For this composition, I decided to use a few different things from my research, including minimalism, drones and suspended chords. I decided not to use the Fibonacci Sequence because I felt that it removed a lot of the creative aspects of composing.
To start with, I began by finding a melody on a keyboard using a grand piano sound. I did this because I wanted to base my entire composition off of this melody because it creates a minimalistic sound, also, i felt that the melody and the grand piano sound very much suited my sonnet. I based my melody off of a suspended chord, specifically a A sus 2 chord, as it set a melancholy tone that I felt suited the sonnet.
The next thing I did was find a bass line that would set the tone at the beginning of the composition that would also go with my melody. I based it off of an A Minor Scale because it gave the melody a very mellow type of tone.
Next, I began to start changing the instrumentation a little and I felt that to filling out the bass a bit would create more of a sound bed, so I decided to add in some of Logic’s ‘Orchestral’ sounds by having the bass part played with a ‘Full String Ensemble’ sound as i felt it was fitting to my sonnet.
Adding to the ‘Full String Ensemble’, I added another melody, but instead of short, staccato notes, I used sustained legato notes as it suited the strings sound more. This melody was also based off of the same A sus 2 chord.
The last thing for me to do, arrangement wise, was to actually arrange the different sections in an order that would build tension whilst also not creating too strong of a sound that would draw away from the sonnet itself. I eventually decided that all the sections would come in individually 4 beats, or a full bar, after the previous part came in, mostly because there wasn’t a lot of space to do otherwise, thanks to the reading being a minute long. The order in which the parts came in is as follows;
- Piano Bass Part
- Strings Bass Part
- Piano Melody
- Strings Melody
After all of this was done, I cleaned up the sound of the song by automating the volume of each part to fade in, or out, certain parts, etc. I also put some effects like reverb and delay on certain parts to tie everything together a bit more and give the whole composition a bit of a smoother, more ambient sound. I also did a final ‘master’ mix just to make sure that all the parts sounded right and to make sure they were the right volume, etc.