Dramatic Theme

Cool...... keep on writing and posting. This would come to life with another layer of music, and widening to register at the high point.

 

Not talking about mixing in any way regarding the register. It's an orchestration issue. You know, the godfather waltz or godfather theme might be a good score to listen to for this cue. Also

It's one of his most simple tunes, and how at 1:18 it sounds full and grand.

Regarding layer: Basically it is another musical idea that differs in rhythm. That's the most important, that it differs in rhythm. I'll see if I can find a little time to cook up some examples for you. It can be a counter melody, a texture, a "pad" ......many options.

 

Oh, well there you go. It doesn't get much more sophisticated than Brahms. Study that score, or perhaps to opening to Symphony # 4.
The 1:1 is the biggest problem. People can perceive music as having separate time spans. So the same progress can be say

|_______________|_________________|______________|_________________|

|________________________________|________________________________|

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Don't know if that makes sense.

Ok: For example your counterpoint on top of the main theme is something like this



One thing that gets me is we loose energy at the end of the 2nd measure.

So now, as one of many possible examples, I am going to take exactly what you wrote and fill it in. Also, to avoid the 1;1 feel I am simply going to move over to begin the phrase on beat 2. I have put your melody in Red. Those are the notes you wrote, and now I am filling in a scale around them.

Here is the difference. Yours is first, the fill in 2nd. Nothing has been changed to your melody, or counterpoint. Just filled it in make it feel like another "layer"

 

First, you are very welcome.

No, that's not quite what I mean. It's difficult due to the abstract-ness of the concept. Let me circle back and see if I can make it clearer with another example. Layer, and even worse, Texture & Gesture, are tough concepts to explain in words, let alone via a forum.

I'll be back....

 

Ok..... so here are two examples. Each with new "layers". The most important thing is that they have a contrasting rhythm.

Ok, so I'll your first two notes. Now, just to pick up from where we left off, I have composed a counter-melody as we discussed.
Now we have 2 layers.



I am adding in another "layer" with a rhythmic figure in the harp. So we get 3 "layers".



That will be sound example 1.


Now, let's wipe clean the countermelody. For the next example, I am going to move the harp layer to the strings.
For the harp I will give straight 16th's throughout. For a 4th layer, I am simply going to walk down the minor scale in half notes.
Each layer has it's own independent rhythms. They are notated below



Here is a mp3 of both examples. So we went from 1 layer to 4.

 

You are an Aussie ...huh. What are minims ? Just kidding.... A long time ago I was a sessional staff member at the University of Melbourne.
I hated all that stuff, being a yank.

You can pretty much (although it is not exact) think of a layer as independent parts going on.

Perhaps the simplest way I can think of right now as why "part" is something different.

Imagine a drummer at a drum set. The kick drum would be 1 layer. The Snare Drum a 2nd layer, and the high-hat a 3rd layer,
They could add on a 4th with the toms or cymbals, and so on. The point being since the snare is happening on every 2 an 4 , and say high-hat on every 8th, say bass drum on 1 etc...... the ear can hear it both as a whole, and as having multiple layers.

So the drum "part" can have 3-4 layers.

Thus a melody, counter-melody can all be a "layer" just as pizz strings waltz can be heard as two layers - (bass on 1, and right hand 2/3)

The reason for the rhythmic independence is for clarity. So things don't "talk over one another". This is partly why often composition teachers will comment on people over stressing the down beat of the bar. Giving things space allows for better clarity and also this "sum vs parts"

I don't know if that makes any sense at all ?

 

Hi Sam. In connection to what Doug mentioned about creating different layers/complimenting parts - A great way to build up your database of different ways to do this and different ways that you can present and orchestrate your ideas, would be to, as Mike always says, transcribe, transcribe, transcribe. Preferably, stuff that you can get the score for.