collaboration - quiet.
Aside from music, another passion of mine is reading and creating comics. I seriously thought about pursuing comics as a job before I stumbled onto composition. Anyway, I'm scrolling through the webcomic site tapas.io, and I find this great comic by Lenands, someone who I've been following for a while:
This comic, called "quiet", pubished May 26, 2020, is in response to the covid-19 situation in Brazil. The instance I look at it, I immediately think that this would be very cool as a four part piece for a small number of acoustic instruments. Remembering that I have an assignment about collaborating with someone, with a lot of leniance due to the virus, I thought that this would be a cool idea, and thus I approached Lenands for permission to make music to the comic. She said yes, and I got to work on four pieces which culminate in the four movement piece quiet.
overall analysis
There's a couple things before going into the movements one by one that might help with understanding the music as a whole. First of all, the overall tone of quiet is a sense of nostalgia and serenity in the eerily quiet landscape of the modern conurbation, if it wasn't obvious from the comic above. Another interesting the comic above is that it's fairly neutral on the situation it's commenting on. The colours are muted, and though fairly far apart colour-theory-wise, aren't harshly contrasted against each other. It's calm, lonely and feels like it's saying that the virus was inevitable, and though it is a horrid thing, it will, like all things pass, and thus capturing this moment is important. It's melancholy and beautiful.
Enough about art analysis, (we get it, you studied visual art in high school), and more on the music side of things. The piece isn't experimental by any means (aside from the questionably serious use of melodica, which is more trivial than experimental), and is fairly conventional on all fronts. The music stylistically draws inspiration from a couple different sources, mainly video game soundtracks and musical theatre, two things that I used to consume like an inescapable black hole. More specifically, the Pokemon soundtracks, as weird as it sounds, have really guided my ear on what harmony is (I'm currently playing Pokemon White 2, a game I played 8 years ago, and the chords in that game and quiet are scarily similar, particularly the End Credits and Signs of the Beginning), and the melodies and harmonies to some degree are in line with the modern musical (Be More Chill, Little Shop of Horrors, the musical I wrote last year and realised was trash). The key centres for each piece are fairly linked, the first movement is in D, while the second is in the dominant of A. The third is the dominant's dominant of E, and the final movement is in G, which sort of links back to D, which I will get to eventually. There is also a couple repeating themes throughout the piece (and not just in the fourth movement), including the overuse of the subdominant minor chord, playing into the outer octaves of the piano, long crescendos and decrescendos, way too many ritardandos, each movement is arguably through-composed, the use of chords as a melody, an overall dramatic tone and obvious harmonic structures.
Enough about art analysis, (we get it, you studied visual art in high school), and more on the music side of things. The piece isn't experimental by any means (aside from the questionably serious use of melodica, which is more trivial than experimental), and is fairly conventional on all fronts. The music stylistically draws inspiration from a couple different sources, mainly video game soundtracks and musical theatre, two things that I used to consume like an inescapable black hole. More specifically, the Pokemon soundtracks, as weird as it sounds, have really guided my ear on what harmony is (I'm currently playing Pokemon White 2, a game I played 8 years ago, and the chords in that game and quiet are scarily similar, particularly the End Credits and Signs of the Beginning), and the melodies and harmonies to some degree are in line with the modern musical (Be More Chill, Little Shop of Horrors, the musical I wrote last year and realised was trash). The key centres for each piece are fairly linked, the first movement is in D, while the second is in the dominant of A. The third is the dominant's dominant of E, and the final movement is in G, which sort of links back to D, which I will get to eventually. There is also a couple repeating themes throughout the piece (and not just in the fourth movement), including the overuse of the subdominant minor chord, playing into the outer octaves of the piano, long crescendos and decrescendos, way too many ritardandos, each movement is arguably through-composed, the use of chords as a melody, an overall dramatic tone and obvious harmonic structures.
movement i
The first movement is fairly triumphant and regal. It's based on some song that is lost in my memory, as the melody and harmony is something that I developed very long ago, and I've been trying to push out of my head and on to a finished piece of music, and it seemed to fit with the theme, so I used it (that isn't the last time we'll be seeing very old ideas used in this piece). Even without the context, it feels nostalgic, like the movement longs for a time before. The image associated with this movement is the only panel out of the four that isn't far away. It's close to home, it's local; contained and familiar, which is why I chose to use feelings to elicit nostalgia. A main feature of this piece is the use of the subdominant minor chord, in this case G minor. The movement is arguably ternary form (ABA), if not through-composed. It starts with an introduction in the higher octaves of the piano, then the main melody (A), which is repeated twice, once with piano only, second with the melodica. It then goes into a bossa nova "solo" section (B), relying heavily on similar chord changes to section A, which then slows down to the outro, which is built off the same melody as A, but has different chords and cuts off early, which is why I'm torn between ternary or through-composed.
movement ii
The second movement is also based off of a composition I did ages ago, I believe it's original name was something about cherries? I used it to practice improvisation, but it also fit in this context. This movement is only piano, not because the melodica would be out of place or I didn't know where to put the melodica, but more that it didn't need it. The constant arpeggios in the right hand, while the left hand takes the melody was such an interesting concept to me as a kid, and still is very cool as an adult (legally, anyway). The arpeggios going on for the entire piece kind of makes the listener drown them out, as a sort of white noise, which is why I added the chord changes, as something for your ear to latch onto. The constant barrage of notes in the right hand made me think about the endlessness of the sun, which will, no matter what humans do, will still shine somewhere. The use of 6/8 time messed with my head when trying to visualise the piece and it's emphatic beats (the first and fourth quaver). I often play it so the right hand is playing in 3/4 (emphasising the first, third and fifth quaver) while the left hand plays in 6/8, so while writing I switched between the two often. Due to melody being the main focus of a listener, and how the arpeggio does fall into the 6/8 emphasis later in the piece, I decided to keep it in 6/8 throughout. The difference in pedalling is also a fun thing to play with, as it changes the feeling from dreamy to something more grounded almost immediately, demonstrated really well when Tigran Hamasyan played "Someday My Prince Will Come" with a break sustain pedal, which I watched just before writing the piece.
The movement is also through-composed, with no specific callback to any section of the piece. The first section has the never-moving A major add 9 in the right hand while the left hand takes a simple melody in dotted crotchets and dotted minums only. The second section plays on the theme of "subdominant major - tonic - subdominant minor", with the arpeggios changing with the chord, and is repeated twice. The third section starts with a homophonic melody in the left as the right goes back to it's stagnant A major add 9. The implied harmony of the melody in the left hand is built upon as the section repeats, now with the melody playing in intervals. As the intervals end, the left hand plays an E (or whatever my slightly out-of-tune piano thinks is an E) as the arpeggio slows down, pausing, and playing the final note.
The movement is also through-composed, with no specific callback to any section of the piece. The first section has the never-moving A major add 9 in the right hand while the left hand takes a simple melody in dotted crotchets and dotted minums only. The second section plays on the theme of "subdominant major - tonic - subdominant minor", with the arpeggios changing with the chord, and is repeated twice. The third section starts with a homophonic melody in the left as the right goes back to it's stagnant A major add 9. The implied harmony of the melody in the left hand is built upon as the section repeats, now with the melody playing in intervals. As the intervals end, the left hand plays an E (or whatever my slightly out-of-tune piano thinks is an E) as the arpeggio slows down, pausing, and playing the final note.
movement iii
The movements so far have had a fair bit of using chords (broken or blocked) as melodies, but the third movement uses it throughout it's entirety, using the broken chords with subtle differences as the melody. This isn't revolutionary, piano players have been doing it ever since the piano existed, but it's fun to write. This is, like the previous movement, a piano only piece, but this time because of the aforementioned chord as melody thing, and if I want the melody to be disguised in the harmony with subtlety and nuance, the last thing I want is a melodica. This movement, being so reliant on it's harmony, is a bit more intriquite with it's chords, while still maintaining consistent harmonic rhythm. When I say intriquite, I mean extentions, really. I'm just being pretentious. The extentions arguably are the melody, whether that be the major 7ths or the 9ths or 11ths, etc. The subdominant minor is less prominent in this piece, only showing up in the first 8 bars, while other chords that haven't been touched yet throughout the piece (the minor 2nd and the personal favourtie of mine, major 3rd) take the spotlight on this piece. The structure is through-composed (yet again), really only repeating small parts at the start in order to consolidate the main idea of the movement. Ideas and sections come back often, but with the repeating rhythm and shape of the arpeggio that is shaped the same throughout the entire movement, it all flows into one big coalition of music and notes, kind of like notes.
I wanted this one to be more dramatic (hence the tempo marking) because the image associated with the movement shows the distant buildings, often busy or bustling, as quiet, still and insignificant. The buildings take up only a third of the panel; they are small. It is all lonely.
I wanted this one to be more dramatic (hence the tempo marking) because the image associated with the movement shows the distant buildings, often busy or bustling, as quiet, still and insignificant. The buildings take up only a third of the panel; they are small. It is all lonely.
movement iv
The final movement of quiet is light and fluffy (sort of like a cloud hey I'm referencing the image). It sort of sounds like chopsticks, but instead of going to an implied dominant 7 chord, it goes to an implied sus2 tonic chord before going back to the regular tonic. The bass does this dramatic flair of an octave jump, before launching into the triumphant return of the melodica, just like how it started. This movement is the melodica's, as it presents the majority of the melody throughout the piece, which usually isn't the most important part of a song, but due to one of the inspirations being musical theatre, it's an exception. Also, by this point in the piece, the repetitious nature of the harmony is getting repetitive (who saw this coming) so an actual melody is nice. The melodica plays daintly little lines and ideas, and often repeats rhythms while using different notes to suit the chord. This is done because I came up with the melodies by improvising, and it's a common technique within ametuer jazz improvisers to repeat a small idea over and over again, sometimes making changes.
The movement shifts into the relative minor (E minor) and descends somewhat chromatically, as similarly done in the first movement. The chords move down with the descending bassline, accompanied by a dinky melodica line, before doing the jazz classic 2-5-1 into the relative major. This is the first time in the entire piece where the dynamics are loud and boisterous. The melody is very "main character in a musical's big number", if you understand. The major 3 dominant seven chord, my favourite chord as mentioned before, leads into the relative minor, before going into 3/4 for a bar as the E in the E minor descends chromatically, again, almost identically to what happens in the first movement. It then leads into another 2-5-1, and then repeats with a slightly different melody, before jumping back down to the original chopsticks-like chords and dynamics of the beginning.
Now's a good of a time as any to mention that the first and last, and the second and third movement are "partner movements", two movements that somewhat relate to each other. There are many parallels, from instrumentation and key relation to the half of the piano the majority of the movement sits in, or how separate melody and harmony are. This is similar in the comic quiet is based off of: the first and last panels are orange-majority, while the second and third are purple-majority.
After the 8 bars of chopsticks ripoff, the melodica plays a weird fragment of a melody that seems disjointed from everything else in this movement. That is because it is (at least an attempt) to fit the main motif of the third movement into 6/8 in G. It is altered so it sounds nice and not playing a subdominant chord over the tonic, creating a polychord (it's not even a cool dissonant polychord, it just sounds like a mistake). After the 8 bars of the third movement motif, the repetitious arpeggio from the second movement comes back as well, at (roughly) the same speed, just in quavers instead of semiquavers (I'm not that good at piano). The section repeats, but now with the chopsticks chords getting the tonic getting played both in it's original position and an octave higher because my hands are big and stretchy. It then modulates (sort of) into D major, the dominant, building all of this tension. In the last four bars of the D major detour, in slows down to a halt, with a D2 being hit and sustained for a long period of time. The D is sustained throughout the next section, that isn't a mistake, it's supposed to keep creating tension as it dissolves into the ringing of the piano.
The last section is a repetition of the main theme of movement one, solidifying the connection between the two. It's played up in the high register of the piano, just as it was at the very start of the piece. The triplets in the 4/4 are now just crotchets in the 6/8. The theme is played straight as it was until the last of the subdominant minor chords, where instead of leading to a tonic over the five, it's a run up the scale to the tonic, which is held in a spot of tension, before being released by the bass playing a G and a B. It seems that referencing the start of a piece at the end is now a cliche of mine for my big pieces, as I did it with the Cosmonaut, a piece of about equal length I did last year, which can be found in the portfolio tab at the top or by clicking here.
The movement shifts into the relative minor (E minor) and descends somewhat chromatically, as similarly done in the first movement. The chords move down with the descending bassline, accompanied by a dinky melodica line, before doing the jazz classic 2-5-1 into the relative major. This is the first time in the entire piece where the dynamics are loud and boisterous. The melody is very "main character in a musical's big number", if you understand. The major 3 dominant seven chord, my favourite chord as mentioned before, leads into the relative minor, before going into 3/4 for a bar as the E in the E minor descends chromatically, again, almost identically to what happens in the first movement. It then leads into another 2-5-1, and then repeats with a slightly different melody, before jumping back down to the original chopsticks-like chords and dynamics of the beginning.
Now's a good of a time as any to mention that the first and last, and the second and third movement are "partner movements", two movements that somewhat relate to each other. There are many parallels, from instrumentation and key relation to the half of the piano the majority of the movement sits in, or how separate melody and harmony are. This is similar in the comic quiet is based off of: the first and last panels are orange-majority, while the second and third are purple-majority.
After the 8 bars of chopsticks ripoff, the melodica plays a weird fragment of a melody that seems disjointed from everything else in this movement. That is because it is (at least an attempt) to fit the main motif of the third movement into 6/8 in G. It is altered so it sounds nice and not playing a subdominant chord over the tonic, creating a polychord (it's not even a cool dissonant polychord, it just sounds like a mistake). After the 8 bars of the third movement motif, the repetitious arpeggio from the second movement comes back as well, at (roughly) the same speed, just in quavers instead of semiquavers (I'm not that good at piano). The section repeats, but now with the chopsticks chords getting the tonic getting played both in it's original position and an octave higher because my hands are big and stretchy. It then modulates (sort of) into D major, the dominant, building all of this tension. In the last four bars of the D major detour, in slows down to a halt, with a D2 being hit and sustained for a long period of time. The D is sustained throughout the next section, that isn't a mistake, it's supposed to keep creating tension as it dissolves into the ringing of the piano.
The last section is a repetition of the main theme of movement one, solidifying the connection between the two. It's played up in the high register of the piano, just as it was at the very start of the piece. The triplets in the 4/4 are now just crotchets in the 6/8. The theme is played straight as it was until the last of the subdominant minor chords, where instead of leading to a tonic over the five, it's a run up the scale to the tonic, which is held in a spot of tension, before being released by the bass playing a G and a B. It seems that referencing the start of a piece at the end is now a cliche of mine for my big pieces, as I did it with the Cosmonaut, a piece of about equal length I did last year, which can be found in the portfolio tab at the top or by clicking here.
tidbits about the recording process
Because this is my "big" piece for the semester, I thought I'd put some effort into the actual sound for the piece (unlike the rest of my composition classes). Too bad I forgot I have a expensive microphone that refuses to work with Audacity like it had a messy breakup, and a cheap Zoom recorder. So all of this was recorded on my primitive earphone microphone that's probably a budget microphone from the 40s but smaller. Yet when I realised I had a marginally better microphone, I had just finsihed two of the harder movements, and if I were to record them again, I would set myself on fire and jump into the nearest active volcano, and thus I proceeded to record the rest of the piano and melodica on the same bad microphone. I tried to make them sound better with my vastly tiny knowledge of mixing, but painting a dead fish gold doesn't make it better. At least, not in my opinion. I'm sure there's an Etsy store for it.
But the recording was fun to do. In order from quickest to record to longest to record: quiet i melodica, quiet iv melodica, quiet i piano, quiet ii piano, quiet iv piano, quiet iii piano. Fun fact: quiet ii and iii are very long, but also utilise the pedals quite a bit and rely on resonant sounds, so they had to be done in one take, which is why quiet iii took so long. I learnt a lot of valuable tricks for recording (don't record melodica with microphone up to your mouth to avoid mouth sounds, if there's wires involved try and keep it away from your hands at all possible moments, get bluetooth headphones, keep the dog inside) and mixing (trust the internet, it's way better at everthing than you are).
I'm not super good at either (or any) instrument, so there are a couple of mistakes, most of which are my big fat fingers hitting two notes at once. I procrastinated on a lot of the songs by playing them faster than intended, showing off for no one, but it was fun. Also a fun thing to listen for in the movements with melodica is that it's almost a quarter-tone out of tune, but oh well. Usually at this point I would show you the Audacity screenshots, but sadly it's only two tracks, and unlike Ableton doesn't show all the effects you've used, so it's kind of boring and useless.
But the recording was fun to do. In order from quickest to record to longest to record: quiet i melodica, quiet iv melodica, quiet i piano, quiet ii piano, quiet iv piano, quiet iii piano. Fun fact: quiet ii and iii are very long, but also utilise the pedals quite a bit and rely on resonant sounds, so they had to be done in one take, which is why quiet iii took so long. I learnt a lot of valuable tricks for recording (don't record melodica with microphone up to your mouth to avoid mouth sounds, if there's wires involved try and keep it away from your hands at all possible moments, get bluetooth headphones, keep the dog inside) and mixing (trust the internet, it's way better at everthing than you are).
I'm not super good at either (or any) instrument, so there are a couple of mistakes, most of which are my big fat fingers hitting two notes at once. I procrastinated on a lot of the songs by playing them faster than intended, showing off for no one, but it was fun. Also a fun thing to listen for in the movements with melodica is that it's almost a quarter-tone out of tune, but oh well. Usually at this point I would show you the Audacity screenshots, but sadly it's only two tracks, and unlike Ableton doesn't show all the effects you've used, so it's kind of boring and useless.
Again, thank you to Lenands for letting me read your comic and express it in 12 and a half minutes of music. Go check her stuff out, and maybe support her by following her comics, and even possibly buy her stuff.
Lenands' comic where I saw this image: https://tapas.io/series/almostcomic
The same comic but in Portugese: https://tapas.io/series/quasetiras
A cool artsy comic by Lenands: https://tapas.io/series/FEAR
The same artsy comic but in Portugese: https://tapas.io/series/MEDO
Lenand's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_lenands/
Do you want a tote bag, print or phone case by Lenands? Sure: https://www.redbubble.com/people/lenands/shop
If you want to just give her money and support her, tada: https://ko-fi.com/lenands
Lenands' comic where I saw this image: https://tapas.io/series/almostcomic
The same comic but in Portugese: https://tapas.io/series/quasetiras
A cool artsy comic by Lenands: https://tapas.io/series/FEAR
The same artsy comic but in Portugese: https://tapas.io/series/MEDO
Lenand's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_lenands/
Do you want a tote bag, print or phone case by Lenands? Sure: https://www.redbubble.com/people/lenands/shop
If you want to just give her money and support her, tada: https://ko-fi.com/lenands