Groundhog Day Is Over

"Groundhog Sunday Stroll" (click to listen) is a really fun tune. (Also, by the way, an award winner in one of those song competitions.) And a true story, as the author was able to decipher it. This one started from words. Or you could say it started from a transplanted Arizona woman sitting on a Central Park bench, wondering about things. One of the aspects I believe contributes most to my work as a composer, is the ability and desire to sit quietly and contemplate. Even on Groundhog Day, even in New York City.

So the lyrics arrived first, actually as a much less friendly rant than the end product of the song. Thank goodness for the willingness to edit! It was all written that afternoon, in and after the time in the park. The rambling quality of the poetry, and the realization that it was all pretty humorous and deserving of a wry smile at my own het-uppedness, generated the ambling somewhat sardonic nature of the harmonic action.

The melody and harmony first came from the words, and in complete interdependence with each other. And as the sections and the form became evident, the poetry/lyrics were transformed and edited, to create clearer idea development and further strengthen the form. I often work this way, letting the musical form and the content manipulate each other into pleasing coherence.

As the harmony goes, I consider the quirky little perambulations of most of the song quite nicely set off by the rather more controlled and predictable melodic and harmonic motion of the hook:

"A well-defined and ritual display

Of a well-defined and ritual life

Groundhog Sunday Stroll"

Is the relationship of the words and the slightly rigid aspect of the music evident? The composer wants to know.

Tree line creates melody!

Here's a tune that started off as a physical rendition of notes on the page forming the shape of the melody, "A ROCK'S LINE" (click to hear the tune). Huh? Here's the melody, written.

Here's an artists rendition of the scenery that inspired the line..

See the similarity of the shapes of the orange-ish line to the shape the notes make on the page? Yes, I actually wrote a song based on that sort of thing! Who knows why. I definitely enjoy writing from all different angles of the music.

So in this case, the melody came first. Then, and quickly I should say, the harmony started up. The driving rhythmic aspect of the harmonic content was doubtless influenced by the fact that it was a chilly early autumn day out there. The words and more of the melody and harmony developed naturally from the initial four measures (of the vocal portion on the recording).

Guess where the words came from?

"This is a rock's line, this is the line of a tree

How the mountain lays

This is what we call red on the mountains all green

In the blue haze

This is the snow falling motionless

On the first fall day..."

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Synesthesia and other sensitivities - friend or foe?

I'd say my synesthesia is mild, if it is in fact diagnosable. Fmaj7 chords are pink, Dbmaj7 chords are yellow. And then I experience a lot of undelineated but nonetheless evocative associations, such as those mentioned in my last post. I have never heard a tone associated with an oven of any color. ; ^ } One thing I like about synesthesia, is that it is considered mental illness by some, and a special and desirable attribute by others. Aha and behold! The well-documented and seldom understood tormented artist! Here's a relevant quote, not from a jazz composer: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -J. Krishnamurti

I think this does relate very strongly to the sensitivity of composers and other creating musicians. I believe the often short lifespan of the truly creative is directly related to the difficulty of living in the ongoing workaday insanity of earthlings, whilst living in an exquisitely sensitive and thoughtful mind.

How "Love Song For a Mountain" harmony & line relates to the physical mountain

So there was the mountain, bare on top, above the tree line, reddish running to mauve, a bit indistinct through the distance haze of a Montana summer. Very simple lines, abrupt in the landscape, standing alone, yet still seeming almost to fade into the surrounding air by virtue of the pastel hues and the light haze.

I wrote the melody and harmony of "Love Song for a Mountain" all at one time. The words came much later (months!). The harmony is more reflective of the colors and diffuse light of the mountain. The melody is sparse, simple and yearning, in my mind a rendition of the stark but subdued presence and line of the mountain, and the gradations/lines caused by tree line, sky, etc.

Written in 3/4, the rhythm is pale and spacious, and once again, sparse.

As I write this, I hope that you enjoy synesthesia as much as I do! Have a listen and please feel free to expand the conversation.