Hello. My name is George Marshall and I am the founder of Any Old Music. I am a composer with over 10-years of experience, having completed work on 50+ projects for video-games, films and the concert hall. In 2020, I completed my doctorate in Music Composition. My PhD was on constraint and how it emerges in creative projects. For example, team discussions in video-game projects. If a video-game team presented a mood-board and certain briefs, these constrain and challenge the composer to compose in a particular way or style. Less quantifiable than, say, the application of serialism, but probably just as (if not more) constraining and creatively directing. It was during my PhD that I realised that there would only be two outcomes for me as a composer: I became a professional composer who needed to compose lots of music in not enough time. I became an amateur/hobbyist or semi-professional composer who needed to compose less music but still with not enough time. With this in mind I eventually opted for something more along the lines of semi-professional, but with an ambition of setting up Any Old Music as a means of helping similarly time strapped music makers. Particularly those in the second group, the hobbyists and semi-professionals, whose composing competes much more for time against other aspects of life. Composition is incredibly rewarding. You never stop learning and developing as a composer. Furthermore, many of us boast renegade autodidactic personalities to a certain extent. My hope is that Any Old Music’s self-paced composition courses can help composers to continue growing, by learning through creating and doing so in their own time.
Ase’s Death: the anatomy of melody 1
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We discovered a couple of weeks back that Edvard Grieg’s Ase’s Death is a binary form composition built around two melodies, with each section having its own material. In section A there is melody 1 (T1), and in section B there is melody 2 (T2). Today I want to look at how Grieg constructs melody 1, breaking down its phrase structure, the sub-phrase structure that I will call ideas, and the motifs that comprise and distinguish those ideas. Here is a PDF that includes annotations and analysis of melody 1: Melody 1 - Ase's Death.pdf Melody 1 (Section A)Phrases Melody 1 is 8 bars long and is split into two four-bar units. The first phrase closes with an imperfect cadence. The second phrase closes with a perfect cadence. Ideas What gives this melody its shape and clarity is its use of ideas, and the repetition of these ideas within and across phrases. For example: Bars 1–2 and 5–6 are identical. We can label these sub-phrase structures as idea a. Bars 3–4 and 7–8 are similar but present different cadential ideas, varied around the harmonic differences that result in the two cadences. We can label these idea b and b’. See slide 3 of PDF If we lay these out linearly, we can see how tightly knit the melody is: a b a b’ Repetition and similarity: the melody is concise and neatly constructed. Yet, despite its clarity and concision, it achieves the expressive quality that Grieg pursues for this moment of the play. Motifs We can break the ideas down further into motifs. Here we begin to identify contrast: what distinguishes the ideas and phrases. Motif x: Idea a is essentially one motif (x) repeated. It is upward in contour, comprising a perfect 4th followed by a rising major 2nd. Idea a, therefore, is simply x x. Motif y: A descending, stepwise motif that both opens and closes idea b. The closing version of motif y can be labelled y^D2, as it is a diatonically transposed version of motif y, placed upward by a 2nd while maintaining the notes of B minor. Motif z: A rising, stepwise quaver motif that sits in the middle of idea b. Idea b’ is largely the two motifs (y and z) transposed up diatonically by a 2nd interval. We can, therefore, label these as y^D2 and z^D2. Looking BackIf you are joining this partway through or need a refresher, it may be worth revisiting the earlier instalments:
Closing ThoughtWhat is striking here is not complexity, but restraint. Grieg does not search for new material. Instead, he refines, repeats, and gently varies what is already present. The result is a melody that is clear in structure, economical in material, yet deeply expressive. If you have the score to hand, it is worth tracing these ideas yourself. Mark out the phrases, label the ideas, and follow the motifs as they move and transform. If anything stands out to you, or if you hear something differently, I would be very interested to hear your thoughts. All the best, George P.S. If you are curious about the full course, you can preview it here for a reasonable price: https://www.udemy.com/course/music-composition-with-grieg-orchestration-melody-form/?couponCode=5ADB3DAED3790066DC12. P.S.S. If you have had enough of hearing from me, please unsubscribe using the link below, cheers and cheerio: |
Any Old Music
Hello. My name is George Marshall and I am the founder of Any Old Music. I am a composer with over 10-years of experience, having completed work on 50+ projects for video-games, films and the concert hall. In 2020, I completed my doctorate in Music Composition. My PhD was on constraint and how it emerges in creative projects. For example, team discussions in video-game projects. If a video-game team presented a mood-board and certain briefs, these constrain and challenge the composer to compose in a particular way or style. Less quantifiable than, say, the application of serialism, but probably just as (if not more) constraining and creatively directing. It was during my PhD that I realised that there would only be two outcomes for me as a composer: I became a professional composer who needed to compose lots of music in not enough time. I became an amateur/hobbyist or semi-professional composer who needed to compose less music but still with not enough time. With this in mind I eventually opted for something more along the lines of semi-professional, but with an ambition of setting up Any Old Music as a means of helping similarly time strapped music makers. Particularly those in the second group, the hobbyists and semi-professionals, whose composing competes much more for time against other aspects of life. Composition is incredibly rewarding. You never stop learning and developing as a composer. Furthermore, many of us boast renegade autodidactic personalities to a certain extent. My hope is that Any Old Music’s self-paced composition courses can help composers to continue growing, by learning through creating and doing so in their own time.
One thing I have never really liked about some theory, analytical, and pedagogical composition books that deal with form is how they present it. They will often tell you that a piece uses ternary form. Or sonata form. Or, as we discovered with Grieg last week: binary form in Åse’s Death. This week's annotated score/analysis: Arrangement - Åse's Death.pdf The Problem with How Form Is Often Taught However, for the student, this can create false understandings, misconceptions, and...
The longing son, weeping for a dying mother: Åse’s Death is one of the most moving moments in Grieg’s music. Yet the music avoids the melodrama we often associate with the Romantic era. Instead, it is restrained and respectful: music that mourns quietly while still expressing deep emotion and yearning. Background: Peer Gynt Åse’s Death is the second movement of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, drawn from the incidental music he wrote for fellow Norwegian Henrik Ibsen’s play of the same name (first...
A simple but significant change has happened in my Winnie the Pooh arrangement. The whole piece has been transposed down a tone (major 2nd) and the arrangement is now beginning to take shape in full concert band score, having reached a level of detail in the condensed sketch that felt solid enough to build from. So today, I thought I would share how that move is going: what seems to be working well, what seems less convincing, and why. Down a tone First, the decision to transpose the score...