Overmarking

I have sat in front of my computer almost all day, tackling inputting chamber opera 2 into Sibelius.

First off, that's right! The original intent of the blog, to chronicle writing my first opera, has come back around for a second round! But there'll be more about that opportunity later.

For now, my head is in the score, getting all the details into this infernal software. They're all "nicely" laid out in my manuscript, but translating some things into notation in software isn't too easy. Sibelius 6 still doesn't treat Sprechstimme markings all that nicely (where's my shortcut for that on the keypad! C'mon!), and there are a fair share of note-head changes for different techniques.

Ah, so now you're thinking "Oh, he uses all these techniques, so he's gonna talk about what a pain that is" or maybe "Now he's gonna say 'there's a limit to putting dynamics on every note!' FERNEYHOUGH FOREVER!"

Well, we're not all Ferneyhough (but I kinda wish I was...dude's awesome, but that's a previous post). No, this is about something less...musical?

This is about the words. I'm in a second semester of playwriting, which makes me practically an expert. That's a joke. But one thing we've discussed several times in class is how much information should be put in stage directions. The professor, Frank Higgins (he's kinda kick ass. Check him out), likes to remind us "If the words dictate an action, you don't need stage directions." (paraphrased, of course). And, what about emotions, like "angrily." I remember, vaguely, Frank basically telling us at the beginning that this was pretty much a hands down "no."

And yet...it's a practice in operas. I've checked out a few scores and, there it is, right over the words. "Angrily" "with growing frustration" "Happily." In instrumental writing, I get it.

In the violin part to an opera, I get it

But right over the singers words, and just hers?

If I was a singer, which I'm most assuredly not (though my resume says I did it in amateur fashion many moons ago), I may take it in stride, and just do what I'm told.

Or I might get irritated.

Yeah, you're right, I'd get irritated. Who does this composer jackwad think he is, telling me exactly who I should feel. Maybe I feel like the character should be more peeved than angry. Maybe it's a jaunty happy not a blissful happy. I can add the character just fine, thank you.

If I sent out a script where lines were tagged as such, I'd be laughed at. So, why are we still doing it in music? I even started to do it in my own piece, when I realized "ya know, I don't REALLY have to tell the singer how to do this. If the words tell the action, and show the character, it doesn't matter." Heck, if it's written well enough, even things like irony and sarcasm would come across in the characters voice without me having to put "sarcastically."

So, maybe we should ease off a bit in the markings. Let musicians be musicians, singers be singers, and opera singers by OPERA singers...which intrinsically means actor/actress as well.

Enough complaining, back to the grind!

and so the spaces continue

Read some more of Cohn's article. haven't finished it. reading that much on a screen hurts my eyes, so i printed it, and one by Ian Quinn "General Equal Tempered Harmony- Intro and Pt.1." I got these articles from a good friend who took a class, "Musical Spaces," with Joseph Straus. I chickened out and didn't take it. should have. woulda been awesome. then i could have had more guidance than one friend 1300 miles away.

Still, it's fun reading these articles, learning about how people have been dealing with this issue of space in music. It's interesting. Really goes back to relationships. How is such and such a note related from this particular set of notes, be it tonal or atonal. the neo-Riemannian theory article by Cohn talks about how the first systems were created to discuss tonal music, or at least music that started from a chord normally thought of as tonal- such as a C minor chord. I won't go through it, as Cohn already has.

the complete name of the article, again, is "Introduction to Neo-Riemannian Theory: A Survey And A Historical Perspective."

it is a nice intro. and the idea of the Tonnetz is quite simple. I built a full one (hitting till i repeated on all ends) in about 25 minutes or so for [ 0 3 5 ]. i even practiced my Inkscape skills by drawing the center of the doughnut. yep, a Tonnetz ends up a doughnut. At first i didn't recognize the top/bottom relationship. then my friend typed it and i did . lol

Anyway, i'm not really using the Tonnetz in my piece. I chose [ 0 3 5 ] because that is the pitch collection for a central motive i'm using in the piece - 6 Pieces After Basho - but it doesn't particularly help me much. All it shows is all the transpositions, and gives me an idea of how far away each transposition is from the original. it's a fun tool, and i like building new relationships with it - like overlaying another picture and connecting the dots - which is a method i MAY use for a later movement.

i thought about it briefly with the current movement, overlaying a cherry tree...and having the leaves dropping being the changes in pitches through a chaotic fall through the numbers, however, i went with a simpler method. Basically, i'm taking the melody and having notes drop off. these dropped notes are held and passed along by the other instruments, at first in the same relative range (floating on the breeze) and then lower (on the ground). talk about text painting.

Anyway, that's been my day. I was going to keep working on the piece, wanted to have the sketch done by midnight, but my brain is still too scattered. I blame watching part of the Harry Potter Musical. seriously. my bff told me to tune to that youtube playlist, so i did...and i felt dumber for it. and it was spectacular. and awesome. i shall finish it later though. lol. totally distracted my mind

ever have that happen? be working on a task, like writing music, then do a task this is very similar, but different enough that it screws everything up? it's one reason i don't listen to a ton of music while i'm actually thinking about music. It screws with my head...can't hear my own notes anymore. Anyway, yeah, maybe that's just me.

G'night