Music

These 4 broad areas of inquiry (AOI's) are designed to encourage students to explore Music across a broad range of contexts and purposes. Students are required to select material from all of these AOIs in their coursework submission and justify why they feel pieces studied belong to a selected AOI. Students work as a Researcher, Creator/Composer and Presenter/Performer and cover 2 AOI's for their Exploring Portfolio and the other 2 for their Experimenting Portfolio.

The following AOI 2 Pieces were explored and analysed (and included as part of max. 2,400 word coursework, 'Research Report').

Igor Stravinsky - "Le Sacre Du Printemps” (The Rite of Spring)

Jeff Wayne’s Rock Opera, "War of the Worlds"

Exploring - Creating. 'The Raven'

This short excerpt is from 2 compositions Shun Wye completed using the Edgar Allan Poe poem, "The Raven".

Shun Wye writes: The Raven is a poem written and narrated by Edgar Allan Poe, and tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness having lost his loved one, Lenore. The poem features an interplay (imagined or real) between the main character and the raven who flys into the room and perches ominously above. Despite the main character's pleas and attempt to find answers from the mysterious talking raven regarding his loss and agony, the raven simply only replies, hauntingly, 'nevermore'. This sends the character into more mental unrest and creates a dark, supernatural narrative. It remains one of the most famous poems ever written.

My research into Music written to accompany the dramatic presentation of characters and a sense of place uncovered a composition device known as the leitmotif. This is a recurring musical phrase associated with a particular character, place, or idea. Think the John Williams 'Imperial March' theme whenever Darth Vader appears in the Star Wars movies.

I created 2 leitmotifs. The first one is intended to musically represent the loss and melancholy felt by the main character and is achieved through using a minor key, a slow tempo, and a simple 4 bar melody - based around a musical sequence. I also chose instrumentation and added effects such as reverb in my final mix that I feel lend themselves to creating this atmosphere. In addition, I added excerpts from a James Earl Jones reading of the poem.

The second theme or leitmotif aims to conjure up the perceived darkness and supernatural qualities of the Raven. The one bar repeating melody line (played by a distorted electric guitar) makes use of a flat-fifth interval (tri-tone) which adds a lot of tension to the sound. For the accompaniment, I heavily borrowed from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring using bi-tonal chords (two chords superimposed on each other and creating dissonance and tension) along with a pulsating syncopated ostinato. I again chose instrumentation that I feel lends itself to the dark and supernatural sound world I was seeking to create. This includes a massed choir joining the piano with the bi-tonal ostinato, orchestral tubular bells and, in addition, effects such as reverb and delay.

The following AOI 2 Pieces were explored and analysed (and included as part of 2,400 coursework, 'Research Report').

“Raga Ahir Bhairav’ -

Total Immersion - Broto Roy

Exploring - Performed Adaption. 'Raga Ahir Bhairav'

Shun Wye writes: My performed adaption uses as a stimulus the Hindustani Raga Ahir Bhairav and elements of the classical Indian/funk-rock fusion of Broto Roy. In addition, by way of approaching the tala - the complex rhythmic cycle used in classical Indian music, I incorporated the concept of rhythmic diamonds of Australian percussionist, educator Greg Sheehan.

Given the time limit for this submission, it was challenging to try and incorporate many aspects of the Raga Ahir Bhairav. My performed adaption includes a beginning ‘Alap’ section where the sound of the raga is introduced. During this section I tried to emulate some of the timbres of the tabla drum, first with my hands on the drum kit and followed with sticks. By adding pressure to the drum skin with my hand or stick I was able to achieve some pitch shifting on the drum - a key timbral characteristic of the tabla drum.

At the 1:00 minute mark, I make use of a tihai - another integral feature of Hindustani music. Tihais are a repeated rhythmic (and often unison melodic) phrase used usually to end a piece. It has the effect of distorting the listeners’ sense of where the one or ‘sam’ is, before it strongly returns on that strong first beat. I use this same tihai to end my performed adaption.

Since I was looking to fuse both Rock with Indian classical (inspired by performing artists such as Broto Roy), I included a simple rock feel that set the tempo and provides a clear sense of where the ‘one’ or ‘sam’ is. The tala section is based on a rhythmic diamond taken from a book by Greg Sheehan called, ’The Rhythmic Diaries’. The diamond sub-divides 24 beats into smaller groups of 3's and 2 and incorporates the essence of the 'tala' in Indian classical music. (which I have incorporated as quavers in my performance). This means that the diamond covers 3 bars of 4/4 before landing back on the one (or start of the cycle). I play the diamond twice - once at 1:19 (from top to bottom and left to right) and again at 1:39 from far left to right and vertically.

Experimenting as a Creator

Focusing on AOI 4 - Music for Technology in the Electronic and Digital Age

Experiment 1 : Minimalism

Shun Wye writes: In my DP music classes, we explored post-modern Western Art music which included an introduction to a compositional approach known as ‘Minimalism’. In particular, we looked at the Music of Steve Reich (Different Trains, Clapping Music and It’s Gonna Rain). Listening to pieces in this Minimalist style I can identify that composers seem more focused on taking small musical ideas or motifs and layering these into new textures and allowing them to unfold via 'through-composed' forms. Some Musicologists (and indeed Steve Reich himself) trace an influence back to West- African drumming traditions and musical forms.

My first experiment was to create my own Minamalist piece using the DAW 'Soundtrap', and many of the compositonal techniques I was introduced to through my research and listening.

Experiment (1st transformation) : Musique Concrete

Shun Wye writes: Much of the minimalistic pieces by Steve Reich listed above can be considered aligned with AOI 4, since they are very much the product of Reich’s exploration with electronics, magnetic tape-loops and incorporating found, pre-recorded sounds (Musique Concrète).

Musique Concrète utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified via audio effects and (traditionally) through tape manipulation techniques which can now be easily emulated (and extended) with a DAW. Sounds are edited into a form of a montage.

I decided to use the objects/sounds from my school surroundings for my experimenting. The school’s infrared thermometer provides a pre-recorded response, “Temperature normal, pass please” that I thought would make an interesting addition to my sound palette. After recording the audio I added these to Soundtrap and edited together an audio montage creating loops and layered textures along with effects such as reverb, panning and delay.

Other ‘found’ sounds used in this ‘experiment’ are school plastic chairs dragged across the floor; the opening and closing of school lockers (edited to spell out the pulse); the school bell; students informally chatting over their lunch; piano strings being struck gently with a mallet and; a wind-up metronome

Experiment 3 (2nd transformation) - EDM (programmed Drum Beats Jungle/Drum and Bass)

Shun Wye writes: My final experiment can be seen relating to my research into the emergence of programmed drum beats within AOI 4. For this experiment, I drew upon stylistic features of the Jungle/Drum and Bass EDM sub-genre to program my drum track using the step sequencer function in Soundtrap.

Perhaps the most sampled drummer of all is Clive Stubblefield - drummer with James Brown. I drew on his syncopated funk patterns that were often sampled and digitally manipulated to create Jungle and Drum and Bass music in the 1990’s and beyond. I attempted to include the ghost notes on the snare drum, playing two consecutive beats with the snare drum, and along with a syncopated bass drum feel, tried to retain a strong backbeat. However, even though I would really want to add these ghost notes, I realized that Soundtrap as a DAW was limiting, not allowing me much nuance.

Experimenting as a Performer

Focusing on AOI 1 - Music for Socio-Cultural and Political Expression

Experimenting as Performer 1 - Roots Reggae/One Drop

Shun Wye writes: The aspects that I found most interesting about Reggae is its rhythm, and how the drums avoid accenting the 1st beat of the bar and instead accent the 3rd beat (with both kick + snare). This was challenging for me since I am very used to having the kick accent the 1st beat and playing a backbeat on 2 and 4 (as is the case with most popular music and rock music in particular). . This is known as the ‘One Drop’ feel. For the first experiment I performed live (acoustic) drums for my original composition based on the One Drop feel and also avoided using the crash as much as possible to complete any drum-fills.

Experimenting as a Performer 2 (1st transformation) - Dub Reggae Version

Shun Wye Writes: Dub Reggae was invented when artists used musical technology to add remixes, reverbs, and echoes to original reggae pieces. Most notably, the original reggae piece was “dubbed”, as a certain section of its vocals is cut out, rearranged, and added with new effects. After listening to many examples of Dub music from the likes of King Tubby and Lee Perry, I could see that by adding effects on my drum kit and dropping parts of the pattern I was playing to vary the texture I could create a whole new sound. I also used added some dancehall ‘MC’ samples taken from Cut killer and SoowaliI Hi-Fi & Dref Jah.

Experimenting as a Performer 3 (2nd transformation) 3 - Reggaeton Version

A contemporary sub-genre whose roots can be traced directly back to Reggae, Dub and Dancehall reggae is Reggaeton.

My research into Latin-American music allowed me to identify immediately the presence of the 'Clave' rhythm in much of this Music - a rhythm ubiquitous in many Latin American styles and genre. For this experiment, I altered the original swung baseline to that of a straight bass line and sped the tempo up to make the groove sit better in this style. I added the ‘3 and 2’ clave rhythm with a rim-click and in the second section (from 0:23) I just played the first bar of this clave rhythm in unison on kick, snare and hi-hats, providing a driving beat and contrasting feel (also commonly used in this style).