In this post I wanted to talk briefly about organicism as it relates to my musical process. Specifically the way I approach harmony, melodic structure in composition and improvisation. Basically I have this process, whether it's conscious or not is hard to say, where I distill everything down to really simple relationships. It's usually based on some tonal or modal base, a scale or series of notes. Then, as I progress, rather than following any traditional forms of modulation (for lack of a better term right now) I look for ways to progress harmonically, to evolve the piece, by layering keys/scales, using the original base harmony to link the relationships and make them work.
In my last post I posed a rhetorical question - So is organicism a compisitional technique? - and although I admit readily this process isn't something I've consciously developed, it appears the answer is yes. It's worth noting that what I'm really referring to here as organicism is actually something more like a dumbing down of Schenkerian analysis. I don't set about making a piece of organically structured music, but I do reduce my ideas down and then build them in ways that maintain these very basic relationships. So in that, the process becomes something that can be summarized by the smaller elements that make the building blocks of the piece.
Reflecting on this little tidbit, it makes sense now that there's something to focus consciously on in composition. There's experiments to be done now, and new things to try, and when I'm composing new pieces from now on, I'll have this in mind as I work.
No comments:
Post a Comment