty nervous to work with a rapper on this one because I have never really collaborated with another musician before, other than jamming with friends, so it was quite daunting, but something I definitely was keen to push myself to do. Mark was super nice and I think we worked really well together, I was stoked with how the track ended up sounding on the night, and I think he really outdid himself on that one. We worked pretty closely together about a week leading up to Break it Up, mostly me messaging him with lots of completely different draft tracks to see what he thought. I sent him a small snippet of this one and he really liked it and said he had the perfect rap for it so I honed in on that track, got it done and got it in just in time for him to rehearse and write his rap. It was pretty stressful and I felt bad having to make him wait but I wanted to make something that he was going to be comfortable rapping over so that the track could sound as good as it possibly could be. In the end i think we were both really happy with how it turned out, and he told me to feel free to send him any tracks I work on in the future for us to collaborate.
Working with Elise Swensen was really cool in the workshops, she gave me heaps of ideas to work with, and I had fun messing around with the samples she gave us. She also hugely helped me with a big issue that I have in composing anything, which is how to create variation in a piece. She helped me with repeating phrases in my logic session and tweaking them ever-so-slightly each time to help switch things up, as well as add different sections.
In the end, I went with the track that I made based on a sample of the song ‘Obtener un Si’ by Shakira. I’ve become really interested in sampling lately and the huge influence it has had on the hiphop industry since the birth of the genre. Artists I found really influential for my use of sampling were MF DOOM, Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar. The song I used is an upbeat Latin-style instrumental with Shakira singing over it, which I sped up, chopped and slowed down at different parts. It took a really long time for me to figure out what I wanted out of this piece in terms of timbre and how I wanted the tracks to blend, as well as making it a rappable track.
Working with rapper Marksman Lloyd for this track was super fun and it was a really cool experience for which I am really grateful to have had. I was originally pretty nervous to work with a rapper on this one because I have never really collaborated with another musician before, other than jamming with friends, so it was quite daunting, but something I definitely was keen to push myself to do. Mark was super nice and I think we worked really well together, I was stoked with how the track ended up sounding on the night, and I think he really outdid himself on that one. We worked pretty closely together about a week leading up to Break it Up, mostly me messaging him with lots of completely different draft tracks to see what he thought. I sent him a small snippet of this one and he really liked it and said he had the perfect rap for it so I honed in on that track, got it done and got it in just in time for him to rehearse and write his rap. It was pretty stressful and I felt bad having to make him wait but I wanted to make something that he was going to be comfortable rapping over so that the track could sound as good as it possibly could be. In the end i think we were both really happy with how it turned out, and he told me to feel free to send him any tracks I work on in the future for us to collaborate.
venus rising
Venus Rising was an orchestration task this semester which I found really fun to work on. I went into it with a rough idea of how I wanted the piece to go/sound. I knew that I wanted the pizzicato sound from the contrabass throughout the whole piece with no bowing.
I started off with the idea of a cartoon detective sort of feel, like sneakily tiptoeing around looking for clues. I did this through the bass to start off, adding the piano on the off beats after bar 2.
This idea evolved into a sort of repetitive octave rhythmic movement in the bass with the piano doing its own thing over the top, blending together in a weird way and playing a sort of unison 3-hit phrase every so often to bring them back together.
In terms of its use in the real world, I wrote it with some kind of cartoon cat burglar scene in mind, tiptoeing around the bank with a sack full of cash and a mischievous look on his face. So i think it would fit in on a kids’ cartoon tv show/movie soundtrack with a sneaky robber or something of the sort.
I wrote it by sitting at the piano and brainstorming ideas, until I found things that I felt fit my vision for the piece, which I wrote down into Musescore into the 2 separate parts. Obviously it proved that timbre was an issue in this process, as something doesn’t sound the same on the low notes of a piano as it does on the double bass, but I worked with what I had and I think it worked out well, and it was a good experience to hav
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted out of section B and it took me a lot of trial and error. I ended up going with the idea of the piano starting off the ‘sneaky’ part, almost like in ‘Jaws’, creating suspense, whilst the bass ‘crept’ around in the silences between the piano. This evolved into a call and response theme which built up into eventually alternating every 8th note in bar 24, before doing more call and response with more complicated, ‘jumpy’ riffs and suddenly ending.
I will admit that the structure of this piece is pretty basic, with an A section followed by a B section, but I found it suited the compositional vision I had in mind.
After a lot of tweaking and changing, I finally can say I am somewhat happy with the result of this piece, keeping in mind my original idea and how that idea evolved throughout the compositional process.
you can listen to the musescore-generated midi recording here: soundcloud.com/user-835489013/venus-rising/s-Ni1o9lC2LSB?si=401630433ae3439fa0b66c11903b9918&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
I started off with the idea of a cartoon detective sort of feel, like sneakily tiptoeing around looking for clues. I did this through the bass to start off, adding the piano on the off beats after bar 2.
This idea evolved into a sort of repetitive octave rhythmic movement in the bass with the piano doing its own thing over the top, blending together in a weird way and playing a sort of unison 3-hit phrase every so often to bring them back together.
In terms of its use in the real world, I wrote it with some kind of cartoon cat burglar scene in mind, tiptoeing around the bank with a sack full of cash and a mischievous look on his face. So i think it would fit in on a kids’ cartoon tv show/movie soundtrack with a sneaky robber or something of the sort.
I wrote it by sitting at the piano and brainstorming ideas, until I found things that I felt fit my vision for the piece, which I wrote down into Musescore into the 2 separate parts. Obviously it proved that timbre was an issue in this process, as something doesn’t sound the same on the low notes of a piano as it does on the double bass, but I worked with what I had and I think it worked out well, and it was a good experience to hav
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted out of section B and it took me a lot of trial and error. I ended up going with the idea of the piano starting off the ‘sneaky’ part, almost like in ‘Jaws’, creating suspense, whilst the bass ‘crept’ around in the silences between the piano. This evolved into a call and response theme which built up into eventually alternating every 8th note in bar 24, before doing more call and response with more complicated, ‘jumpy’ riffs and suddenly ending.
I will admit that the structure of this piece is pretty basic, with an A section followed by a B section, but I found it suited the compositional vision I had in mind.
After a lot of tweaking and changing, I finally can say I am somewhat happy with the result of this piece, keeping in mind my original idea and how that idea evolved throughout the compositional process.
you can listen to the musescore-generated midi recording here: soundcloud.com/user-835489013/venus-rising/s-Ni1o9lC2LSB?si=401630433ae3439fa0b66c11903b9918&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
moon song
moon_song.pdf | |
File Size: | 195 kb |
File Type: |
This piece is an arrangement for string quartet of my own personal interpretation of the original song by Phoebe Bridgers. Going into it I didnt have a lot of an idea what I was going for but I knew that I wanted to keep the form of the original and keep the melody exactly the same, focusing on my own interpretations of harmonies across the 4 voices of Violin I, Violin II, Viola and Cello.
I pretty much only used the original recording of the song for my reference while arranging this one. I started off by transcribing the whole melody how it sounds in the song into the violin I line, with some parts in the viola, then added the bass harmonies as my own creative choices. After this backbone was done, I used the same strategy with the contrabass to add harmonies to fill out the parts in violin II and viola. I found this method worked pretty well with me having a backbone to work off of and being able to change parts a bit as I went along and as I added more parts to the harmony.
soundcloud.com/user-835489013/moon-song-phoebe-bridgers-string-quartet-arrangement?si=0b1f2e85f0eb4182a8e334c71c895832&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
I pretty much only used the original recording of the song for my reference while arranging this one. I started off by transcribing the whole melody how it sounds in the song into the violin I line, with some parts in the viola, then added the bass harmonies as my own creative choices. After this backbone was done, I used the same strategy with the contrabass to add harmonies to fill out the parts in violin II and viola. I found this method worked pretty well with me having a backbone to work off of and being able to change parts a bit as I went along and as I added more parts to the harmony.
soundcloud.com/user-835489013/moon-song-phoebe-bridgers-string-quartet-arrangement?si=0b1f2e85f0eb4182a8e334c71c895832&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing