Week 2: Let the Fun Begin

All good symphonies have a theme. Some are more recognizable and in the forefront than others and some are more subtly interwoven. Symphonies are long stretches of music so the composer has to invent ways in which to add variation to the them in order to avoid their arch-nemesis, repetition. I worked on my first movement this week, and with the idea of developing a theme in mind I chose to do a Sonata-Allegro form, a format with which many symphonies start out with.

A Sonata-Allegro is comprised of three sections designated A, B, and A once more. Each section is designated a responsibility: exposition, elaboration, and recapitulation respectively. It is a simple format yet incredibly open to the imagination of the composer. After wrapping up the prelude, I devised an emotion for each of the three movements I plan to write: disorientation, anger, and apotheosis. The first one, disorientation, will have both A sections pushing the music outside the boundaries of its key in D Minor. The second A section will introduce negative harmony, a more mathematical approach to reharmonizing the theme presented in the first A section. It will create a more somber and atonal mood which will make for a smooth transition into the next movement, anger. This is a picture of what negative harmony looks like where the notes that made up the first A section are reflected on an axis, and in conjunction with one another would theoretically create a darker (you could say negative) sound.

The B section would represent a soliloquy-ish quality with less dense orchestration and serve as a contrast to the dissonant frenzy of the A sections.

In terms of following up on my goals from the previous week, I do feel confident that I have laid a foundation in which the symphony can be one cohesive whole with an emotional arc in place. While I wanted to stray away from technicality vs sentimentality, I do think that with proper adjustments, negative harmony can be utilized to create a deceptive moment in the symphony.

To conclude, a symphony can only serve its maximum potential with proper use of its theme. Most listeners don't pick up on some integrations of a theme, but their brain does, and that only augments their appreciation and enjoyment of the piece.

I have continued to produce daily objectives and questions for myself. Below are the first three days of progress and there are still more days to come. Hopefully I will have Movement 1 wrapped by Sunday so I can move on to Movement 2.

See y'all then.