Context
In this unit we had to compose a piece of music to put to s Shakespeare sonnet and a video that the media students had created. Our music had to be appropriate for the style and mood of the sonnet. I was advised that my piece should be minimalist. My sonnet was sonnet 18, which is quite an upbeat sonnet about good times and the summer, which meant I would have to use major chords and make the composition sound summery and happy.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Research
One song that I used as research was sonnet 18 by David Gilmour in which he uses the sonnet as lyrics in a song. In this song it is in a major key and has a flowing feel with droning synth in the background and major chords on the piano. It also has a repetitive riff on the piano, which is an arpegiated major chord. It also has string instruments flowing in the background, which gives it a pleasant sound and feel. I used this song as a big inspiration for my composition.
Another song that I used as research was metamorphosis by Philip glass. This was because it is a well-known minimalist piece. It has just one piano and slowly introduces different musical ideas throughout, some so subtly that you may not notice them. This was good for me because it helped me to understand how you can do a lot with little instrumentation, and how you can introduce and remove ideas without it being so abrupt.
Practical skills
I started to compose this song by picking a key, I chose C major and chose to base my composition around the C major chord. I started with a drone in the background of a low C on a deep synthesized instrument. This was my base for the composition. I developed on this to form the rest of the piece of music. I then faded in a C major arpegiated chord sequence on the piano, this idea would repeat throughout the piece, it would be the main melodic idea in the piece. I had different drones introduced throughout, such as the low C then playing the octave above. I also introduced a harp in the piece, again playing an arpegiated chord. This was effective because it brought back the previous arpegiated sequence but on a different instrument which added more diversity and gave a noticeable difference to the piece. At the end of the piece, I had an oriental scale played on a distant sounding plucked instrument. This, along with the drone in the background gave it a flowing summery feel, which suited the sonnet perfectly.
Evaluation
Overall, I think that my music suited the video and the sonnet, it was summery and free sounding because of the drones and major arpeggios. It was the perfect length for the video, as I had to cut some out since the video was shorter than expected. The media students who I worked with said they liked it as it was and didn’t want anything to change. All of my ideas worked well with each other and faded in and out without any clashes.
However, if I were to do it again, I would give more variety by switching up the drones because it started to sound a bit fuzzy towards the end. Also, I would add some sort of nature effects like animal sounds or wind blowing to again make it more summery sounding.