Some more blues

Today I've been working on what I think will be the "A" section. First I used the five notes (see post below) to create a bassline, that would also correspond to my rhythmic scheme. I tried not to imply any particular key or chord progression:



From the same notes, I also constructed a chord voicing which I then hooked up with the bassline to form an accompaniment figure. For variation, I moved the voicing up and down using parallel motion. I still wasn't thinking about tonality - just melody and sound.





Knowing that the "A" sections would be 12 bars, I decided to actually use a regular blues progression, even though I had no obvious key center. I thought perhaps that could be a cool thing, to just imply the blues a little bit (and by that also referring to the large form). In any case, it would at least give me some variation. So I simply transposed the bassline up a fourth in the 5th bar, to get a subdominant feel - and then back to the "tonic", and so on.

On top of that I needed a melody. I wanted to use the same material, but in order to get some tension against the bassnotes (instead of doublings), I transposed the five notes to a different key. With that I came up with a simple little motif - a riff, really - that sounded very "old school". I thought it would make a nice contrast to the modern, almost atonal accompaniment. Also, it had a 16th-note, double-time swing feel, which could be interesting against the 7/8 meter:



We'll see how it works...

The first notes

I have recently read a book called Harmony For A New Millenium by trumpeter/composer Randy Sandke. He has developed a concept he calls "metatonality", which involves creating new harmonic structures from a certain intervallic system, and then extracting melodic material from those structures.

I've decided to try to use this concept for my piece. Without going into too much detail at this point: I've chosen a group of notes that have no obvious diatonic relation. From these I will now try to develop both melody and harmony:

More considerations

I've been thinking some more about the form, and about the different sections. My original intention was that the letters A, B etc (see "The Blues" below) would represent different thematic material - and I was mostly thinking in terms of melody and harmony, I suppose. But now, since the "rhythmic layer" has been applied, it's obvious that the rhythms and tempos are in fact thematic material as well.

I also realize that, the way the piece looks now, there will be quite a lot of information in a relatively short time. Lots of stuff happening. So in order to balance it, I suspect I'll have to make either the melodic or harmonic content - or perhaps both - really simple and concentrated. Which, I think, is a good thing anyway.

At this moment, I have three different harmonic concepts that I'm choosing between. Two of them I have experimented with in previous compositions, while the third idea is completely new. Perhaps later I can give you more details about it. First I want to decide which one to use - or if they could possibly be combined somehow.

Another thing to consider is the element of improvisation, which of course is a crucial aspect of jazz music. Where in the piece should I make room for improvising, and in what way? Perhaps I can use improvisation as a thematic element as well?

Calculating bars

For the piece to end up somewhere between six and seven minutes, each section should be around 30 seconds in length. Knowing now what the tempos will be, I can also determine how many measures I can fit into each segment.

With so many different tempos, it's likely that there will be a lot of irregular phrase lengths, which I like. The first A section will be 12 bars (the blues form once again, coincidentally!). B will be 7 bars the first time, then 14. C will be 27 bars, etc.

Later, when I start working with thematic material, it's possible that I might change these structures, perhaps add or subtract a bar here and there. That's OK, I don't mind doing that. But my initial goal will be to try to keep them intact, as much as possible.

Rhythm layer

I've now completed a first draft of the "rhythm layer".

I started with my initial rhythmic idea (see below), and looked for ways to use metric modulation (meaning changes into other meters and/or tempos). I tried to come up with as many different alternatives as I could, that would still make sense and be playable.

My inspiration for these kind of ideas, I guess, comes from people like Charles Mingus, Wynton Marsalis, and Frank Zappa. They weren't afraid to "switch gears" abruptly and all the time, so that the music would never be predictable.

I decided to try to alternate between the 7/8 meter and "regular" 4/4 swing, that being another important jazz element I wanted to include. The 7/8 parts will mostly stay in the same tempo, while the swing sections will be faster each time they occur. That way I hope to get a natural feel of development within this particular layer.

For the most part, I've tried to synchronize the rhythmic changes with the form layer, which means, I guess, that the "overlapping" must be taken care of elsewhere. We'll see how it works out...


Click on the picture for a bigger version!

About the form

Oh, and one more thing about the blues structure:

I actually also tried the same concept with a 32-bar rhythm changes form, but I realized there would be too much repeated information with those root movements. So I settled for the blues.

Layers

I will try to construct the piece using different layers. The form itself, as described below, will be one of those layers. There will also be a thematic/melodic layer, a harmonic layer, and a rhythmic layer. Perhaps something else as well, an orchestration layer maybe.

The idea is that each layer will have its own development from start to finish. At some point, two different layers might develop together; at other times, they might go against each other.

The basic form layer is already in place. I think the most interesting stuff might happen when there are changes in other layers that don't coincide with changes in the form.

I think I'll start with the rhythmic layer next, since I actually have an idea I want to use. It's a rhythm in 7/8, from an unfinished composition I did a couple of years ago:



It's kind of a "broken" rhythm that contains both triplet feel and even eighths, leaving many possibilities for tempo changes, metric modulations and polyrhythms. So that's what I'll explore next!

The blues

Since I want my piece to be a mixture between traditional and avant-garde elements, I decided to start with one of the most significant components in the history of jazz music: the blues form.

My idea is that the entire form of the piece will be like one large chorus of 12-bar blues - but "stretched out", so that each of those twelve bars represents a segment of about 30 seconds or so. (I must not exceed the limit of 7 minutes playing time)

Furthermore, the root movement of the blues chord changes will be used to determine the thematic content of each section:



I think this could be an interesting form. Perhaps too much of the same in the first half...but I thought, if it works over twelve bars, it might work over six minutes as well! I added an extra A section to get a reasonable ending, but we'll see...maybe later I'll find a way to do without it.

As far as the harmonic and melodic content is concerned, it probably won't have anything to do with the blues changes, or with blues whatsoever. However, the fact that some of the original changes have a transitional, "moving" quality, while others are more static, is something I might try to reproduce.

About the contest

The contest is called Jazzverk 2007. It's been around for about ten years in Sweden, but now for the first time it's an international competition. (You can read more about it here)

I've participated four times before; always made it to the final, but never won. Yet, that is...

Not that it matters that much - in any case, it's a great opportunity to have your music played by some of the leading jazz ensembles in the country. And also listening to some nice compositions by other people, of course!

Introduction

The first day of 2007, and also premiere of this blog!

My name is Mathias and I'm 29 years old. I live in Stockholm, Sweden, and I make a living playing, writing, and teaching music. In the forthcoming months, I'll be composing a piece for large jazz orchestra (big band), to enter in a contest. This blog will be used as a day-to-day report on the process.

I have several reasons for doing this:

• So that people who might be interested in musical composition, and/or my work in particular, can follow the process
• As a way for me to document my working methods, and hopefully learn something from it in the end
• To put a little pressure on myself to actually finish the project
• It seemed like a fun thing to do, since it might not have been done before...?

I'm writing in English not to be pretentious, but simply so that more people can understand. If the technology allows it, you might also find some sheet music examples or even soundclips here in the future!