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I really enjoyed JNH's soundtrack to The Village. It was cast in the same mold as Signs, but use of the violin was really effective. I also love his soundtrack to Peter Pan. I would recommend that one to anybody.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Winder: Ok, then I will retreat to my little corner of unimportance and unknowledgeableness where I cower in awe of the people who actually involve themselves in making music....
No Winder, come baaaaaaaaa . . . (can you hear the sound echoing off the empty, lonely walls?).
'Unknowledgeableness.' I love it.
OK. Here's an extrememly wordy attempt at describing Voice leading. I don't claim that it's even a very good explanation or a very thorough one, nor that any of you are under any obligation to read it if it gets too academic or rediculious. Take it for what it's worth. (I've been working on it on and off over the course of the entire workday, so I'm a bit behind on the conversation.)
Take two parts playing together, two violins for example, and in this case they're harmony lines playing at the same time (I'm going to make a mess of some of this vocabulary, I apologize in advance). There are detailed rules governing how they move together (and I'm generalizing quite a bit here so don't jump all over me yet Megan ): if the melodic lines are moving parallel (both going the same direction, then you try to avoid 5ths, 4ths (to a lesser degree), and octaves -- 3rds and 6ths are preferred. And often you like to have the two parts moving in opposite directions, either toward one another or away from one another (it's called contrary motion), but they cannot cross each other nor can they move too far apart, and there a few guidelines regarding what intervals are appropriate to use.
A basic chord is made up of 3 notes: a root, a 3rd and a 5th. The voice-leading conventions stipulate which of those three notes should be the bass note under various circumstances. For example, a chord has the strongest foundation when the root is the bass note, so that's often what you hear at the beginning and end of a piece of music. The chord is generally considered least stable when the 5th is in the bass, so that formation is reserved for very specific cases.
In four-part writing (four instruments, meaning four independent lines) which is the most traditional setup, there are also rules governing which note is doubled -- there are only 3 notes in the chord so one of them is played by two instruments. Again, the most stable formation doubles the root, although often whichever note is in the bass will be doubled.
So voice-leading conventions at their most puritanical are about moving all four parts from one chord to the next without breaking any of the rules: correct doublings, the right note in the bass in both chords, no interval issues with your parallel motion, the parts don't cross over each other, they keep a reasonable distance from each other, and each melodic line works by itself.
Sounds like a complicated bit of rubbish, doesn't it. My understanding is that voice-leading conventions developed because they sound good. Music students learn them not to be constricted, but to study what the masters did that made their music work. The rules do serve an important function -- you may hear people say that part of good composing is knowing when to break the rules.
And three cheers for theory nerds (we'll assign parts to each of those cheers later -- I think the first will be a Sonata-Allegro in C sharp, the second a Serabande built on the submediant, and the third a theme and variations borrowing a three-note motive from the S theme of the first cheer).
Actually, the best I ever did in a theater was second base. But our new town has a drive in, so I'm pretty hopeful.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I think it's movable, I forget the difference I'm afraid. Do is the root, or the key, in this case. Does that help? It's just chromatic. And there are register shifts that I haven't even attempted to communicate . . .
QB, I had great parents and a phenomenal high school choir teacher.
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Doooooooooooo-so-la-so Doooooooooooo-so-la-so So so la so (rest) so so la so (rest) so fa me re (dot) re do Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I also love his soundtrack to Peter Pan. I would recommend that one to anybody.
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): if the melodic lines are moving parallel (both going the same direction, then you try to avoid 5ths, 4ths (to a lesser degree), and octaves -- 3rds and 6ths are preferred. And often you like to have the two parts moving in opposite directions, either toward one another or away from one another (it's called contrary motion), but they cannot cross each other nor can they move too far apart, and there a few guidelines regarding what intervals are appropriate to use.![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
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