Music Theory Necessities - Experimenting
Essentials for Music Theory
This page continues to offer you some essential theoretical skills that might be worth acquiring before the start of the course. In addition to the preliminary research on different music notation systems that are adopted globally and some ideas on how to familiarise yourself with Exploring Music in Context, here are some further activities that you may wish to pursue for Experimenting with Music, which is necessary for standard-level and higher-level students.
Photo by Natalia Trofimova on Unsplash
A summary of those skills in relation to Experimenting with Music (see HERE for an overview of this component) can be summarised as follows:
- ability to write in a way that is relevant and informative
- engaging with less familiar and unfamiliar works
- making connections between findings and practical work
- experimenting with unfamiliar elements
- making musical decisions that show development
One aspect that I would like to focus on here is "making connections between findings and practical work", specifically with Experimenting as a Creator (there is also an Experimenting as a Performer component that falls under the purview of "practical work").
This pre-supposes that you are able to extract musical features from a selected piece, known as the "source material" and use that finding to create an exercise that "transforms" that observation.
To provide a visual representation of this concept, imagine this.
Here is a photo of the famous Mona Lisa with her eyes (and face) having been "modernised".
This is essentially what is required of this component - taking a feature and transforming it to create something new and transformative.
Image created with "https://www.craiyon.com/"; prompt: transform the Mona Lisa's eyes for a modern effect
Pre-Listening Task
You are going to hear a piece of Pop Rock / Folk Rock that is somewhat unique in terms of the genre. Brainstorm what conventions could be exploited. You may wish to consider the following musical aspects:
- structure - what is considered a standard verse-chorus form?
- key/harmony - what is conventional here? Would you expect a modulation?
- rhythm - what are the expectations with this?
- time signature - what is the standard form of organisation with this?
- expressive techniques - Use of distortion? Decorative elements?
- melody - what would you expect to hear in terms of phrase lengths? Other standard features?
- medium - what instrumentation would you expect to hear?
- texture - what would be your expectations in terms of layering of the material?
What other thoughts do you have about this?
Task ONE
Listen to this song (Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill) and reflect on the information that you have provided to the questions posed above.
What do you think is the biggest anomaly from the conventions of the genre? (see below for an answer)
Probably the single most important deviation from the conventions in this genre is the time signature. Whilst predominantly set in 74 , there is a moment at the end of the chorus in which the material momentarily shifts to 44 .
Although not typical to change metres in a chorus, this idea of bringing stark focus to a particular line (or the message of the song) is not particularly unusual.
Highlighting certain moments could be achieved in a variety of ways, for example by:
- lightening the texture (or the opposite of adding a harmonic vocal line),
- syncopating the rhythm,
- an abrupt change in harmony, OR
- adopting an under-utilised expressive technique etc.
Photo by Mathias Reding on Pexels
Task TWO
Create a short excerpt of music that EXPERIMENTS with any OR all of the creating observations that you have made about this piece. You may wish, for example, to choose to adopt these lyrics and change the time signature to underline the message. As the goal here is to transform the material, it is suggested that you write in a new style altogether.
My doubts lingered, hesitation in my chest
Belief in faith, a silent test
Heartbeats echoing, a steady boom
"Son," I whispered
"Pack your things, it's time to head back soon"
Hey, back home
Lyrics generated with the assistance of ChatGPT; prompt "rewrite these lyrics from an alternative perspective"
Here is an example of a possible opening portion somewhat inspired by German lied, in particular Schumann's Ich grolle nicht.
It uses the feature of the changing metre to enunciate ideas, specifically "hesitation" and "a silent test" as well as articulation changes in the former (in the case of the accompaniment) and textural change with regards to the latter.
Portion of an Experimentation on Gabriel's Solsbury Hill Inspired by Schumann
Reflect on this task and ensure that you understand that the goal here is to TRANSFORM the materials that you are examining.
It is perfectly acceptable for you to use other works as inspiration. In fact, this is encouraged.
Remember too that the example that is provided above is ONLY for Experimenting as a Creator and there is also an Experimenting with Performer aspect that you will need to address as well.
Photo by garrett parker on Unsplash