On Counterpoint

Playlist for Music Composition, Craft and Art

Here’s a playlist of 8bit’s videos, in chronological order.

Alan Belkin’s text Musical Composition, chapter 2, uses these seven examples

Fig. 2.1 Mahler Symphony 3 , Last movement

I had a couple of things that caused me to lose momentum since I last checked in. One is politics — after keeping away from news since November, I did finally Gaze into the Untempered Schism. I became depressed and anxious for several days. After that I started watching random Youtube shorts because I was too demoralized to focus!

Another reason for loss of momentum is, I’ve had trouble setting up a person / group to report back to. My former tutor is swamped right now. And the Discord server I joined doesn’t seem to be a good place for me. I haven’t figured out how to behave in that environment. Instead of working on the music project, I’m obsessing about how much / how little I should say in the Discord, did I say the wrong thing, are they wishing the awkward old lady would go away etc etc.

Back on track!

My daughter has volunteered to be someone I can submit things to once a week. Not that she is going to read them or listen to them — just that I can hand her the thumb drive and check off that box. Break the big project into smaller pieces.

This video was  helpful!

This is an amazing performance by Alessandro Granato and friends. Alessandro leads the channel Orchestral Fantasy and plays many of the instruments in this version.

First we hear a quick demonstration that the arpeggios of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier (book 1, prelude in C) form a progression of chords with wonderful voice leading.

He then plays a series of his own block chords, spread out over the right and left hand.

The chord progression evolves using different inversions of the chords, creating a melody floating on the top and a bassline on the bottom. The melody and bassline don’t ever duplicate each other, and often are moving in different directions! (I remember this idea from voice leading in Music Theory 2).

The results are lovely!

He then arpeggiates these chords several different ways. On the piano, bottom to top. On the piano, top to bottom. Then he plugs in the synth. Note that when the synth arpeggiator doesn’t quite line up with the musical phrase, he makes use of those little glitchy irregular moments.

Nathan talks about a period of time where he was trying to increase his following on Instagram, so he posted a synth improvisation every day. The Instagram account was a mixed success, but he was very happy with the amount of productivity that came from the assignment. He put together his album “Signals” based on the best of the improv tracks.

He says that it’s easy to get so into watching tutorial videos (or shopping for plug-ins? 😉 that you aren’t actually making music. His concluding remarks were “Give yourself an assignment; see it through to the end; do that over and over”.

Here’s my Planet Project in one Audacity file. This week I’m going to transcribe and think about this 5 minute section in the middle.

The overarching story of the whole album is setting out, finding, losing, and reaching acceptance. This middle section is after the Traveler has found her home planet and put down roots there. She is in a confident state of mind and is enjoying the exploration process (where many times before it was scary / uncomfortable). She visits several planets that are home to different kinds of Angular Creatures.

Min. 25 — Angular Creatures 1

Some warm, floaty chords with an analog synth sound as we land

An aggressive bass riff as a tiny but angry creature charges up to the camera, “yells”, and whacks the observer several times. The bass riff gets louder as the creature comes closer.

There is a squeaky sound on an irritating nasal note representing its skittering footsteps.

Its call is from the Angular Creatures motif, Bb Db C F#

Min. 26 — Angular creatures 2

We come in for a landing. Soft analog chords

We see two enormous angular creatures. They are peaceful. Their footsteps shake the earth (tympani). There are 2 orchestral chords which might be the observer saying “Wow…just wow”.

Min. 27 — Angular Creatures 3

We see one green angular creature with an insect like head; it skitters away. Next, a group of medium sized ones run around nervously. They call  (Bb Db C )

Instrumentation

a mallet instrument in the style of Frank Zappa
a rhythm track
a synth texture (from the synth plugin Kaleidoscope)
a vox “aaah”

Min. 28 — Angular Creatures 4

A scene at night. The mood is mysterious. Small angular creatures stomp past, stirring up dust. Their footsteps are synched to the beat of the music. A second drumbeat comes in when a second creature comes marching in from out of frame.

Min. 29 — Angular Creatures 5

Another scene at night. Human-sized angular creatures run around joyfully; one of them comes right up to the observer. This is the first time in the whole video that one of the alien creatures has acknowledged us. This happens again on the very last world.

In a sense this is the emotional high point of the album? All’s well with the world; the traveler is content. She is able to enjoy the moment because she knows she has a home to return to. The next stop on the trip is coming home to a planet that has been devastated.