Lessons with Morivou

Morivou will be working on a piece for string ensemble.

From what he has told me, this will be more or less the first time he works on a piece for a string ensemble as intensely as this.

Hopefully we will be able to work on gathering some string technique as well as trying to get some tricks for writing something idiomatic for strings.

Ok, this will be hard, but good for me.

So, I have decided to being with a lyrical, smooth introductory section with sort of a wavy feel. When I'm done I will post it.

By the way, I am starting in the key of D Major.

Ok. I have finished the introductory phrase.

It starts out softly first, but it really didn't have the wavy feel I planned it to. And, it grows to a rather strong end.

a question now: why the double basses alone under your violas at the start?

generally speaking, avoid the large gap between sections, "skipping an instrument" as you have done here. The violas have a sort of scratchy plaintive tone, the double basses will be enormous and ponderous. why not simply go with celli one octave higher?

a counterpoint issue: the very first phrase ends with a rather dissonant oblique motion between the viola and the bass (measure 4-5), which "resolves" onto a unison F#. I would say that the effect is very weak, since you are going from rich harmony, to dissonant harmony to ... no harmony.

again at measure 9 you do this same dissonant voice against voice between violin and c-bass, and it again resolves on a unison.

You have to be very careful about the degree of "richness" you move to and from.

Consider a unison as a very sensitive sort of issue. It is, in reality, a complete lack of harmony. To move from tertiary harmony (3rds, 6ths) to strongly dissonant harmony (2nds, 7ths) and resolve the whole on a unison creates a sudden hole.

From a purely creative point of view, you have a nice opening statement in the viola... so why does that motif not return in the subesquant arrival of the string tutti?

Homework:

I'd like you to write 3 variations on the opening viola statement (the opening 5 measures).

simply three phrases, based on the same material. No harmony, just melody.

for example:

1. augment some intervals (turn a 5th into a 6th for example)

2. repeat a turn or phrase (like the quarter note triplet)

3. repeat a part in transposition

the 3 variations should be more or less the same length as the original phrase. 4-7 measures.

The idea here is to create material from which to extend your piece. Right now, we have a strong opening statement that is immediately forgotten because the orchestra moves on to something completely different.

Ok. So, I've finished my homework, early... But, I feel that there's nothing else I can do to them until you've looked at them.

I have placed them in a separate finale file and named each variation when it starts and when it ends. For my own benefit, I put a tag on the end that I think I could probably use in the piece.

The Variations did not follow your exampled pattern except as a reference, and I don't really think each variation follows a specific pattern, but if you want me to I could go back and change them to be following a pattern, I sort of just took the original theme and modified it three different ways.

The goal of these variations isn't to fill up with lots of decorative notes, but rather to find the very characteristic motifs that are inherant in your melodic fragment.

There are too many notes in your variations. What you have done are "classical era" style variations, where the underlying theme remains, however decorated with much fioritura.

What we're actually looking for here is to force your understanding of the actual melodic elements of the theme you've written, and to pull from it as many of its purely characteristic motifs as possible.

Without changing the rythmic nature of your theme, create 3 variations that will extend the range, the intensity, possibly the dissonance, of the original material. The guidelines I gave you were good ones to start with.

Look for two or three note patterns that can be repeated.

Look for brief patterns that can be transposed and repeated into a form of short sequence.

Ths is not the sort of exercise that can be through-composed (ie: composed in one shot). You must agonize over every note decision.

You need to train yourself to put careful thought into each note. I don't mean that every note needs to be justified by some technical rule, but that each note should be there for a reason.

Is this note a semi-tone higher than the previous because of the tension it creates?

Is that tension resolved?

Is that tension increased by the subsequant note?

Does this melodic leap come out of nowhere?

Does repeating and augmenting the leap create a new sense of destination?

Am I reaching the high-point of my theme too soon in the phrase?

These are all creative questions that you should be going over when you are creating a theme and developing it.

Ok, I'll try again. Will probably be a couple of days, though. I assume that's fine.

yes, there is no rush, actually.. there SHOULD be no rush.

the idea is to take the time you need and actually work on the exercises.

speed is not an issue here.

if you get through any of these exercises, even what seem like trivial ones, in less than an hour, then you didn't take enough time.

thank you very much.