Chamber CD - Day 25

Thursday, November 30, 2006
11:51 AM

Here’s the problem: how do you get chromatic, non-diatonic, even dissonant music to sound bright and pure - like a child sleeping?

Oh, and you can’t use simple diatonicism.

Because right now, I want to write a piece as a metaphor for how I feel when I see my boys sleeping, a sight that stirs very powerful emotions in me. And I refuse to write a simple diatonic tune.

I mean, I love diatonic tunes, and I love to write them, but I need to dig further, look farther. Otherwise, my inner academic will be pissed, and that would be bad.

Up till now, I’ve been exploring various motives and pitch sets and then stringing them together, with only limited success. It sounded good, sometimes really good, but never appropriate for sleeping boys.

So this morning, I started out with reading, analyzing and listening to Bill Evans, something I’ve also been meaning to do. There wasn’t much there I didn’t know, thanks to Mark Levine’s “The Jazz Piano Book.” But it clarified a few things and got the juices flowing.

Then I started exploring in more depth the following musical concept.

You see, the melodic minor scale has some colourful chromaticism stemming from its ascending and descending forms, which feels completely organic and natural. And you know, my goal is always to make my music feel natural and organic, even when it is complex.

So I did a lot of improvisation, taking that concept for a ride – go up this way, come down that way – to see what would come out. And guess what, some nice stuff came out, stuff that seems right for two sleeping boys.

Now for the “overnight test.” Let’s see if I still like the ideas tomorrow!