I wrote Morpha after a period of 'melody-block'. During this period, I wanted to create SOMETHING so I can practice using modulation: changing from one scale to another smoothly with a pivot chord. After doing three other tunes... The Challenge, an awful sounding thing that uses a Bb seventh with a flatten fifth tritone; The Adventure, a more standard tune in which I used circle progression for the first time; and Visit to China, a short tune in which I practiced using the Oriental Pentatonic... I briefly looked at usenet to see how other people developed melody. You can do it first, but finding a chord progression to go with it can be difficult. Doing the chord progression first though has the other extreme. The melody is easy to find, but usually don't sound attractive enough. I agree with the famous, and very hard to live with, Arnold Schoenberg that one should develop them both simultaneously. This is where I shall begin.
Constructing Melody and Progression
I had this tune in my head for a while, and trying to put it up there on my computer screen only succeeded in doing one thing... making my right temporal lobe throb. Those who suffer from writers block complain frequently when they feel major masterpieces flow in their brains but can't put it down into words. That was my problem. I wanted it to contain 3 parts. The first gradually rose, with a long note ending. The second rose and than dropped sharply. The third part is twice as long, but still had the long note ending. After making melody after melody after melody, I broke down and looked at that common chord progression chart I had. Here it is in the major keys:
|ii| | V |
iii => vi => | | => | | => I => (to any other chord)
^ |IV| |viio|
\ /
--------------------
I quickly learned why you should do the melody and progression together. I had an abstract melody, but without the chords to go with it, it was meaningless.
Since I am planning to modulate from scale to scale, I decided to keep it simple at first... C-major, the most cheesy scale (which is plain American cheese, I think). I knew that the first two parts of the melody begin with the tonic, followed by two additional notes, with the first part ending high and the second low. So I chose the following, using the above chart for guidance: I, up to ii, up to V, then back to I, up to IV, down to viio. The V and viio are twice as long (i.e. half-notes instead of quarter). For the longer third part, which I don't have an abstract melody to, I first did the second more gradually increasing before dropping out, then rise a little and return to finish at the tonic: I ii IV viio I ii I. Again, the final I is twice as long. I wrote this. Here it is, with the C as tonic.
I saved that into my fiddling file. After a couple more failed attempts, I got a working melody. The chord progression itself is done by measures, not notes. A quarter-note = one measure. The melody though is there. Knowing that, the first movement was easy. First I recorded the first bass chords in piano:
That is C, Dm, and then two G chords; the first part of the abstract melody. The real melody remains the same except I had to shift the pitch to match the chords, with some possible modifications. I wrote that next as the violin:
The flute sound I made a new melody out of, usually by asking it to do whatever the violin isn't doing. I did this with The Adventure too. For example, if the violin is playing a long, slow half-note, I tell the flute to play the other notes in the chord fast. Some exceptions are allowed if necessary. (I also realize I occasionally break some melody rules which certain traditionalists preach) With that as the working plan, the melody comes out naturally:
Finally comes the treble part of the piano. I just make it a broken chord. After some fiddling, I came up with this:
That completes the first four measures, a little more than 7 seconds. I decided not to bother with an introduction. The first movement had 12 more measures to go. I continued the chord progression I cooked up in the bass piano, shifted the violin melody pitch to match the chords, continued to let the flute to follow those guidelines I made, and the treble piano to continue with what it was doing.
Modulation I
Here is the fun part! If you listen about 31 seconds in, you hear that something is happening. Before I go into how this is achieved, I have to explain what I want after modulating. I wanted a reasonable challenge, so I decided to change to B-minor, a different gender scale with two sharps. The core melody with go from the violin to the treble piano. The other three tracks will have various broken chords. The fast flute will slow down. The violin will speed up a bit. And the bass piano will take over for the treble piano.
I also noted that the score told its 'story' in parts made up of four measures. So I made the transition from C-major to B-minor into four measures also. It will begin with C as tonic, play a different chord, have the pivot chord, play a different chord in B-minor, then play the B as the new tonic. During these progressions, each track notes will rummage about (in a panic?) trying to find its new place before the melody proper begins again. I decided the four measures will look like this:
| C C C C | X X P P | P P X X | B B B B |
C = Cmaj tonic
B = Bmin tonic
P = pivot chord
X = some other chord
To do this, two questions must be answered. First, what chords do C-major and B-minor have in common? Answer: Em and G. Second, how? I decided to look at that common chord progression again, modified for C-major and B-minor
| Dm | | G |
Em => Am => | | => | | => C => (to any other chord)
^ | F | | Bdim |
\ /
-----------------------
| C#dim | | F# |
A => D => G => | | => | | => Bm => (to any other chord)
^ | Em | | Adim |
\ /
--------------- A and Adim may have a # for harmonic minor
They have Em and G in common. Since I want something inbetween the two tonics and the pivot, I choose Em so only one chord is inbetween the pivot and Bm. To have something inbetween C and Em, it has to be Bdim.
Before going further, I did the first measure of the new movement as reference. I then made a change in the key signature in the middle of the pivot chord. (The listener won't notice any change since Em is a common chord) I then made each track scramble around in their own panic ways. I just let them talk to me, you might say.
The flute and the violin wanted to do something goofy, so I allowed them to mirror themselves as the flute slowed down and the violin speed up at the pivot. They also quieted down since they are no longer carrying the melody. The trible piano lost its second voice, slowed down a bit, then argued with me about having to remain slow when it found out the flute and violin was quieting down. The bass, wondering what all the fuss is about, went from one to two beats a measure immediately and started becoming a broken chord at the last measure.
Here it is with all four tracks shown in one picture.
After all of that, it just replayed the first movement with the changes I already mentioned.
Modulation II
The tune continues till it reach the second pivot. I decided to go from two to four sharps in a major key; from B-minor to E-major. I had to, of course, rework the pivot in this case.
| C#dim | | F# |
A => D => G => | | => | | => Bm => (to any other chord)
^ | Em | | Adim |
\ /
--------------- A and Adim may have a # for harmonic minor
| F#m | | B |
G#m => C#m => | | => | | => E => (to any other chord)
^ | A | | D#dim |
\ /
--------------------------
I chosen A in natural B-minor for the pivot. From Bm it will go to Em, then A, go to D#dim, and finally E. As for the melody, the third movement will happen like it did in The Adventure. The flute and violin resume their old roles, except that the flute is an octave higher. The treble piano though, not wanting to be outdone, is done in two voices, one following the flute and the other the violin. But here is the thing: it plays the two other notes of the chord the other two are NOT playing. For example, with the progression using the E chord, {E G# B}, if the flute is playing E, the voice doing the flute plays both G# and B. Here is the first four measures showing this. Compare it with the ones above.
Finally, the bass will do two beats a measure. At a minute and 11 seconds, you will hear the first of the four measures of this pivot and the notes, once again, scrambling into position for this final movement. Wasn't that difficult, although each track minded its own business. The flute though got excited there, right before the final movement started.
As for that crazy new treble, it is tedious but not hard with MW2K, the program I use. What I did was copy the flute onto the clipboard, went to a temp file, and pasted it. Ditto for the violin with the same temp file. I then created two new tracks, one below the flute and another below the violin. This made inputting the notes easy and, although it frustrates me when it happens, find errors. I then make each of the new tracks into Channel 3 (the channel for the piano), give each its own voice, and paste one on top of the other. It if worked, I take this from the temp file onto the file I am writing the tune onto.
The Ending
Here I just find my way back from E-major to C-major by reversing the modulation I did earlier.
| E E E E | D#dim D#dim A A | A A Em Em | B B B B | Adim Adim Em Em | Em Em Bdim Bdim | C C C C |
I realized I could have gone from Em to Bdim instead of B, but I decided not to. I also 'lost' a measure. This starts at a minute and 53 seconds. The treble is the first to feel the ending coming as it started to slow down right after the first pivot. Then right after the second, the other three tracks begin to slow down too till the final tonic C is played. The treble, the most extroverted track, had to chime in at the very end.
Closing words
I wrote this up mainly because I am still very new at composing music. I am more motivated to write a score when I learn something new than anything else. I do have a few e-pals who know at least a little music theory, so I hope they and anyone else reading this might have some comments and suggestions.
Brian Ogan
www.geocities.com/patriciointp/