Welcome to my blog

I have created this site in order to provide performers, listeners and composers with a description of a composer's experiences with the creative process. The posts will provide discussions of the inspirations, challenges, and successes of a composer from the inception of the piece to the culmination in performance. I will provide a link to where you can see and hear the works in progress. Comments and questions are always welcomed. They will not posted unless you grant me permission.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Poetics Movement 6

The last movement of Poetics is inspired by the poetic form Gogyohku, a Japanese poem that does not have a restricted syllable count and is used to record a fleeting moment.

Nighttime Tragedy

Sy Brandon ©2011 Sy Brandon

Sirens screech like banshees
Split the silence of the night
In bed I pray
For the dead
And for those that survive.

My music for this movement is a little over three minutes in length, much longer than the poem. I tried to capture the two contrasting parts of the poem, first the tragedy itself and then my feelings while lying in bed. Both of these take time to unfold musically.

The sirens are represented by the glissandi in the viola. Unfortunately the artificial playback of these glissandi does not capture the sound I'm hearing but it will give the listener an approximate idea. The double bass line captures the anxiety of the crisis through diminished sounds and tremolos. Measures 10-13, with it's rhythmic intensity and chromatic harmony, represents EMTs rushing to the rescue.  These two ideas alternate frequently until M 38, where a third sound, the horn of a fire engine (diminished 5th double stops in the double bass) enters. This section ends with the two instruments doing the fire engine horn followed by a low tremolo in the double bass (m. 51-54).

M. 55-76 serves as a transition to the prayer section by a gradually slowing descending line punctuated by pizzicato heartbeats. The prayer goes from M 77-end and is hymn-like in design.

I am now using flip pdf technology for the musical examples that go along with my posts. It uses Flash Player that most browsers come with. You will be hearing an mp3 of sampled sounds playing the music and you will see the score at the same time. You will need to turn the pages by clicking on the arrows at the appropriate time. To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/poetics_blog.html.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Poetics Movement 5

Movement 5 is based on a cinquain, which is an American Poem invented by Adelaide Crapsey. It is five lines long and uses a syllable count of 2,4,6,8,2 to determine the line breaks. Three possible variants are mirror 2,4,6,8,2,4,6,8,2; butterfly 2,3,6,8,2,2,4,6,8,2; and reversal 2,8,6,4,2. I combined mirror and reversal in my poem therefore creating a syllable count of 2,4,6,8,2,8,6,4,2.

Uncertainty

Sy Brandon ©2011 Sy Brandon

Soft hugs
Warm caresses
Words of deep affection
Your beauty ignites my senses
Hoping
Can my thoughts be echoed by you?
How can I let you know
What my heart feels?
Don’t know

The syllable count is reflected in the number of notes in each phrase with the exception of measures 13-16 and 30-end where I repeat the two syllable (note) phrase "don't know" four more times to add to the uncertainty. M. 17 begins a repeated variant of the poem as the music was too short without it. I tried to keep the music mostly homophonic in order to not obscure the syllable (note) count, but it also serves the purpose of creating a calm, contemplative movement that is in contrast to the other movements of the piece. The only place I depart form the homophonic style is in measures 8-10 and 25-27 as these sections are canonic reflecting the words "Can my thoughts be echoed by you?"

I am now using flip pdf technology for the musical examples that go along with my posts. It uses Flash Player that most browsers come with. You will be hearing an mp3 of sampled sounds playing the music and you will see the score at the same time. You will need to turn the pages by clicking on the arrows at the appropriate time. To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/poetics_blog.html.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Poetics Movement 4

After about  month of running back and forth to rehearsals and performances of my "Arizona Centennial Overture" in honor of Arizona's Centennial, things are calming down again. During that time, I managed to work on and complete the 4th movement of Poetics. The influence for this movement is the bantu poetic form.

The bantu originated from Swahili speakers therefore incorporating the idea of call and response. The stanzas are couplets where the first line is more metaphorical and the second line more concrete. Since I wanted this movement to be at a fast tempo and to contain a lot of energy, I wrote a bantu about competition.


Competition Bantu

©2012 Sy Brandon

The hope of a new season
Unfailing optimism

The return of the team core
Reunion

Those with promise not yet realized
Freshman class

Unexpected talent discovered
Surprises

Who will stay and who will go?
Anxiety

Working on things you already know so you don’t forget them
Drill

The strong and weak make music together
Rhythm

A chance to wow the hometown crowd
Opening Day

A grueling test of endurance, talent and fortitude
The season

The only time you root for other teams
The standings

The Darwinian Principle: Survival of the fittest
The playoffs

A tug of war where dreams are realized or shattered
The championship

A chance to say, “There’s always next year”
The loosing clubhouse

A fleeting moment of glory before the need to prove oneself again
Celebration

Call and response between each instrument permeates this movement with alternations of which instrument is the leading voice. M. 1-15 reflects the first stanza and I used a lot of rising lines to reflect hope and optimism. M. 16-36 represents reunion through the use of double stops. M. 37-56 represent the next two stanzas where promise (triplet figures) and surprise (wide intervals) are the themes.

M. 56 & 57 serve as a transition to a slower tempo. M. 58-71 create anxiety through pizzicato and tremolos. M. 72-88 connotate drill, through repetitive triplets, and fundamentals, through descending fifths. This section concludes with M. 89-106 where downbeats and afterbeats represent working together with rhythm. 

M. 107-109 serves as a transition back to the original tempo. My ears were shouting at me to return to the opening material and not introduce any more new ideas. As I read over the poem, I realized that the emotions of stanzas 8-12 are similar to the emotions of the first four stanzas, so returning to the opening material made sense poetically as well as musically. The last two stanzas are reflected from M. 156-end.

I am now using flip pdf technology for the musical examples that go along with my posts. It uses Flash Player that most browsers come with. You will be hearing an mp3 of sampled sounds playing the music and you will see the score at the same time. You will need to turn the pages by clicking on the arrows at the appropriate time. To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/poetics_blog.html.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B