Recently I met up with a friend/filmmaker to record a short little ‘music video’ to some of my original pieces. The first one posted is entitled ‘waiting on a diagnosis’.
So here’s a little bit more about the piece in terms of its composition and arrangement. Also my personal analysis/thoughts on this piece.
This piece came together in a somewhat unusual way for me - I wrote it ‘measure by measure’. And what I mean is that I played the first measure and added the 2nd measure. After the 2nd I played the 3rd. And so on. So, it is almost like a game of telephone, where the further down the line we go, the more unlike the original opening it is. If I were to play the first measure - I would not necessarily expect what happens in the 5th measure. If that makes sense at all. While composing it, it was not my intent to write a ‘whole’ piece, this very much came together in fragments.
I also feel like this piece moves back and forth rather quickly between minor dissonance and major harmonies. I think this is easily shown in the first two measures, where the first is clearly in a minor key, but the second measure gives you a bit of major harmony and a calming melody. This lasts briefly before returning to dissonance.
Most of the dissonance comes from the open strings, which I use in a lot of my original pieces.
I titled this song ‘waiting for a diagnosis’. There is a lot of tension and apprehension in this piece. I think of it being similar to the way one would feel in a doctor’s office waiting for news or results of a test. In a way - there is some uncertainty as to whether or not you will hear good news or bad news, and, even if the news is bad, at least you have a starting point where you can guide your healing process. I think piece really captures that feeling of waiting - the ups and downs, the scattered thoughts, the worry, the hope… the fear.
It is a piece I really enjoy performing. I can feel all the tension and resolve in the vibrations from my guitar. It requires a lot of focus to keep up with the tremolo while maintaining the various melodic lines and chords. I love how the ending of this piece doesn’t stay in key, and moves around the tonality while maintaining a single constant pitch.
And onto the analysis -
This piece just comes out of the gate swinging - jumping right into a tremolo that is used throught the rest of the piece. By the 3rd beat we are already into dissonant territory, which resolves up on beat 4, only to resolve back down on the second measure.
The following measures are a bit more harmonic than the first and move into a major-key portion of the theme. But not for long as it moves back into discordance (B major played around an open G string) leading to another resolve into E minor. It settles a bit, takes a breath, and then starts the whole thing again.
The second portion is similar to the original theme, just with the pedal tone being a 3rd higher than in the first theme.
*When composing this piece, the theme originally repeated itself, but i changed it to add more variation. I think this slight variance adds to the tension of the piece, as it feels almost like it gets bigger during the second theme.*
There is a slight variation in melodic line as the notes wind their way back to the tonic, swell down again, and take another breath before leading into the development.
The development starts on some slightly dissonance chord, with the second chord adding more dissonance before resolving on the third measure. This transitions us nicely into what I think is the only ‘melodious’ part of the piece - parallel sixths over two pedal tones ending in a nice V7/3 resolution. This leads us into a short portion of the piece that stays in a relatively major key sound for a few measures, The melody here moves down through the major scale until stopping on a diminished chord on what would be the minor 3rd of the key. This diminished chord goes up a dimished third, and then up another third - but instead of ending on a diminished chord - we end back on the original theme. But we are on the second beat before you would be able to tell.
A recapitulation of the theme occurs before a sudden key change - changing up a diminished 5th, moving up a major 4th,(which will return in the final measures) resolving back to the diminished 5th, and then finally ending back on the original key.
From here the middle line escalates, creating more tension and dissonance, as we make our way to the final theme. This last theme features a counterpoint structure with the melodic line descending and the bass line ascending, all while holding an inverted pedal tone with an open B string, The opposing movement around the ‘B’ creates an interesting mix of resolve and developing dissonance. The bass line gets more dissonant as the melodic line becomes less dissonant, and the melodic line gets more dissonant as the bass line is less dissonant.
Then we end on the finale - a E minor chord, modulating to a Bb6, back to E minor, then to an Eb major, All movements occur on the bottom 3 strings while tremolo on the open G. The inversions on the chords needed to get all the notes in add to the depth and tension of the ending. Since this portion is relatively non-melodic and atonal - I do my best to add strong dynamics, with a heavy thumb pluck on the lower E string followed by a decrescendo until we hit the sforzando on the E string again.
We finally end on an E minor chord, this time up a third, with a crescendo moving into a slow decrescendo until ending on the final fermata.