Composing again

Finally I started composing today. I must say, although I have been sketching and planing all my material since April, two pieces were responsible for this finally happened.

First of all was "Let me tell you” for soprano and symphony orchestra (2013) by Hans Abrahamsen, starting from bar 112 made me think in how can I transform my harmony from chord to chord in a very organic way without being monotonous.

In this section the composer chose to use a sort of descendent scale where he can explore the notes of the chord he is using in a sustained way without being long notes (image 1)

Image 1 - Let me tell you by Hans Abrahamsen using a slow material without being monotonous


Then “Ends Meet” for marimba and string quartet (2002) by Luís Tinoco, first movement “Tempo giusto, quasi meccanico” made me think in how can I transform my harmony from chord to chord in a very organic and rhythmic way.

In this section the composer chose to repeat the same chords on the marimba and string quarter, playing with crescendos and diminuendos and making, times to times, accents on the marimba line that will affect the string quartet (image 2).

Image 2 - "Ends Meet"(2002) by Luís Tinoco accents on the marimba and the effect that create on the string quartet


This section is made by three different materials: 1st - the repeated notes making a chord transformation more organic (image 3); 2nd - the sul. pont. gesture that is made by the strings which is a sort of melodic gesture (image 4); and 3rd - a long notes gesture made by the strings at the same time that the marimba hold the repetition of the same note (which can be a suggestion for next section) (image 5).


Image 3 - "Ends Meet"(2002) by Luís Tinoco repetition of the same chord, playing with dynamics


Image 4 - "Ends Meet"(2002) by Luís Tinoco sul. pont. Section made just for the strings


Image 5 - "Ends Meet"(2002) by Luís Tinoco long notes section


Finally after both pieces, I started composing. At the beginning I started with a repetition of the chord in the string quartet. However, I wanted to create a tempo instability so I did a ritardando going to from 120 bpm to 40 bpm and then accelerando from 40 bpm to 100 bpm where the section I had sketched on the 3rd September appears for the first time. It’s an unison making the first section of the melodic line/gesture I sketched (image 6)

Image 6 - Colours ( ) melodic gesture sketched on the 3rd of September, applied to a music context


After this I created three layers: the first is the repeated notes, the second is the melodic/gesture I sketched before and the other is the guitar that create some instability, using the notes from the chord I had created and every time the guitar plays them that have an immediate effect on the string quartet (image 7). These layers are visible at the same time from bar 25, however they are not constant.

Image 7 - Colours ( ) bar 25 and 27 - three different layers at the same time

The Hans Abrahamsen inspiration and the ritardando and accelerando section at the beginning can be a bit confusing. Abrahamsen emerged as a way of transforming my harmony - in a slow way without being monotonous - creating some movement inside the chord and then transforming it into other.

When I started to think about the piece, I thought: is this a slow or a fast piece? I wanted, at the beginning, to do a slow piece, but I realised that I wanted to do a fast piece as well. So, the ritardando is to transform the same material, which started fast, into a slow material. Transforming this material from semiquavers to a syncoped-crochet will allow me to create the anti-monotonous gesture I wanted into the slow section (image 8).

Image 8 - transformation into a fast section to a slow section