Sunday, December 5, 2010
Mike Siraco, Jon Young, Dani Weishoff
Mike Siraco, Dani Weishoff, Jon Young
All Flags Flying
For our field project, we studied a pop punk out of Peabody, MA called All Flags Flying. The core group has been together since high school, although many members have came and left. They are gaining a fan base in the Boston area and branching out by playing shows.
Working Practices
In our interview, Mike and Zack talk a little about the writing process, always including the fact that time is an important factor. Zack mentions how a strict deadline created a lot of tension, and how without a specific timeframe, they now all have a chance to work at their own pace and be satisfied with everything they get done. Mike added to our question by talking about his consistent writing process. First, he decides on a basic structure of a song and brings it to the band for their input. Next, they all work together for as long as it takes to achieve an outcome that works for their style, followed by Mike taking more time after that to come up with the appropriate lyrics and melodies. The members of All Flags Flying take their writing seriously and are "very particular with every step of the process."
Interview:
What are your influences?
Mike: We all listen to different music ranging from soft, acoustic stuff to heavier, more aggressive stuff. Personally, my songwriting is influenced by music that creates certain moods and literally puts you in a certain place and time. Lately, I have been very into The Ataris, Copeland, The Dangerous Summer, John Mayer, The Morning Of, Transit, Valencia, and The Wonder Years. As a songwriter, I personally enjoy mixing elements from various genres and create something of my own. Lyrically, I am take influences from all types of media, whether it be literature, movies, television shows, etc. Many lyrical themes come from living life.
Zack: I started off listening to the Starting Line and Brand New when I was younger, and that really influences the music I play and listen to. As of recent, I've been into a lot of Indie and early 2000 emo (i.e. Copeland, American Football, Mineral), but when I'm playing and writing, I feel a lot of TSL and Brand New.
Ben: Anberlin, Caspian, Circa Survive, Mae, Moneen, Motion City Soundtrack, Say Anything, Secret and Whisper, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Yellowcard.
Kyle: Mae, Deas Vail, Anberlin, Caspian, The Starting Line, This Century.
Why do you play the type of music that you play? / What interests you about it?
Mike: Since we all listen to a wide variety of rock and pop based music, we like to draw from each style to create something that is somewhat our own. We take our favorite aspects of our favorite music and incorporate it into what we play. At times, I enjoy playing energetic, jumpy stuff, but also like to slow things down. As far as the poppy hooks in our song, I was raised around pop music, so once I could handle a guitar, I needed to incorporate it into what I created, without simply creating something that has been done.
Ben: I love the energy and the atmosphere from the music that we play. And it's made from what we feel. We put our heart and soul into what we write.
Kyle: I like playing the music we play. It comes naturally and is appealing to me.
Zack: I really like playing the stuff we play because I grew up listening to it, and wanting to play in a band, and now I'm actually doing it. It also helps when all of your best friends are your bandmates.
How do you create your music and write the songs?
Zack: Writing for us is sort of interesting because we've had a lot of different experiences with it. Our first CD was really fun because we were young and hyped on anything we did. Mike wrote most of it, and everyone kinda just threw in something when it came to them. Our next release, Christmas Together, was more difficult because we had a time deadline to write it and record it, and everyone was going through personal stuff that year, so it was a very tense environment. We got through all of that, and we're in the process of writing new stuff now, and I haven't been happier with the way things are going. We don't have a timeframe, and we've all matured as musicians so we have a better idea of what we want to do. Mike brings an idea to practice, and it almost immediately turns into a song. The past couple months, everyone has been leaving practice happy and excited for the next week.
Mike: Our writing process is relatively consistent. I usually work on the overall layout and structure of a song, and once I have a decent product, I bring it to the band and we piece it all together. The guys let me know what parts suck and what parts are keepers. We don't stop until we think the song could not be any better than it is. After the song is done, I take pages out of all of the stuff I write lyrically, and mess around until I find the best, most fitting melodies. We are very particular with every step of the process.
When/Where do you perform?
Mike: We play shows all around New England during the school year, mainly in AOH/VFW halls and any venue we can find. We have played at clubs such as The Middle East, The All Asia, and Harper's Ferry in the Boston area, among others. We have played bigger stages, such as The Palladium. We basically will play anytime, anywhere. All we need is a room to make noise in. During the summer, we venture out of New England to spread our love.
Ben: We perform whenever we can or when we organize a show ourselves.
How do you work when you guys are at college?
Mike: It is certainly difficult, since we go to different schools, but we have made it work for a year now. We come home on Fridays and play music throughout the weekend. At school, I write songs and I bring them home with me. It isn't ideal, but we aren't willing to give it up.
Zack: Everyone comes home on the weekends for the band, work, and family. We practice every Friday night, and have been doing so for about five years. Since everyone is relatively close to home at school, it's not hard to work around college at all.
Kyle: I commute home on weekends. We all do. It isn't too difficult for us because it isn't too far. We all have cars, except Mike, but he always just catches a train and someone grabs him. We think this lineup has a chemistry that is worth sticking with.
How do you prepare to make music?
Ben: We gather in Mike's basement, turn on floor lamps for atmosphere, and feed of each others ideas.
Mike: As Ben said, and it may sound corny, but I really do believe that creating a creative atmosphere is important. We like to be in a clean, organized room with dim lighting, surrounded by all sorts of instruments, effects, etc. Anything that can inspire us. We keep a whiteboard on the wall with all of our ideas. We have an endless collection of music to use as references and inspiration.
How would you describe your music and what makes it unique?
Mike: I think that what makes our music unique is that we have a difficult time describing it, or fitting it into one solid genre. I would describe it as very melodic. We try to keep melody at the forefront of our process. I would also describe it as heartfelt and emotional. Another aspect of our band that is very unique is that we were all best friends before we learned to play instruments. We grew up together. I have been best friends with Kyle since I was in first grade. We loved music, so we decided to try and learn how to play and create the music we love. We were terrible for a while, but eventually, we grew into our own and have finally found a sound we stand behind completely.
Ben: We have a hard time classifying ourselves in any genres.
Kyle: Our music is different. We blend multiple genres of music together to create our own genre. We always have a tough time classifying us in one specific genre.
Zack: It's kind of hard to actually describe what we're doing, because everyone in the band has so many different influences. I guess that's why we sound kind of different than most local bands in our area. The stuff that we've written in the past doesn't exactly have a genre, and a lot of songs don't fit in with each other. Now we have a better direction in what we're writing, and it's easier to write, but much harder to categorize. I guess if I had to pick a specific genre, it's pop-punk/indie/experimental/rock.
What is the instrumentation of your band and the roles they play in this genre?
Mike: Our band consists of vocals, two guitars, bass, and drums. It is definitely a fairly traditional combination for the style of music, but we take advantage of the setup and use the instruments in our own ways. The same instruments are not always at the forefront of our songs. We can be a very guitar driven band at times, but Kyle creates some essential bass lines, and really his bass lines can make or break a song. Zack is an outstanding drummer, and he really sets the tone for the tracks. He is much more than a drummer to me. I bounce all of my ideas off of him, and they always come back to me better than they were. He is the best musician in the band.
Kyle: The instruments we play define our genre as rock. They are the generic instruments of the genre we play. Each of us taking our instrument and making it our own is what defines our music.
Ben: I don't think our instruments define our musical taste but rather are tools to write what we want for our genre.
Description of Activities Done
We interviewed the band and took videos of their performances. We analyzed the lead sheet provided and listened and discussed their other songs. We studied the interview and formulated opinions about their music and how their influences and writing techniques led to the final product.
Summary Of What We Learned From The Mucisians
We learned how a writing process can evolve over time and how that affects the songs. We also learned a lot about their style and genre of music, since none of us really listen to that type of music. We learned how each instrument contributes to this style of music. The drums have to be very peppy and lively.
THE MIDNIGHT PACT – ALL FLAGS FLYING
Critical Commentary
The band is very tight and keeps really good rhythmic time with each other.
Their genre could be defined as pop punk because of the catchy (pretty) vocal melodies mixed with the really heavy instrumentals. It can also be defined for some songs as screamo because of the shrieking backing vocals that accompany Mike’s melodic lines.
Michael has an incredibly wide vocal range, which is impressive enough on its own, but is a really important factor in making these songs good.
They’re instrumentals are perfected to a level where it sounds like they’re robotically programmed to play these songs in perfect time.
"The Midnight Pact"
The Midnight Pact Analysis
The Midnight Pact is a pop punk song. There’s two versions of the song recorded. Mike originally recorded a version with just electric guitar and vocals, but a new version was recorded at Norhteastern that includes two guitars, drums, bass, and backing vocals done by Mike. There’s an abrupt tempo movement after the first eight measures. The guitar strumming changes from the intro of the song at that point as well. The texture would be homophonic chordal.
The song is in the key of C major. Almost every chord is a suspended or add chord on guitar. It gives the song a really nice coloring and rich tonality. The opening progression is a I V ii with some color tones. The progression repeats in the song in the intro and bridge. At many points in the song the coloring keeps the progressions from sounding resolved or stable, adding some tension and uncertainty. The other progression that is repeated several times in the piece and ends the piece is a V ii V I. The progression does not sound as generic because of all the color tones each chord. There is also a I iii V progession and a V I iii ii progression.
Cadd9 G Dadd11
Cadd9 G Dsus4
(x2)
Gsus4 Csus2 Em/A D7sus4
(x4)
Cadd9 Em G
(x4)
Gsus4 Dadd9 Gsus4 Csus2 (x2)
Cadd9 G Dadd11
Cadd9 G Dsus4
(x2)
Gsus4 Csus2 Em/A D7sus4
(x4)
Cadd9 Em G
(x8)
Gsus4 Csus2 Em/A D7sus4
(x4)
Gsus4 Dadd9 Gsus4 Csus2 (x4)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Ocean State Great
Calling himself “The Ocean State Great,” K.i.T. is an upcoming rapper from Rhode Island with both great ambition and talent. Well on his way in establishing himself, he has performed over 40 shows at 15 venues. K.i.T. has labeled his infuences as the Canadian rapper K-os and the rap group A Tribe Called Quest. He has said that he had been rapping since a young age and was inspired by his older brother’s rap efforts. So far he has released two demos and a mixtape and he is expected to release more new music this year. All of his music is available for free on his website where he also posts videos, maintains a blog and provides local song picks weekly.
We began by contacting K.I.T. to ask if he would be interested in being interviewed for a project. Since he is a student at Northeastern and a music industry major, he was very open to the idea. The song K.i.T. gave to us was his single “Tricks are for Kids.” We met at his place for the first recording session where he created the beat and showed us how he practices rapping. He performed a show at the ballroom on Northeastern’s campus and another at Afterhours and we managed to film both. After that Alex followed him on the road to Rhode Island to interview him further. The video posted came together after all the material was collected
In one session, K.i.T. gave us a glimpse of his writing and recording process. He showed us several of the programs he uses, namely Reason and Recycle, to build his songs from scratch. By chopping and manipulating sounds from other songs and creating loops, he makes his own beats for him to rap over. Much of his creative process involves playing around on his computer and MIDI keyboard to find the combination that sounds right. Within a few minutes, he had quickly crafted together the basic sample for a song and was ready to add drums. Although he has said that he prefers rapping over other peoples beats, it was clear that he was well-versed in these computer programs and knew how to get what he wanted out of them.
K.i.T. noted that always keeps his smartphone with him in case he ever needs to quickly jot down some lyrical ideas. He says that he isn’t sure where the ideas for his music come from, so when he does think of something he gets it saved as soon as he can. Even the ideas that seemingly came off the top off his head, verses he considered as “practice,” came across as very natural and with confidence. He considers his rapping abilities as a craft, and knows that he can’t perform or get better without practice.
After our time interviewing and following K.I.T., it is obvious that he has the will to make something of his craft. He always seems to be looking to improve himself and what he is doing in the music industry. His rhymes have clearly developed since day one due to this drive to better his art. As a music industry major, he is beginning to take music theory and learn things like scales and even piano. These skills will eventually translate into his music to enhance what is already a good thing. Eager to always be creating new music, K.I.T. has potential to grow and become a serious player in the rap game. The thing about K.I.T. that stands out to us is his ability to dominate the stage with his presence. He never seems to hesitate when he is live due to his constant effort to practice what he writes. Eager to always be creating new music, K.I.T. has potential to grow and become a serious player in the hip hop game in the near future.
SONG ANALYSIS
"Tricks are for KIDS” by K.I.T. is a hip-hop style rap song that incorporates lyrical rhyming verses and choruses over a repeated background beat. The “beat” (referring to all parts of the instrumentals) is synthetically composed, using a short ascending synthesizer riff and mostly static bass line. Aside from the drum intro and the occasional halt of the beat, these elements are constant throughout the song. The repetition does not outstay its welcome in the three minute piece, however, as the primary focus of the song is on the rhythmic and lyrical aspects.
The drums also repeat in a loop similar to the synth and bass, but have somewhat more variation in addition to the short lick that starts the song. The cymbals play a 16th note constant pattern, while the snare accentuates the 2nd and 4th beats of each measure, as is common in hip-hop.
The vocals are mostly spoken, with some singing in the chorus. K.I.T.’s delivery is on the beat, rapping mostly in two-line sets, although sometimes breaks up a lyrical line across the rhythm, providing an interesting way to change subjects by “pivoting” on one word and incorporating it into the next line. The chorus introduces a low voice with K.I.T. echoing the end of each line, i.e. - “Don’t try to be a tree if you a twig (if you a twig)”.
The form is a basic verse/chorus form with a short intro and outro, comprised of the instrumental and some short vocal quips in the intro. The lyrics are not particularly structured, although there is some development of the lines. Overall, it is the vocal performance and rhythm that makes this song stand out, as it should be in a song of this genre.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
What is your inspiration?
My favorite rapper of all time is just K-os. As of late I’ve been listening to a lot of Talib Kwali. And lately since I’ve been learning the piano I’ve been listening to a lot of composers like that. But that’s pretty much it musically, like other than that I have no clue where ideas come from. It can be random, from something that’s just happened to me it or something that sounds funny together or cool together. I have no method for my madness, other than the fact that its mad.
What are you listening to?
Kind of all hip-hop at the moment. There’s times where I’ll be listening to like One Republic or Coldplay, something along those lines. But right now I’ve been listening to hip-hop, especially Kanye’s new album. Crazy.
Where did it all begin?
When I really think back, it always goes back to my brother. He used to just record on a tape, like a cassette, back when people used those...like in the basement on this karaoke machine. I’d always just go down there every once in a while and listen to him create. I remember one time he needed a hook, he couldn’t figure a hook for one of his songs, or a chorus. So I was just sitting there quietly and I thought of one and he let me record it. That was cool as shit. But then again there was a time when I saw my brother doing stuff. He started his own little rap crew. That was funny, and then I joined it without asking and made a song as if I was part of it. Then I started making songs and stuff with them because he knew how to record and everything. But the more and more I made songs the more I was like - this isn’t the kind of music I want to make. I want to develop a conscious kind of music. And I started to see how I can do that. The first thing I had to do was learn how to record myself. Before I can record myself, I was dependent on him to do my music. It’s supposed to be my own personal thing, so as soon as I learned to record my own music, I branched out to do my own thing.
What do you do before a show?
Honestly, I always practice the day before or two days before. Do it a couple times, go through the set. I’m comfortable with it because I’m always doing it. But besides that I really have no rituals. I’m usually nervous for some reason, I have no clue why. I’ve done like 40 shows. But I’m always nervous the first five minutes before I go on but as soon as I get up there it all goes away and I’m just chillin’.
When Christen performed her song for us at the cafe it sounded as if it became the atmosphere around us and it really relaxed the environment of the entire establishment. Structurally, it is very simple and the melody is based on two main motives; one in the verses and one in the chorus, both characterized by intervallic and rhythmic cues (motifs such as the dotted-quarter followed by an eighth note) which are developed within their respective sections in order to expand the melodies. In addition to these cues there are repeated sections of lyrics or refrains that establish each section from one another, such as "…before I lost my sight." and the "doo doo doo". Overall, Christen writes her music with a reestablished song structure in mind, and generally her songs consist of simple verse-chorus form with a bridge or sometimes a verse-prechorus-chorus form with a compound bridge that overlays two sections of the song. In this way Christen can ensure that her songs will always come full circle and leave the listener with a comfortable conclusion.
This indie-folk music is entirely acoustic driven with the idea that purity and perfection can only be obtained acoustically or organically. Following this train of thought, it is extremely important for musicians of this genre of music to be able to clearly discern the timbre of each voice or instrument because much of the beauty to be experienced lies within the raspy whispering vocals and the timbre of the arpeggio lullaby. In this way, the sonority and the delivery and all the slight imperfections together create a truly moving sound.
In her song “Awake”, Christa Gniadek uses techniques that are very commonly found in her style of music, which is exactly why it works so well. It is in the key of Bb, and starts out in the tonic. The verses follow a basic pattern of IIViiV. The progression with the minor ii leading to the dominant makes the verse sound very resolved every time, but also leaves room for the piece to move forward, whether she repeats the verse or moves to the chorus. The verse has a very different progression from the chorus, so these two main parts of the song do sound separate from one another.
The chorus is very simple, but has tension and variation in the right places. It follows a IVIviIVIviIVIIVI pattern. By placing the minor vi between the tonic and sub-dominant, Christa keeps the song moving forward. Although the tonic is introduced a few times before the song actually ends, the placing of the minor vi creates the appropriate amount of tension to keep things interesting and present some unfamiliarity. To relieve this tension, the subdominant IV chord is introduced immediately after to provide some sense of familiarity. However, although the IV does feel familiar, it isn’t quite as familiar as the dominant would be, so the song is propelled forward still. Ultimately, the song begins and ends on the tonic, so it sounds very resolved and feels finished when the song is over. There are never any complex or altered chords in this song, which adds to its simplicity and its beauty.
The only time in the song that Christa uses the dominant V chord is in the verse, so there is no real significant point of tension, which definitely fits into the feel of her genre. Singer-songwriter music is known for being very mellow and easy to listen to, and her music definitely fits into that category. Also, the three chords that she uses the most throughout the song: I, IV, and vi, all share common chord tones. The I and vi share D and Bb, where the vi and IV share Bb and A. This is another example of the pure simplicity of this song. There are only very subtle changes throughout this entire song, and these changes are only between one or two different notes. The verse does provide more variation than the chorus, which helps distinguish one section from the other. Also, during the chorus, almost all of the chords she plays are held for two measures, instead of the usual one. This technique further adds to the singer-songwriter sound; a very lazy and almost sleepy sound. It makes it easy to listen to, and also easy to enjoy.
Joe: How would you describe your music?
Christa: My music is stripped down. All my recordings are acoustic so I focus a lot on…It’s really lyrical and melodic and I would say, definitely indie. It has an indie, folk, singer/songwriter feel to it.
J: Who would you say your main target audience is?
C: It’s interesting. I see a wide range of people of ages at my shows. I have statistics on my Facebook page and the majority percentage of my fans is 18-24 year-old girls, but the guys in 18-24 are there too. Then you have random other ages here and there. There was a Dad at one of my shows that lives in Wisconsin. His daughter e-mailed me and was lie, “My dad showed me your music. All my friends love it!” I’ll just say 18-24 college girls. I’m a college girl. I feel like I write from my own perspective, they relate to it and they kind of spreads out by itself.
J: What music do you find inspiring?
C: If I’m listening just for my own thing, I listen to everthing. I think everything influences me no matter what musically. The more I like something, the more it seems to find its way into my songs.
J: Examples
C: I listen to Ingrid Michaelson. When I was a freshman in college, I listened to Bon Iver a lot. I listen to Iron & Wine…I love focusing on guitar harmonies and finger pickings are a big thing for me. I don’t really own a lot of music; I put on Pandora a lot, I listen to a Bon Iver station and Sufjan Stevens. Oh yeah, and Debussi.
J: When you’re writing your songs, do you use other songs as templates?
C: Not really. Say that I’m listening to Bon Iver ad it’s a down tempo, raw, depressing stuff. If that really hits me at the time, I’ll be more inclined to write a down tempo, depressing song. It’s more of a feeling of a song than the structure or words. A lot of my songs start with a feeling.
J: How do you begin writing your songs? How do you come up with them?
C: It kind of starts with one element. I focus of three parts: the melody, the words and the harmony. If I’m playing guitar, some chords and I’m like, “I really like that progression,” then I’ll add a melody to it, the I’ll add words. Sometimes I come up with lyrics and I’m like, “Oh, I really like that line,” then I’ll add a melody to it then I add chords. Sometimes I come up with a melody just humming and I’m like, “Oh, wow, that’s really catchy,” so I’ll put words then guitar. Once one of them comes into play that I really like, then I totally run with it.
J: So the other two just follow through.
C: Yeah, follow through. Once I like one of the three, then I’ll be all in on making it happen.
J: In terms of the guitar that you play, why do you play the Takamine?
C: When I was sixteen, I decided I wanted to teach myself guitar, so I told my Dad that and he’s the dad that goes on the computer and researches, “Best Guitar”. So he found, it wasn’t this one (points to guitar), it was the Jasmine by Takamine and it was a good starter guitar. My hands felt comfortable with the Takamine because it was my first guitar he ever bought. (Reaching for guitar) This neck is similar to the Jasmine. The whole guitar is like the Jasmine, just a totally better model. So when I played this one in the store, when I was getting a better guitar, this one felt the best because the neck was exactly the same. It was just an accident. This is a great guitar. I actually bought it used and it had this big chip down here (points to body) and it seemed like it was 20 years old. It sounded awesome. The pickup didn’t work. I was playing a show and the pickup just stopped working. I had to stop playing; it was a huge mess. So I went back and was like, “Can you fix this? My guitar doesn’t work when I play live,” and they said it was totally broken. They just gave me a new one, and I got this guitar more than half off. Used it was $600 and retail it was $1300 or something. I got lucky, but I was really heartbroken because I liked the used one a lot. I’m breaking this one in, so it’s okay.
J: Do you ever employ accompaniment or do you play with other people sometimes?
C: Yeah, I play with this one guy; his name is Colin Fleming. He goes to BU; he does hand drums. I’ve played with him a couple times. I used to go to BU, so that’s how we met. On my record, I play piano, so I did a lot of piano accompaniment too. When I play live, I usually stay by myself. I added piano just because I play that and I can sort of play harmonica.
J: How do you determine the song form, the structure?
C: I feel like a lot of songwriters pick their favorite thing, favorite structure. For some reason, what comes naturally, what came out in the beginning, I just knew first chorus kind of thing, and bridge. That’s what I knew, so I would do two verses or one verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. And then I just kind of kept doing that because I kept getting comfortable with it. Some people do, pre-choruses seem to come really naturally, but that didn’t really happen. My stuff is just what ended up feeling really comfortable when I first started writing and I kind of stuck with it. For some reason, I love having bridges in my songs, like veering away harmonically and coming back. So in basically every song I have a bridge, just ‘cause I like them.
J: Do you use a lot of chromatic upper extensions?
C: Not so much. If I do, I don’t really know that I did that. It’s not really a conscious thing. I don’t have a lot of my stuff written out, so maybe in my voice, I would be hitting a ninth and making it that way, but not with chords.
J: So you generally don’t employ much chromaticism, it’s mostly diatonic?
C: Occasionally, I’ll do secondary dominants. I do a lot of modal stuff, in that I’ll be hanging on a chord then making it minor. It’s going between keys, modulating. I’m kind of like, everything goes. I initially started doing everything is separate parts, but lately I’ve been singing and playing guitar at the same time, so I’ll be singing a melody and put chords in where they fit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Vicky Wei, Margo Henderson, Mike Charbonneau
by Mike Charbonneau
Exiting the Fall is a melodic hardcore band from northeastern Massachusetts. The group consists of five teenagers, ranging from sixteen to nineteen years old. Individually, each member is a devote Christian. Collectively, the band considers the most important aspect of their music to be the faithful message behind the songs. They feel that God chose them to spread his faith through the medium of music. The message that they hope to instill in the hearts of listeners is not their own message, it is the message that Jesus Christ told them to give. Their Christianity is purposefully and meaningfully inserted into every corner of their music.
After meeting up with Exiting the Fall in their home studio and practice space above a two-car garage in a lonely corner of Beverly, Massachusetts, it was quickly learned how dedicated and talented each member of the group is. Having been around to witness their almost three year existence, spanning multiple lineup changes and setbacks, it is clear that any obstacle that gets in the way will only make the unit stronger. For example, after losing their vocalist to college in Florida, the band did not panic. Instead, they simply took advantage of the pipes found in their guitarist, Matt Vacaro, and had him take over the lead vocals position. Matt can transition seamlessly from a guttural scream to a light falsetto. After moving Matt from the rhythm guitar position, they decided to move their then-bassist Felipe Inacio up to handle the rhythm guitars. Finding a new bassist was not an easy task, but a fan of the band from Pennsylvania, DJ Williams, was so passionate about their music that he relocated to Massachusetts about one month ago. The band is now at the top of their game, and at the top of their garage, writing songs that they hope to produce a full length album with in early 2011.
Being at their practice, I got to witness some of their writing techniques. Being in a band myself, their writing process was fully admirable. While I did not get to witness the onset of a new song, I did get to witness putting the finishing touches on a new song. The band all gathered in one room and fed off of each other’s ideas. They worked not as five individual musicians, but as one collective unit. I think this is so easily done by them because they are not just five musicians, they are all best friends who grew up with each other. They may all have different influences and stylistic devices to incorporate, but they do so without clashing. Any problems that are discovered throughout the process are cleared up within seconds of the problem being addressed.
After working on some new material, the band went over their planned set list for a show that they have in Manchester, New Hampshire this upcoming weekend. They played newer songs, such as The Prodigal, and fan favorites, such as The Beginning of a Love Unending. They did not have a working PA at the moment, so their vocalist sat out, perhaps even to rest his vocal cords for the upcoming week. The band may have made a few minor errors, but that is the point of practice. Their guitarists have a chemistry that cannot be found walking in and out of clubs in Boston. Many guitar pedals are also incorporated in the live performances, creating an atmosphere that not many heavy bands can attest to.
Overall, the entire meeting with Exiting the Fall was an extremely pleasant and rewarding one. I was able to observe a fully functional and successful band in their element, writing new music. Also, I had the opportunity to be around musicians who may know more than I do, which provided me with a chance to learn as much as I could have in a class. All five of the members are accepting, considerate, and overtly kind. They are some of my good friends. Personally, do not think this field project would have been as smooth and beneficial if it was performed with any other group.
by Victoria Wei
Unlike songs of many other bands, the instruments in The Prodigal play a larger role in the melodic function of the song. In most bands, the guitar and bass play the harmonies while the vocalist is singing the melody. The drum set is still driving the beat for the other instrumentalists. In The Prodigal, the drums also accent certain beats with the crash cymbals. Later in the piece, the crash cymbals also serve the purpose of keeping the beat of the song. In this song, the lead guitar plays a melodic line throughout most of the piece while the second guitar mainly plays chordal harmonies. The second guitar will play a counter melody along with the lead guitar.
Thus, the texture of The Prodigal is polyphonic due to the multiple layers of melody and harmony being played one on top of another. At points, the texture of the guitars becomes heterophonic when the lead guitar and second guitar are both playing a melody and counter melody at the same time. Also, as mentioned before, while these melodies are occurring, the drums will accent certain beats of the melodies to give the song more variety, and prevent it from becoming a continuous flow of noise.
The Prodigal is in common time, which is indicated by the constant beat the drummer plays on the cymbals and snare drum in between fills and accenting notes. The time signature is undetectable from the guitars due to the fact that the sound is being distorted, and the guitarists are playing a constant stream of eighth and sixteenth notes. Along with the drums, the bass is also providing a constant driving rhythm for the song. Also, it is frequently playing a counter melody along with the guitars.
The melodic structure of the song is conjunct, and the notes move up and down the C minor scale. The conjunct melody allows the piece to sound as if it is constantly flowing. The only way the listener knows the song is moving on is when the drummer pauses and plays a fill. When the section changes, the melodic contour and rhythms also change, indicating that the song has moved into a new section
It can be noted that the composers did not use the V chord in The Prodigal, which allows for the song to sound as if it is seamlessly moving. The Bb chord could be used to substitute for the dominant, but the movement to and from the VII chord is not as prominent as the V chord would be. The use of III, IV, and VI gives the indication that the entire piece is just a prolongation of the tonic, which makes the harmonic structure of the song sound as if it is continuously flowing.
As a result of the underlying harmonic structure The Prodigal sounds as if it is in a continuous flow from beginning to end. The multiple layers of melody also make it more difficult for the listener to distinguish stops and starts throughout the song. The main indication for a change in the song is when the drummer stops and plays a fill to lead into the next section.
Transcribed by Margo Henderson
I’m Matt Vicarro and I’m the vocalist of Exiting the Fall
I’m DJ Williams and I play bass
I’m Jon Miller and I play percussion
I’m Filipe I play guitar
My name is Kevin and I play guitar
What was your musical upbringing?
Matt: I started to play guitar in 7th or 8th grade. I eventually loved it so much I quit hockey and everything else in my life. I started a band freshman year with my friend John Cissel, who is no longer in the band but we still love him, and eventually that became my life.
DJ: My dad used to play guitar in a country band so I wanted to be like him. I started playing guitar in 7th or 8th grade and I’ve played everyday since.
Jon: My whole family pretty much plays music and I pretty much had a musical upbringing. Definitely in church. I played music in church ever since I was a little kid.
Filipe: I started playing guitar when I was 11 I think. I used to play soccer, that was all I used to do, but then I was like, “Wait, I really like music,” so I quit soccer and put everything into music and started making little bands. I finally got into this band, and it’s finally working out.
Kevin: I started playing in 7th or 8th grade a well. I used to play a lot of baseball and listen to a lot of rap, and I hear that all the time. My freshman year I joined this band.
How old are you guys in general?
Matt: 19
DJ: 19
Jon: 18
Filipe: 18
Kevin: 16
What is the message you hope to get across through your music?
Matt: As a Christian band we try to write all of our songs to reflect the love of Jesus Christ. Even though we are playing a hardcore, and sort of a pushy subject, we want to show people that God’s love can work in almost any area of anyplace in the world. That the message we can convey to people is that God’s love is bigger than what this world has to offer us. So that we are continually trying to show that our faith is something that takes control of our lives, and it’s not something that we do on the side, it’s who we are individually, it’s what we do and what we are going to do for the rest of our lives. So we are going to be showing God’s love to what we do so why don’t we commit everything we have to it in the first place?
Kevin: Like Matt said, the message we have as a band is not really our message but a message Jesus told us to give a 2,000 years ago- that is the good news, that is the gospel – that’s the message we are trying to send. If music is the medium we use, that’s awesome, but really as a band I feel like we try to put the message first and then the music because that’s the reason why we do everything we do.
Mike Charbonneau: I know I've played with you guys and I know that towards the end of your set you guys say what you think or what you are thinking, what you are feeling; it’s not like you are shoving it on everyone, you are just letting everyone know.
Matt: We try to present our faith to people, we try not to shove it down their throats because there are so many fire and brimstone Christians who are like “you are going to burn in Hell” if you do this and that you know that’s not it, people forget that after the most important verse of the Bible, right after it says “Jesus didn’t come to the World to condemn the World but to save the World through his love”. So I mean, showing the love for Jesus is the main thing for us. We don’t try to shove - why would be trying to shove a religion down someone’s throat if they don’t want to hear about it. We try to just show them the love.
Filipe: Yeah, we basically try to be really honest and have people see Christ in us without us really having to preach to them.
Do musical elements, other than lyrics, carry the message on their own?
Kevin: To go along with the musical side of things and our faith, I think that a lot of times a band writes the song and the lyricist puts whatever he wants over it with the message on it, but we really try and write the song as one, with Matt coming in and working his lyrics into it musically. For example, in the Prodigal, the screaming in that song is supposed to be a human screaming out to God. Screaming out what he thinks it should be and all the singing is God’s response to it and that’s one tactic of how we use music to get across our lyrics and stuff.
Filipe: Yeah, some of our songs we write the music according to the lyrics. This part should be really angry so this should be a heavy part or this part is more hopeful so this should be a more hopeful part of the chorus. All of our choruses tend to really be more hopeful and that would be a solution to a problem in the song. So yeah, we always try to combine the music with the lyrics so it wont just we like everything with the lyrics- blah I don’t know what I’m saying
What is Soulfest?
Jon: Well, the past 2 years we have had the opportunity to play in Gilford, New Hampshire, Gunstock is a big ski resort, they have a huge music festival called Soulfest and it’s like 100 bands that show up to that. They get really big bands. Just this past year we played twice on two different stages and the year before we played on the inside-out stage, its really honestly been, I don’t know about you guys, but my favorite time of the year, my favorite show.
What instrumentation is involved in your music?
Matt: In our band we have 2 guitarists, a drummer, a bassist and a vocalist. We decided on that because for our style of music its very tradition for there to be 2 guitarists, a drummer, bassist and a keyboardist. We decided we were going to go a little less hardcore. I mean the keyboardist does synth; we decided we wanted to be melodic with less fake things added.
Filipe: Less synthetic and computer stuff. We try to make it really natural and not crazy stuff with we try to make it more natural.
What music influences you stylistically?
DJ: A band that inspired me most musically is a band called Copeland and its ironic because Exiting the Fall is definitely a heavier band and Copeland is more acoustic but their music is such an art to them, they aren’t playing just to make money. They aren’t sell-outs, never did a huge headlining tour, its just beautiful music and such an art and that’s the reason I want to make music because its an art.
Matt: I like listening to August Burns Red because they take hardcore music and turn it into an art form. As much as we are a hardcore band we try to make our music into art and not just hardcore. I want my screams to not just be monotone. I want to show them that screaming isn’t just noise, its actually pain being sent through your lungs. You are actually screaming because its something that is on your heart.
Kevin: I think a band that really influenced us, as a whole is this band called For Today. Their music is probably more hardcore than our music ever will be but as a band they set the example as people and influence us the most, I feel like. As Christians they are not ashamed to speak their faith, to say through their lyrics and live, and I think that is a standard of a “Christian band” that we all live up to, and try to live up to.
Filipe: My two favorite bands that have really influenced me would be Mae just everything about them: musical, structure, instruments just everything and this other band called As Cities Burn I think they are amazing just really honest lyrics, just so artistic and really good. Love them and they broke up.
Jon: We like fooling around with different styles like blues and jazz.
Kevin: My favorite artist is John Mayer.
What influences you lyrically?
Matt: August Burns Red really influences me because they make people really think about their lives. They make people think that these lyrics aren’t just saying things they are actually meaningful phrases that are catchy and stuff like that. Not to make hooks that latch on to people but more importantly lyrically my influence comes from the cold, hard Bible. Just reading it. I’m reading all the synoptic and gospels right now which is Matthew, Mark and Luke and I’m reading John. Because we’re writing a song...Right now our album is all about the Parables of the Bible. When we are reading about the Parables we have to realize what Jesus was saying and what the Parables mean. What we do is we take these songs and interpret them and write songs based on certain aspects of the Parables of the Bible. For instance, our song the Prodigal is all about the Prodigal son which is the Parable of the Prodigal Son and there are different songs like Pharisees, which is another one of our new songs which branch off of it and we have another song, we don’t have a name for it yet but its based on the Parable of the Pharisees. So pretty much all we do is we read the Bible and we say what is on our minds and in our heart and we put it down on paper.
Can you describe your general writing process?
Kevin: So most of the time me and Felipe get together on a song that someone has already previously put together or either he has a riff or I have a riff and I was like oh that’s cool and we work on it building off of it. Then we come in and we show Matt and we work on the structure and work out different part like the same key and I think as this band we think a lot in keys. There are a lot of bands who have a lot of songs in the same key so we try to use different keys, I know that sounds weird but that’s the way we think of songs. So we get together, we do structure, and then we kinds finish the song as the structure and then with the whole band we go to each part and we tie it together individually, little transitions and then the last thing we do is working on is transition like smoothing out the whole thing making sure it flows well which has been something we have struggled with in the past as an early band just having part after part after part. Now we are trying to work really well on transitions.
Matt: Also sometimes the way the process starts they have a riff but I have a lyrical idea and I say this is how I want this part to go and I want it to sound like this and I want this screaming part here, and then this melody here and they are like ok, we see where you are going with this. And then they will take my lyrics and they will not only take what I gave them but they will take the rest of it and be like I have an idea for this part your wrote, and I have an idea for this part, this could be a really powerful screaming part and an ever more powerful screaming part and we can throw in a catch there and we repeat it and stuff like that so its more like it could go either way with me writing lyrics to what they write or them writing parts to what I write.
Kevin: And then another thing is that recently we have been using this thing called Guitar Pro and Matt wrote 2 whole songs on Guitar Pro and its been really kind of different and weird but tabbing out a song and listening to it before we even play it. We haven’t experimented much with that yet and we still have to really learn the songs fully but we’ll see how that goes because they sound great. We still have to learn how to play them. They are no good if we don’t know how to play them so sometimes Matt writes a part where its like, me and Felipe are like I don’t know if we can play that.
Matt: I don’t know I will write it and it makes sense music theory- wise like it will resolve but to be able to play that on the guitar you have to be like Tae Know Do master, you need extra hands basically.
So when you write would you say that theory is always in the front of your mind or would you say that it is a guideline in the back?
Matt: Me and Kevin took music theory. Ms. Hopkins represent. We always think of time signatures a lot, time signatures and different keys and scales and stuff like that, we work off that. We try our best to make out chord progressions make sense and to make things resolve. It kind of funny to hear like local bands who don’t know anything different and they are like lets just go to a C here who don’t know anything different. You know C, F Am, and then F well throw in a little Dm there, you know whatever fits. Whatever sounds great, you don’t know what you are playing just whatever chord sounds good but we actually know what we are playing. We have been experimenting with 17/ 4 -recently 24/7.
How do you guys make time for the band now that you are spread throughout the area?
Jon: Well we are all from different places and it’s really hard and Matt is able to pick up Kevin because he is on the way and we all can get rides. I don’t have my license yet and everyone hates me for that. Honestly it all works out because we have this place we are in right now, its just a meeting place, one place i'm so glad we don’t jump around from place to place. Its like home base for us we just come here on Saturdays and we’ll be here. Even if I have to walk here I’ll be here.
Filipe: It really tough to balance work and school but we are managing it somehow.
Matt: It’s all about sacrifice things that we aren’t normally going to sacrifice. We all really love this, which we truly do, we are willing to travel 45 min drives to be with this band because its something we all love and something we want to see happen so its something we are very passionate about.
What are Exiting the Fall’s goals and where do you see the band going?
DJ:: Right now we have 2 main goals. One is to record a full-length album and we are trying to do that this winter like February. Our second main goal is to do a tour throughout the summer- end of June, all of July and throughout August. We have 25 dates and we have 4 or 5 confirmed. Eventually we just want to tour and become a touring band and play music for the rest of our lives or for as long as we can at least and live life.
So… What do you think of Mike Charbonneau?
Filipe: What do I think about Michael? Hahaha ohhhh honestly ever since I was little in like middle school I used to like look up to Michael because he in All Flags Flying and they were the biggest band in Peabody. Aww and I used to be like holy crap I want to be in that band, they are amazing and like I used to listen to them and they are wicked good and I love Michael.
Kevin: Michael taught me how to ride my first bike and play basketball.
Matt: Mike taught me how to slam and he is like a foot and a half shorter than me and no I love him. Michael is the cutest kid I know
DJ: Michael has the stench of a thousand cowboys. I love it
Jon: I think Michael is a jerk.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sean, Darian, & Sydney: Cristie Munoz
For our Field Report we interviewed Cristie Munoz. She's a 5th semester Berklee College of Music student majoring in film scoring. The film score is the background music of a film and is separate from outside songs featured in the film. We also analyzed her piece "Undulations of a Snake" and watched a film short called Sidnaw that she scored for a client in Chicago. She talked to us about her current project with an Emerson film student that is being developed as a palindrome and the challenges that go with composing for this kind of film. Cristie also discussed the importance of understanding harmony and counterpoint to understand composition
Sydney's Introduction: Darian, Sean, and I were asked to complete a group project in which we had to interview and musician and view a performance of theirs in order to form a detailed analysis and summary of their work and how they create their “work”. For our project, we decided to interview a Berklee student/composer by the name of Cristie Munoz. The interview took place in her apartment where we asked her many questions to get an idea of what she does as a composer. She also showed us many of her composed pieces and explained how they were created and what the thought process of each piece was. We also asked her to give us an in depth explanation of how musical elements such as harmony and texture, play a big role in her composing. Cristie also allowed us to have a copy of one of her pieces titled, Undulations of a Snake, which got its name because of how the piece moves around. The overall interviewing process was very successful- thanks to the great deal of information that she was able give us.
Part II: Biography-->Cristie Munoz
Cristie Munoz is a young, talented, film composer, saxophonist, and diligent student from Chicago, Illinois. She is currently in her 5th semester of college, and has explored many different interests and possible major paths, such as: conducting, and music business, finally settling on film scoring by her 3rd semester. Now that her school has adopted a minors program, she is looking into picking up a minor in conducting, as she has had many years of experience. While working diligently to complete her major and minor curriculums she spends extensive hours practicing and performing on her saxophone, and creating her own music with synthesizers and vocal editing techniques, as well as composing for clients outside of school.
Cristie originally learned to play classical piano, at age 7, which she says has helped her tremendously with her composing. Shortly after starting the piano, at the age of 10 Cristie fell in love with the alto saxophone, she also played the baritone saxophone during middle school. She kept up a full-time extra-curricular schedule through middle school high school. Not only was she involved in many sports and clubs, but she also participated in marching band, concert band, and jazz band. In addition to her rigorous schedule she also performed with a drum corps in high school playing the vibraphone and marimbas. Most notably, her high school marching band competed on a national level, she marched with them for her freshman and sophomore years. Eventually, during her last two years of high school, she earned the position of drum major, the person in charge of conducting and commanding the marching band. She participated in many marching band competitions, both marching and conducting.
All of these elements brought her to Berklee College of Music, where she is currently studying film scoring.
Part III: Interviews
When you first started learning music, what styles did you play?
I would say that most people who learn through their school system, not from somewhere else, always start out classically trained, for piano I don’t play any jazz. I like to just read sheet music. For saxophone, ironically, I really started out classically based, and got into jazz in middle school. I would say I started with classical, and through high school tried to stay balanced between both genres.
Do you think that your previous study with classical music has helped you write scores? Because Scores aren’t typically jazz.
I would say that the part that helped me most from my classical training is recognizing tendencies in classical writing through the playing of them. Like, recognizing figures like descending thirds scale-ular patterns and things like that- that generally are very common in classical music.- Its all about recognizing, as a player, making things playable. Playing the sax I can not tell you has definitely- I don’t think you can be a composer if you don’t understand the way an instrument works and the tendencies of an instrument. [You have to know] what sounds good and what sounds bad. Reading music as a sax play, classical, has def helped me make music more playable for other musicians
Do you think you would have had to learn how to play the piano if you didn’t know how to already?
Oh yes definitely, because the piano can play chords and saxophone can’t. The basis of a composition is harmony [and melody] and one moves this way [gestures horizontally] and the other moves this way [gestures vertically] and on a saxophone you can only hear the one that moves horizontally, you can’t hear the one that’s coming underneath it. On the piano, you can hear both, so its essential to composition because you have to hear the way a note is effecting against a chord. That’s what creates the emotion-how the note is effected by its harmonic surroundings.
Can you talk about your counterpoint class and how it’s affected your writing? Can you explain what counterpoint is?
Counterpoint is the overall study of how a note is effected when played against by another note, and their interactions and their harmonic relations.My over-all belief in learning classical harmony and classical counterpoint is that you need to learn the rules before you can break them. So, I would say that I think its essential to learn counterpoint, to learn the way notes do move together and how they’re supposed to sound from a classical sense, so, that when I’m writing more contemporary scores, and I’m doing something that’s against the counterpoint rules, i’m not unaware of what i’m doing. I should be aware of the basic fundamentals of composition before just trying to compose, I should know that I’m breaking a rule. If you’re not aware of those then you’re not a real composer, you’re just the same as five year old banging random notes on a piano. You have to h
ave the essential basics to move forward in composition and counterpoint is one of those essential basics.
I know you’re also into conducting, do you think that helps you rhythmically develop your pieces? Or do you not take conducting into consideration when you’re writing?
I really like conducting, but I don’t really take it into consideration when writing. There are some things that would be really hard for a conductor, but I just write them anyway. In the back of my mind subconsciously i’m thinking ‘Oh this would be hard to conduct,’ but a lot of times in conducting its not even about whether the piece is hard or not its just about whether you know how it goes or not.If I wrote something that’s hard to conduct, I would know how to conduct it, because I know how the music goes. I guess it helps- it definitely helps- with choosing tempos for music and stuff.
Do you have any pieces where you’ve come up with ridiculous time signatures?
I do, it’s a Stravinsky inspired piece. The title’s “Abozo” but I just chose a random word. That rhythmic passage went through 7/8-5/8-3/4-7/8-5/8-5/8 and then to 4/4, that passage went like that because I needed some variation from the previous passage. Different odd meter is a good way to move from one section to another section
You had talked to us about a film scoring project you were working on for an Emerson student. Can you elaborate on that?
The project is for a movie that he’s doing, i’m not sure about the title yet, but the over-all concept is a palindrome. For those who don’t know what a palindrome is, it’s something that’s the same thing forwards and backwards. So, for example the name ‘Hannah’ can be the same backwards as it is forwards. The concept for the movie is that there’s a center point- I haven’t actually seen it yet- but, from talking with the film director the movie is going to be played backwards at this point, and going to be kind of mirror. He told me the script writer is a genius and they’re going to be saying things backwards that make sense [for the second half of the film]. The story starts with a couple breaking up, and somehow in the other half of the movie, something happy happens at the end. When I thought of it, I originally wanted to be able to play my work backwards with the movie, but that is physically impossible, I’ve discovered, due to tendencies of instruments.Whenever you play a note on a piano you have an attack, and a decay, so it kind of looks like [gestures a wedge] like a “V” and its physically impossible to make that the same thing backwards. When you play a piano note it sounds like “DA” and when you play it backwards it sounds like “RAHHHH.” So, I’m going at the concept that actually, when you look at the music, it’s going to be mirror image of each other at a certain point. The idea of doing this is from a class that I took called counterpoint 2, canon writing, which is very similar to what i’m doing right now, taking a measure and putting it at the end. Right now I only have the first half of it that I’m working on, because I haven’t seen the film yet, and I’m going to mirror it at the end. [Plays piece]
That’s an overall rough sketch that I’m going to be writing for the film student the whole process is, well, I made a midi file first, and I’m just kind of transcribing it now into my notation system. That’s just a film composition just at the beginning of the process.
Can you take us through the whole process from finding people to work with, and translating the director’s ideas?
Finding people to work with:
You have to just always be on your toes if you’re a film composer, at parties, especially if you’re a Berklee student if you’re at a party, if your just out walking around, [or] you’re hanging out with friends. We have this thing here at Berklee called film scoring club, which I’m not a part of but I should be, [laughs] that’s a great networking opportunity. Jason Parks, the head of the film scoring club, definitely is innovative [about] getting Berklee film composers out to film students and the neighboring community. Thank god, Berklee is in Boston and near so many colleges because there is a huge opportunity to meet film students and compose their films. With the Emerson project, I actually met the student on Halloween coming home from a party that I just randomly started talking to, and sometimes that’s just how it is. So I’ve found that when finding film students, sometimes it can be a random person you just meet, but the best is when you compose for friends. You wanna get friends with film student friends because once you start composing their films and they like your style, or like that you’re compatible with their style of films, or they like your professionalism about it, usually they’re going to keep calling you back. Usually film scorers tend to go with the same directors because they work well together.
Translating the directors vision:
Sometimes it’s really hard because directors know absolutely nothing about music. They just know the same thing as a common person. They know what they want the emotion to be, sometimes the film directors are nice enough to put a temp track over the film, which is already made music put over the film. Actually, [for] the Space Odyssey movie, the entire score for the movie was scored by someone, and they decided to drop it last minute and use the temp track, so some times it can be nice and sometimes it can be bad. Overall film composers have to realize that film directors do not know as much as they do about music and a lot of times I’ve found from other people and from my own experience, film directors just kind of let you loose. This project I worked on for a friend at UWMilwaukee, Kyle Probst, this movie’s called Sidnaw, this is a film I did for him. The overall start of the composition like the Emerson project, is just a bunch of little sequences. [Shows Program] This program’s called Digital Performer and it’s really really good for -its hard to use- but its very very good for film composition. [Motion] These little things are markers that I hit certain cues that I feel are important in the movie. The instrumentation I used: clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, and some strings. But overall he just kind of let me go on it. So it was really nice to just be able to work on my own on this film and just kind of create my ideas. But the problem was that afterwards my film director that I was working with, he didn’t give me any sort of direction, and there were some parts he didn’t like, there were parts that he did like, but that’s just like, that’s the frustrating part of being a film composer and the difficult part about working with a director. Its that they don’t know what they want and you give them a product you’re very proud of but then all of a sudden they start knowing what they want and then they start knowing that they don’t want something that you already did and have already finished. It’s hard sometimes as the film composer to taint your music to what the director wants, but, you have to remember its their product overall. You are putting your name on it but you’re being hired by the film director so you have to do what they want.
So for that example, what did Kyle say to you when he asked for music?
All he said was that he wanted a ‘minimalist approach to the score.’ Like most film directors they don’t want the music getting in the way of the film, but it’s just a misunderstanding sometimes because they’ve been watching this film so long with no music in it, and its kind of their baby, they can’t imagine it with music in it, they can’t imagine the possibility because they’re focusing so much on what’s being seen, and what’s on the screen, and the sound effects- they’re not really thinking too much about the music. I really tried to stick to his minimalist approach, [and] I really tried not to use more than 2 or 3 instruments simultaneously. Mostly because the story line is kind of skewed but the character is a very simple character out in the middle of Sidnaw, Michigan, just chilling in a cabin by himse
lf. So you don’t want to over complicate things with too many instruments and too many things going on when the movie is not the same. When the movie is simple you want to stick with simple instrumentation and simple composition.
Can we focus on one piece you’re currently working on? Whats the name of the piece?
A piece that I’m working on for this film, I’m kind of-well the film composer wants it to sound like Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind- and here’s a little clip. [plays Eternal Sunshine score] So, after listening to this and understanding the overall mood of what the film director wants- simple instrumentation, some electronic sounds, but very simple- in this composition there’s just a bass and some electronic strings over it and a piano. Its’ an upright plucked bass. The piece I’m working on, I didn’t like the swing feel, because for the palindrome effect the swing won’t translate very well through the sad parts, so I just kept it with a straight eighth note feel. You can kind of hear how I took the ‘temp’ track that my director gave me and tried to create something off of that. It’s very helpful when the director gives a temp track. It leaves a lot of questions out of the way like what instrumentation, what feel, how fast, how slow, when a film director gives you an idea it just makes the process go along a lot faster.
What would you say the difference is between and orchestrator and an arranger?
The main difference between an orchestrator and an arranger is that an arranger is more closely related to a composer than an orchestrator is. An arranger will usually be given a piece by a group that wants to play it. Like an orchestra, acapella group, men’s choir, like for Glee, Glee is a great example of arranging. Say next week they wanted to do a Queen song, the arranger for them will arrange all the parts going on there. You get to choose the instrumentation, and choose where it modulates etcetera. But an orchestrator, what they do is a lot of times on a really big project like a John Williams score. He’ll have an orchestrator, he’ll write a piano reduction score which is just one line of piano, but it has all of the parts for the composition written in concert key and above it he writes what kinds of instruments he would like played there. The orchestrator takes the reduced score and from there takes the parts and copies and pastes them into the music. Because a film composer, like John Williams, doesn’t really have the time to orchestrate the music for an hour and half film, that’s why you hire an orchestrator; somebody who literally organizes the composers ideas into actual physical composition.
Part IV: ANALYSIS: Undulations of a Snake
Undualtions of a Snake is a musical piece composed by Cristie Munoz. It is an atonal piece written for pia
no, cello, violin, and clarinet. The work is structured around repeating rhythmic and melodic motifs. It is comprised almost entirely of ascending motions and two note stepwise rises and falls divided by sections of whole notes. The four instruments will play similar motifs at the same time or after one another. The low notes of the piano play long descending harmonies providing a full sound to the piece, occasionally playing a motif held up by the right hand or another instrument.
Dynamically there are a few things going on, mainly on the violin’s part. Crescendos and decrescendos like the ones seen in m.3-m.5 are used a few times during the song. A major crescendo appears across m.24 - m.25, followed by a sharp drop to piano and another rise across a single measure then a two measure crescendo.
One of the most heavily repeated phrases appears at first being played by the violin at m.15. This motif is used throughout the piece starting on different notes and is punctuated by a diminished fourth or perfect fourth at the end of each phrase. Another phrase that is repeated throughout is an ascension of seven eighth notes ended by the descent of the eighth eighth note of the measure. This is repeated with inexact intervals. This motif begins appearing in m.5 and comes up again and again and is played by the piano and cello during the large crescendo across m.24 and m.25 being played along with the violin motif from m.15 by both the violin and clarinet. Also at m.24 there is an accelerando with a return to the original tempo at m.26.
F# and G# have a strong presence in the piece giving vague hints of a C lydian augmented scale amongst the atonality. Most of the instrument plays a trill, the clarinet at m.6 and m.11, the violin at m.14 and the piano at m.39. The cello and violin play pizzicato in unison rhythmic patterns with dissonant intervals occurring between the two instruments at m.8 and m.40. M.40 is where the piece begins its return to the motifs that were introduced within the first 10 measures of the piece and after cycling through them, it ends on the opening ascension.
