{"id":2077,"date":"2016-09-14T17:11:12","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T21:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2017-01-02T17:21:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T21:21:37","slug":"chromaticism-in-secrets-of-the-ancient-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=2077","title":{"rendered":"Chromaticism in &#8216;Secrets of the Ancient Seas&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently posted my latest composition, &#8220;Secrets of the Ancient Seas&#8221;! Check it out:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hNEt7KOGing\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I write in the description:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This began as another track inspired by my novel, but the rapid string arpeggios and spirit of the melodies quickly began to remind me of an adventurer braving the seas, so I continued down that path instead. I even threw in some wind machine for some atmosphere, a percussion instrument in Garritan Personal Orchestra I&#8217;ve been wanting to try using but never really had the occasion for. I think it works well in this piece.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My favorite part of this piece comes at the 4:22 mark. At first I meant simply to contrast all the melodic material with some more atmospheric material, perhaps only wandering arpeggios, but I couldn&#8217;t resist adding some melodic phrases along with them in the form of descending minor thirds. With the minor chords forming the harmony, these descending minor thirds sound, to me, very haunting and creepy. Almost the way a child calls out &#8220;Where are you?&#8221; to taunt hiding prey. The sound of being lost at sea on a foggy night, perhaps? Vaguely hearing the call of the deadly sirens in the distance? Anyway, I love how it sounds.<\/p>\n<p>I also like what&#8217;s happening harmonically, as it&#8217;s more chromatic than my usual fare:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ancientseas.png\" alt=\"ancientseas\" width=\"550\" height=\"352\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We start in the tonic of B minor, then continually progress through the circle of fifths, to F-sharp minor, C-sharp minor, G-sharp minor, and finally to D-sharp minor. From here, we go back and forth between D-sharp minor and D major (the relative major of B minor), a transformation <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Neo-Riemannian_theory\">Neo-Riemannian triadic theory<\/a> calls an <strong>S<\/strong> transformation for <em>slide<\/em>, as the chord slides between major and minor keeping the third of the chord as a common tone (in this case an F sharp). I think the major chord sounds particularly refreshing there, as so many minor chords precede it. Finally we get C-sharp major seventh for the final three measures, which serves as a secondary dominant in B minor (as it implies a resolution to F-sharp major, the dominant of B minor). But first the passage repeats, and the C-sharp major seventh is just as capable of resolving to B minor (although this resolution perhaps does not sound as strong, but that&#8217;s OK, the stronger resolution comes after the repeat).<\/p>\n<p>When we do resolve to the dominant, F-sharp major, the opening phrase of the piece&#8217;s main melody is echoed, but it sounds rather exotic and dissonant being accompanied with the dominant chord rather than the tonic, and the clash propels the piece forward to the main melody&#8217;s final statements.<\/p>\n<p>Although this little sequence is hardly revolutionary at all (and so may not stand out to any listener), it&#8217;s certainly not the sort of thing I&#8217;d usually compose, so I&#8217;m rather pleased with it.<\/p>\n<p>Also, at long last I managed to upload a truly 60 fps animation thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shotcutapp.com\/\">Shotcut<\/a>, a nice free video editor that will now replace my need for the annoying Windows Movie Maker. It&#8217;s not a super-advanced editor, but it does what I need (sync audio and add titles), it&#8217;s free, and it doesn&#8217;t come with annoying limitations to try to entice me to buy some deluxe version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently posted my latest composition, &#8220;Secrets of the Ancient Seas&#8221;! Check it out: I write in the description: This began as another track inspired by my novel, but the rapid string arpeggios and spirit of the melodies quickly began to remind me of an adventurer braving the seas, so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[746,23],"tags":[742],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-xv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}