Create a piece that has at least two distinct rhythmic streams:
1. Fixed.
2. Uses
additive composition to produce polyrhythmic effects against (1).
3. Try and work
out a coherent harmonic scheme.
(1) and (2) effectively work in a figure-and-ground relationship.
Although each part will be monophonic, as they are layered up you
will effectively be creating a harmonic "stack" that changes
configuration as the additive elements kick in: Glass is very good at manipulating
minimal melodic materials that produce carefully voiced chords working within a
tight and coherent harmonic overall scheme.
Research
Philip Glass (31st January 1937 - present) is an American composer most well known for his work in the Minimalism genre. He has attempted to distance himself from the minimalist label though instead describing himself as a composer of music with repetitive structures. (Glass, Biography) He has written many pieces including operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music and film scores. Three of these film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.
Einstein on the Beach was first premiered on 25th July 1976 and is an opera in four parts. The piece is around five hours in length without an intermission. Looking specifically at Train, Part 1, you'll notice the relationship between the figure and ground. Saxophones play a three note phrase and then the rest of the orchestra and chorus join in with their own additive phrases. Additive phrases refers to when a performer has a certain phrase but the timing can change from bar to bar. The image below (from Music in Twelve Parts) shows this.
The timing changes form bar to bar giving an uneasy, restless feel. The idea is to take a musical phrase, then one the next bar, add in 1 or 2 extra notes of the rhythm.
Additive process involves the expansion and contraction of tiny musical modules: a five-note grouping, for example, played several times, then becoming six notes, then seven and so on. It's the same general melodic configuration but takes on a different rhythmic shape because of the addition or subtraction of a note. Rhythmic cycles involve the simultaneous repetition of two or more different rhythmic patterns which will eventually arrive back together at starting points, making one complete cycle. Glass reports that to some, it sounds like wheels within wheels (Delahoyde 2013)
The Composition
The composition has a repeated note as it's ground line. The ground is in 8/8 and was sequenced in Cubase. This was exported from Cubase to Logic where the sounds were changed for sounds from Massive. The next line utilises the additive process and each bar adds or subtracts a new note. It was sequenced again in Cubase then imported into Logic for the sounds to be generated by Massive. The time signature for this line changes. It begins with 7/8 then each bar is different. The time signatures for the bars have their own pattern- 7/8, 9/8, 11/8, 12/8, 15/8, 12/8, 11/8, 9/8, 7/8.
Extras lines of music are added in order to give the piece more interest. These lines are in a fixed time signature unlike the main changing riff. The extra lines were assigned instruments from Massive. The piece was arranged in Logic and then mixed and exported as a wav.
Critical Analysis
The composition takes the many of the main ideas from Glass especially that of the ground and figure pattern and the changing of time signatures (additive process). The composition has a well-shaped structure and makes use of the repetitive patterns in order to create a symmetrical form. The instruments compliment one another well. The ground has a good rhythmical pattern and allows for the rest to be built upon it. Despite this, the changing figure may have been more effective if there had been perhaps three bars of each time signature instead of one in order to make the changing patterns have more tension.
References
Delahoyde, M. (2013) 'Minimalism' from 20th Century Arts and Humanities from http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/20th/index.html [14.5.14]
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