Musical Composition: The Fir Tree

I've mentioned in several blog posts that I have tried composing in the past and that I want to keep trying.  This assignment was a great opportunity for me to experiment with my creativity and improve my composing skills, and I really enjoyed it.  The process was interesting, to say the least.

My original idea for this project was totally different from the way it turned out.  Initially, I was going to do a percussion piece using only office supplies.  I had come up with four characters and chosen rhythmic motifs for each of them to perform, but then (believe it or not) I actually had a nightmare in which the piece was a total failure.  In the nightmare, my group performed my piece exactly as written and it totally fell flat.  Everyone felt empty; there was no energy, no meaning, no connection.  I woke up in a cold sweat and realized all at once that I hadn't been staying true to myself as an artist.  The kind of music I was trying to write was not the kind that speaks to me, so how could I expect it to speak to other people?

I started over and took a completely new approach.  I took three of the four rhythmic motifs I had written for my original idea and set them as the foundation for my new piece.  Then, I found a beautiful poem called "The Fir Tree" by Josephine Preston Peabody, and I created a tune that I hoped would serve to convey the stirring mood of the poem.  I exchanged the office supplies for objects in nature that I felt best represented the story and the symbolism of the fir tree.  There is still a lot of percussion in my composition, but it's not longer just a percussion piece.  I wanted a solid melody line to be the principle story teller in my composition.  Adding tonality to my composition allowed me to employ my knowledge of chords and intervals to create combinations of pitches that would evoke specific emotions.

Is the result brilliant?  No, not at all.  It's very simple, and it's not going to knock anyone off of their feet.  But I like it because it's very me.  It's honest, heartfelt, and personal.  And I worked hard on it.  I even did the unthinkable: I totally scrapped my "shitty rough draft" and started again, and from my perspective, it was the right decision, even though it was a bit scary at the time.  I will reiterate that I do recognize that this piece is nothing to shout about, but I did use my brain in ways I had never used it before in the process of composing "The Fir Tree," and I feel that my composition skills improved.  I still do not consider myself a talented composer, but composing is something that I really want to excel at, and this assignment brought me one step closer.

For my graphic notation, I made something called an icon chart...kind of (pictured below).  I learned how to make these in a conducting class I took a couple summers ago.  I did not understand then, nor do I understand now, how to make an icon chart or what exactly they are supposed to look like.  I'm still learning about them, and I'm fascinated by them!  My understanding is that they are a form of macroanalysis that requires you to create visual representations of phrasing, dynamics, chord quality, etc.  My conducting teacher that summer told us that they could look however we wanted them to look, but that they should touch upon all important elements of the piece, and that we should be able to conduct from our icon charts without looking at sheet music.  I've been practicing making icon charts for different choral pieces all semester, and my format has changed for each one based on the nature of each piece.  While experimenting, I've sort of come up with my own system of notation, so I used it for "The Fir Tree."

The melody line is notated in pink; the rise and fall of the line on the page indicates the rise and fall of the pitch in the piece.  Beneath the melody line, each of the three percussion lines has a color and a symbol associated with it.  The symbol for the Leaves is a continuous line throughout the score because the Leaves rhythmic pattern doesn't have starts and stops.  The symbols for the Pinecone and the Hands are detached, and they appear on the page directly underneath the lyrics with which they correspond.  This is not really how you make an icon chart; it's just a little system I've devised to utilize in some icon charts if the need arises.

Working on this composition was a great learning experience!  I discovered new things about the art of composing and about who I am as an artist.  I plan to keep working on "The Fir Tree" and adding layers of meaning and intrigue until it's something I can really be proud of.