Clemency

Composer • Improviser • Theorist

Music philosopher, humor theorist, burgeoning Street Fighter player and wannabe Dad. Seeking harmony.

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@clementcomposer
Mastodon: www.zirk.us/@clemency


The main melodic idea for this sketch is split across two instrument families (the strings and the winds). If my orchestration is successful, it should still feel like one followable line, that's giving itself a little back-and-forth.

This one has more of my personal style than previous sketches. On the whole I have been practicing craft somewhat strictly, with barebones throwaway tunes; this melody, I spent a little more time and fondness on. I hope you enjoy the result! Below is a breakdown of each instrument's intended purpose in the texture. Please ask about something interesting you notice! =)

INSTRUMENT ROLES for reference / study:
FLUTE: 1. main line, 2. thickening
OBOE: 1. main line, 2. thickening
CLARINET: 1. main line, 2. thickening
BASSOON: 1. main line, 2. thickening

HORNS: accompaniment
TRUMPET: support (resonance)

GLOCKENSPIEL: support (timbre)

VIOLIN 1: main line
VIOLIN 2: thickening
VIOLA: main line & thickening
CELLO: main line
CONTRABASS: accompaniment (supporting horns)


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @Clemency's post:

oooh, this is really fun!! I like the sense of whimsy the like, call and single note return motif has. I had no idea how this was going to resolve up until the very end, and I loved that sense of suspense and anticipatory confusion ("I don't know where you're going with this, but continu--ohhhh, yesssss")

Just looking at the notes, it's surprising the ending sounds as resolved as it does--pacing and rhythm are doing most of the work, little craft things to make it sound like (Ab chord - whoops? - ah, Ab chord) instead of (Ab - funky dominant harmony!! - Ab).

Even though that big stack of notes (Eb-G-Db-E-(B-C)) falls on the downbeat of the last bar, precedent was established in bar 5 that the last phrase resolves after the downbeat. Context tells us to expect the second half to 'rhyme' metrically with the first half. So what looks vertically like a Big Chord on that last downbeat, horizontally is actually strongly de-emphasized in favor of the Ab chords sandwiching it. Pretty neat!

This is one example of a pretty major concept (ha), which is the difference between a harmony that is an important structural landmark, and a harmony that is more incidental, an emergent phenomenon of voices' horizontal motion.

One of my favorite things about this one is the horn stabs. In the metaphor (thinking something over, brow furrowed, weighing options) I think of them as the character going "hm!" "hm." "hm?" Listen again with that in mind =)