Stark "noir" piece in progress

Hiya! I am kind of in a rut with this. I guess it's atmospheric, but I kind of want it to escalate into something dramatic.

One nagging question is where to go with the instrumentation. Should big sweeping strings roll in? Should the drummer go crazy? I can imagine all that, but then I can't figure out how to segue into it.

It probably also needs some contrast before returning to this theme. The way it is now, it seems like the most natural thing in the world to begin on yet another iteration of the same thing, but by then it really should start to mix things up.

And I'm dying to have the instruments play something more interesting, but I have been going for instrumental simplicity so far.

I wonder if the harp is written okay. I read this for some guidance: https://www.danielleperrett.com/writings/tips-composing-for-harp/

Do you think the chords may be a little atypical for harp in that they are not broken and only slightly rolled? At least they are all four-note chords, so I hope that would be easy enough? Having never had my hands on one, I'm left to guesswork.

Then you might say, why write for it at all if you don't know it well, but I'm going to give it a hopeful try, because it's a really pretty timbre.

I didn't notate the drum part yet because it's the same every single bar until it rests, and because I don't know how to notate it.

Trivia

Up until bar 36, the harmony sticks entirely to the scale or set {A, Bb, C, D, Eb, Fb, G}, and I think the melody only breaks away from it a couple times for color. This was actually the device that inspired me initially.

I don't know what this kind of parent scale is, but I thought it was very interesting in terms of harmonic progressions, and also in terms of possible sonorities. I want to explore that some more.

Sus chords really help when limiting your pitch material like this; they can hint at various major and minor triads not available in the material and take you half the way there, or ambiguously through merely suggested harmonic territory.

Unlike harmonic and melodic minor, this scale contains no augmented fifths or diminished fourths, so when the D augmented seventh chord is rolled by the harp in bar 36, it sharply breaks away from the predominant intervallic content.

Could be a good atmospheric mood.

The scale looks like some sort of A Jazz (minor) pentatonic with added 2b?

I guess?

About ways to develop it...

it depends on what you'd like it to become.

It could basically stay on the same feeling, maybe with added light wind instrument (say Sax or Clt).

You could simply use it once in a while, as a second voice or as a background sound.

Generally static music such as this could be well used for a computer game.

You could or maybe should replace the harp with a guitar, unless you like the harpy sound.

I personally think that you should variate the basic rhythm once in a while or at least add another background sound,

at some places it sounds a little boring, just this simple four quarters pattern.

Also I think you might want to change the bass pattern once in a while.

Thanks for the points of critique. They're all valid, but I still think what's laid out here calls for slow development even if it's boring. In time, everything will change. Patience is important in life 😛

I've developed it some more, and got it up to a modulation for a B section, except I haven't written that B section yet.

I had hoped it wouldn't turn into static (as in background) music, but you're right; that's what it is. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's just not what I had aimed for in the beginning. I love long and subtle buildups that lead into something powerful, and that's what I wish I had achieved... Maybe I can still achieve it?

I wouldn't like sax or guitar in this, but thanks for the suggestions. Not that they wouldn't fit in, but I just don't want to do a really jazzy arrangement for this. The brush drum kit could give one the impression that this was going for a classic jazzy vibe, but mainly I just wanted it for the effect. Instead I've got solo strings, celesta, flute and clarinet now. But accordion could have been very interesting come to think of it.