Planning My Melody

I found that putting a plan together for the first assignment's composition helped a great deal when it came to actually writing the composition. I always had a direction to follow and a framework to work within. This meant I didn't have any moments of frustrating floundering, only the usual creative blockades that an artist of any genre faces!

In terms of choosing an instrument, I think this has to be the primary consideration, in order to make my melody idiomatic to that choice. I experimented with (almost) all of the standard woodwind instruments in the previous exercises, and think I could work well with each, however my choice ultimately is going to be the flute, as I would really like to incorporate some flutter-tongue technique into my composition. I'm going to revisit my book on orchestration, as well as my own notes, with regards to scoring for woodwinds in general, and for flute specifically. One area that I am unsure of, and will need to investigate prior to writing the composition is how and when to include breathing points in the music.

The short melodies I have created so far for this part of the course can serve as a collection of ideas which I can utilize, either rhythmically, melodically, technically or all of the above as a direct quote. My two favourite melodies of the nine I created were the East European minor scale melody, and the Middle-Eastern eight-note tone scale melody. I'd really like to expand on these short ideas and incorporate them into, or make them the basis of, my assignment two melody.

I intend to use a variety of articulation and technique in my piece. Slurs, accents and staccatos will all play a major role in the melody, as will extended techniques and a variety of dynamics. When composing my melody, I will ensure I have the instrument's capabilities at the forefront of my mind, to ensure idiomatic writing. I'm almost certain I'll be using an irregular time signature in my piece, probably 5/8. Whether or not I have changes of time signature, or even use variable metre, is not clear at the moment.

As mentioned frequently in the course materials, the contours of the melody are very important. The flute has a wide range, comprising of several different qualities that I hope to exploit. In The Study of Orchestration, Samuel Adler describes the flutes various pitch qualities as such:

In terms of overall structure, I thought assignment one was especially successful in this aspect, so I plan to use something fairly similar, like the following:

Intro 5s
A 10s
A2 10s
A 10s
B 15s
B2 15s
C 20s
A 15s
B 15s
Coda 10s

This gives two primary themes, along with a contrasting subsidiary section, sandwiched between short sections of incoming and outgoing material. I want the introductory material to be brief, setting the rhythmic scene with a repeated note, or limited selection of notes, rather than an independent melody in itself. The coda may be either a reiteration or variation of the introduction, or some kind of modified version of the main theme. My A and B themes will both be lively, jaunty melodies, with rhythmical differences for interest. For the subsidiary section I will probably depart quite strongly from the main themes, and explore a slower tempo and quieter dynamic.

I am not looking to create a kaleidoscope effect with lots of different scales, but I can see the possibilities of using one main scale, and then using a different scale for the subsidiary section, with a sprinkle of the chromatic here and there. Modulating between two different 'world' scales is a grey area, not something looked at in the course materials, and is not something on which information can be readily found. With this in mind my modulation will be straight-forward, with no attempt to 'blend' the scales together, in the way you might use a pivot chord in music of the common practice period.

This rough plan may, and probably will, change while the piece is being written, but having even a preliminary idea of the layout of my melody will help keep me on track and focused. Above all, I need to keep the instrument's unique personality at the forefront of my mind throughout.