Music Teacher June 20161

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David Ashworth is a freelance education consultant, specialising in music technology. He is project leader for www.teachingmusic.org.uk and he has been involved at a national level in most of the major music initiatives in recent years.

Developing musical ideas

by David Ashworth

INTRODUCTION

Music teachers will be very familiar with the challenge of supporting their students in developing musical ideas

beyond the initial stages of composition. Students can write a few bars… and then grind to a temporary halt.

In this resource we consider some ways in which students might develop their compositions by looking at a

range of strategies employed by composers across a wide range of styles and genres.

These include looking at ways to break out of the confines of purely diatonic writing, where we suggest

consideration of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition or Vaughan Williams’s use of mediant relationships;

developing original arrangements as typified by the work of Brian Wilson; using mathematics and magic

squares as a way of generating some initial ideas for composition, with reference to the work of Peter Maxwell

Davies; and the use of piano as percussion from Stravinsky through to the Velvet Underground.

THE BEACH BOYS

The Beach Boys’ trademark has always been their wonderful harmonies and their original approach to song

arrangement, where Brian Wilson would often eschew standard rock/pop instruments in favour of more esoteric

or orchestral instruments. These instruments would be brought together in a bewildering array of ensemble

groupings to play music that draws from a disparate range of genres and styles. The overall sheen and

sophistication of their released recordings often draws the listener’s attention away from what was a profoundly

experimental band who were exploring unusual and unorthodox approaches to making music.

A song that typifies much of the above is ‘God Only Knows’. This song combines elements of rock balladry, a

classically inspired interlude and a choral fantasy, ending in the form of a perpetual round. The instrumental

forces include a string quartet, accordion, clarinets, baritone saxophone and sleigh bells. Also worthy of

note are the harmony and bassline, which typify Brian Wilson’s approach to working with harmony and chord

progressions.

In the liner notes to the Pet Sounds album, which features ‘God Only Knows’, Carl Wilson writes:

‘As a writer, Brian had such freedom and an enormous chord sense; and he was writing basslines that were so

free from the norm... not on the root. “God Only Knows” is the classic example that takes it to a new plateau.

The bass wasn’t played in the same key in which the song was written. It was inverted.’

Chord inversions and basslines

In this song, the key chord of E rarely has the root as its bass note – more often the B or G sharp, giving the

song a restless, ambiguous feel in keeping with the lyrical content. Consider, for instance, the opening section.

Here are the chords and bassline for bars 5 to 12. Notice also how the bassline moves in semitones before

beginning a stepwise descent:

bar 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

chords E Cdim E A#m7-5 A E F#m E

bass B C B A# A G# F# E

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BRIAN ENO

The music of Brian Eno can be a rich and rewarding source of inspiration for music teachers and students.

The music is slow-moving, there is space and clarity in the arrangements which makes hearing the parts

comparatively straightforward, and the composer has written extensively on his approaches to composition.

We will focus our attention on a relatively recent track: ‘Complex Heaven’ from the album Small Craft on a Milk Sea.

It is well known that Eno and his musicians would often make use of Oblique Strategies to help shape and form

their music-making decisions. Oblique Strategies is a set of cards produced by Eno and his colleague Peter

Schmidt in 1975. Each card contains a single aphorism, designed to help musicians overcome creative blocks

by encouraging lateral thinking. One of these cards gives the instruction:

‘Honour thy error as a hidden intention.’

‘It was a sort of a commandment that I would take into the recording studio,’ Eno says. ‘So when something

went wrong, instead of saying, “Do that again,” I’d say, “Let’s listen to it. Maybe there’s something there that I

didn’t intend, but which may be better than I did intend.”’

It is often the use of a dissonant note that keeps Eno’s repetition interesting and acceptable, in that it is

not perceived as a mistake. We can hear it in the track’s long sustained synthesiser notes, especially the

‘wind’ sound, where a highly dissonant note is gently sustained. This makes the music slightly disturbing and

unsettling.

There is also evidence of honouring ‘mistakes’ in the prominent guitar figures:

ACTIVITIES

Use some of the ideas from this example above as follows:

� Students could combine selections of extracts of ‘works in progress’ to form longer pieces. For example, importing an instrumental section into a song as an interlude between verses.

� Consider using vocal rounds and canons in a pop/rock setting as opposed to the more conventional classical or folk idioms.

� Harmonies: download chords for some of the more interesting Beach Boys songs (‘God Only Knows’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘California Girls’ would be good choices). Spend some time analysing them. Consider the use of diatonic and non-diatonic chords, how they are put together in the verse/chorus/bridge progressions, and how basslines are constructed by inverting some chords. Use these as templates or models for original work.

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Each of the above phrases is repeated several times, with a few beats’ rest between repetitions. The initial G

sharp may well have been a mistake, but repetition makes it acceptable to our ears. It also makes for a more

interesting part, as the G sharp is sustained as the next note, C, is played. Subsequent phrases go on to

explore other interesting notes, also highlighted in red, to add some variation to the initial idea.

The title track from the album, ‘Small Craft on a Milk Sea’, also exploits this idea effectively. The main melodic

line, played on a piano, uses a simple descending sequence:

There are two devices that Eno employs which prevent this ‘melody’ from sounding trite and banal. The first

is the pace. It is very slow, with considerable spacing between the sequential repetitions. Compare this with

the use of sequence by composers such as Bach or Vivaldi, where a similar passage would be reduced to a

bunch of semiquavers lasting a couple of seconds. Stretching ideas out to this extreme adds interest, simply

because it is unusual. Dissonance also plays a part here, once again demonstrating that it does not have to

be loud, aggressive and confrontational. Notice how the synthesisers are used to play smooth, gentle timbres

at low volume levels.

BÉLA BARTÓK

Much has been written about Bartok’s use of ‘night music’ in many of his key works, which are characterised

by eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies.

There are ideas here that students could effectively draw on to add considerable interest and possibilities for

development to their composing. Here are some of the essential characteristics of this approach to writing:

� This is ‘painting with sound’, as opposed to traditional melody-and-harmony writing. Students might think of

soundscapes for film as a helpful concept.

� Traditional instruments such as percussion and violins are used in direct imitations of natural sounds, mostly

of nocturnal animals. Extended techniques may be usefully employed to produce the unusual and quiet

sounds that are required. For example, playing a violin on the ‘wrong’ side of the bridge or using harmonics,

playing a cymbal with a bow, etc.

� In addition to the fine detail and minutiae of specific nocturnal sounds, we need a background aural wash of

more subjective evocations of the mood of night and feelings of spaciousness.

� The sounds of the night include those that happen seemingly at random – and those that are more repetitive.

Ostinato sounds at a slow tempo, where often this sound is sometimes dissonant, and/or cluster chords

may be employed. Because of the slow and repetitive nature, these sounds provide an accompanying or

background role. (There are obvious links here with the discussion of the music of Brian Eno above.)

� Use of short, fragmented motives at irregular time intervals within the meter. These motives may be the

imitations of the natural sounds or more abstract sounds.

� Multiple layers of disparate material – not attempting to blend in a conventionally and musically cohesive

fashion.

ACTIVITY

Using a keyboard or computer-based instrument, students should build up some layers of sustained sounds that incorporate a dissonant element. The challenge is to make this mildly unsettling rather than something that is aggressive and unpleasant. Choice of timbre and dynamics will be important here. Over the top of this, write simple melodies for one or more lead instruments, which move at a very slow pace.

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The importance of listening

Students may well be largely unfamiliar with this genre of music, so some judicious and focused listening is

probably advisable. Provide students with a list of the characteristics of night music provided above, and ask

them to identify how they are used in some of the following works by Bartók:

� Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

� Concerto for Orchestra (opening)

� String Quartet No. 3 (first movement)

� Mikrokosmos No. 107 (‘Melody in the Mist’)

� Piano Concerto No. 3 (middle section of second movement)

WORKING WITH MEDLEYS

A medley is a collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece. Artists will often combine

sections of their songs for live performance showcases. More recently, the concept of megamix remixes shows

how musicians can use technology to reconfigure their own works or the works of others. And of course, in

musical theatre productions, a medley provides a structure for the most common form of overture.

Well-known examples of the above include:

� The Beach Boys Medley, edited by John Palladino in 1981

� Brits 2016 tribute to David Bowie, arranged and performed by members of his performing band

� The Millennium Megamix, by Australian producer Samus Jay

� Overture from Tommy by The Who

It is unlikely that students will be writing rock operas or have a body of self-penned hits to draw on, but

nevertheless there is a useful working principle here – connecting fragments from unrelated ‘works in progress’

and discarded ideas that can be worked together to form a single unified piece. Again, there are well-known

examples to refer to, including:

� The Beatles’s A Day in the Life: the central Paul McCartney interlude in what is essentially a John Lennon

song

ACTIVITY

Once students are familiar with the essential ‘night music’ elements, they can attempt to write music in which some of these elements of night music play a part.

Here is an extract from a draft version of a slow, gentle piece I have put together for the purposes of demonstration:

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� Radiohead’s Paranoid Android: this song from the album OK Computer is an amalgam of three distinct

ideas.

GROWING OUT OF A TRADITION

Messiaen’s music has been described as outside the Western musical tradition, although growing out of that

tradition. His use of what he called ‘modes of limited transposition’ allowed him to sidestep the conventions of

forward motion, development and diatonic harmonic resolution to explore refreshing new ways of working with

chords and harmonies.

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has picked up on these ideas and used them in some of his work for Radiohead

(for example the track ‘Treefingers’ from Kid A) and also his solo film music projects (for example ‘Moon Trills’

from Bodysong). Consider this progression of tonally unstable chords with added 6ths and 9ths from the track

‘Treefingers’:

Greenwood plays these very long, sustained chords, lasting up to 16 seconds each, on an instrument favoured

by Messiaen – the ondes Martenot.

ACTIVITY

Students should gather notated examples or fragments of their own recordings that they might want to combine in this way.

Firstly, they should consider how these fragments might be arranged in order:

� Which might make a good introduction?

� Are there any that would follow on quite naturally from one another?

� Are there any that might make for effective contrasts?

� Would any judicious tempo or key changes make for smoother progressions?

� Do some fragments need trimming/editing?

� How about changing some of the instrumental sounds for greater cohesion?

� Are any overlaps possible?

� Are there any sections that might bear repetition?

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STRUCTURES AND PACING

The concept of ‘keeping the powder dry’, or not using all your best ideas until they are needed, is often ignored

by students in the early days of composition. Encouraging them to map out a composition’s sections before

adding the fine detail will help. Rough draft sketches using coloured pens and paper and appropriate graphics

are all that is required at this early stage.

A good way to encourage this approach is to begin with an active listening exercise, and ask students to

sketch out the musical ideas as they unfold. There’s no need for standard notation here – lines and squiggles

will suffice. For our listening example, we will use David Bowie’s track ‘Station to Station’. In this song, the

vocals do not begin until three minutes into the piece, and the catchy, up-tempo section is reserved for the end.

ACTIVITY

Students should begin by listening to the pieces cited above, and also the fifth movement from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. These pieces give a good indication of the potential for approaching composition in this way. They all make use of Messiaen’s second mode of limited transposition – also known as the octatonic scale. This is built from alternating tones and semitones:

Students could begin by finding some conventional major and minor triads contained in this scale. There are major triads beginning on C and E flat, and minor triads beginning on C, E flat, G flat and A. They could then add 6th and 9th extensions in various voicing and spacings. The music department is unlikely to have an ondes Martenot, but appropriate sounds can easily be found using keyboard synthesisers.

They can then begin composing in the style of the above composers, attempting to create similar moods and atmospheres. Note: this particular scale also has some bluesy potential with its flattened 3rds, 5ths and 7ths.

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A typical graphical representation might begin as shown in the example above. This could then be followed

with a more detailed description in the form of a table:

0–1:00 Steam train Stereo movement, whistle (compare with Kraftwerk).

1:00- 1:56 Plodding section Sustained guitar then add in order: bass/drums/staccato guitar figure.Gradually gets louder.

1:57 Riff A with strange guitar noises

da da da da da da, da da da da da, DA DA

3:18 Vocals 1 Contrast quieter backing, then over riff A, ends with the quieter backing.

5:18 Vocals 2 More up-tempo driving rock – crotchet beat.

6:05 Chorus ‘It’s Too Late’ Now a quaver rhythm.

7:46 Guitar solo Over previous backing.

8:26 Chorus ‘It’s Too Late’

9:40 – 10:14 Slow fade

ACTIVITY

Sketch out an overall plan for an original work, or use the graphic/table derived from the listening exercise as a composition template. If your students are using the Bowie piece as a template, here are some points worth noting:

� The opening ‘musique concrète’ section has been carefully chosen. Since this is a piece about travelling on a journey, the use of train sounds is apposite. The ‘stations’ Bowie refers to in the title supposedly refer to the Stations of the Cross. Two things guard against this longish intro from becoming boring: the gradual panning of train sounds across the stereo image, and the train whistle sounds towards the end.

� In the plodding section, the instruments enter sequentially and the sustained guitar solo over the top helps to retain interest. Note the crescendo leading into the Riff A section. The unusual guitar noises over this new section help to retain interest.

� An effective dynamic contrast as the Vocals 1 enter – louder over Riff A – then return to the quieter vocals. A symmetrical ABA section.

� More rhythmic as the Vocals 2 section begins – almost as though he is merging a section from another song?

� Now we are into the home run – the catchy section where the rhythm backing moves from crotchets to quavers. This ending is in three sections: vocal, instrumental, vocal.

� Finally a long fade lasting 35 seconds.

If students are using the above as a template, they don’t have to regard it as a straightjacket. There is considerable room for flexibility and original ideas. The lesson to draw from this is one of pacing, especially holding back some of the best ideas for later in the piece.

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THE PERCUSSIVE POTENTIAL OF THE PIANO

Teachers will be aware that the piano is usually classified as a percussion instrument rather than as a stringed

instrument, because the strings are struck rather than plucked or bowed. However, when our students are

thinking about the use of percussion in their pieces, they tend to overlook the piano, because it’s more

commonly associated with providing harmonic and melodic functions.

At the turn of the 20th century, composers such as Stravinsky and Bartók began exploring the percussive

potential of this instrument in some highly innovative works. One of the earliest well-known works that uses

the piano in this way is Bartók’s Allegro barbaro of 1911. But it is Stravinsky who explored this potential more

extensively in works for piano, and in his early ballet music arrangements. He would then go on to orchestrate

these piano works to produce fully fledged arrangements for orchestra. Here is a famous extract from The Rite

of Spring which typifies this approach:

In an excellent online resource conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas describes this passage as

‘terrifying chords made from notes that had never before been heard together, pound out a pattern of shifting

erratic accents’.

Later on in the 20th century, John Cage would explore the piano’s percussive potential even further in his

own music for dance. He would prepare his piano by wedging bolts, screws and pieces of felt and rubber

on or between the strings. This was done for reasons of expediency – so that he could create the sounds of

an extended percussion orchestra in a limited amount of space. The original pitch and timbre of the modified

notes would no longer be perceptible. Instead we hear the sounds of gongs, bells, scrapers and shakers and

so on.

Listening

Students should listen to the works by Stravinsky and Bartók referred to above, as well as to Cage’s music for

prepared piano, for example the Sonatas and Interludes. Some notable examples of prepared piano in popular

music include:

� Velvet Underground: ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’

� Brian Eno: ‘Little Fishes’

� Tangerine Dream: Rubycon

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TWEAKING FOLK MELODIES

Stravinsky and Bartók were both well known for incorporating folk song, authentic and synthesised, into their

classical works. But it is Shostakovich who we associate with altering and distorting folk melodies. He would

sometimes alter just one note from a well-known fragment of folksong, taking it from an idyllic pastoral memory

to something more sinister and unsettling, reflecting the times in which he lived.

In his Symphony No. 5, for example, we hear this two-bar idea where the note E is changed to an E flat,

completely altering the mood it evokes:

Other composers to use this idea include David Bedford. For his large-scale composition The Wreck of the

Titanic, he would take tunes that featured in the repertoire of the bands playing on board the vessel and

transform them in various ways. For example, phrases from the song ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ are played

at a much slower tempo, and in a minor key. Coupled with a brooding accompaniment, this radically changes

the mood to one of apprehension and danger, while still managing to evoke memories of dancing on board

the ship in more carefree days.

ACTIVITY

Many students enjoy listening to the examples cited above, with their driving repetitive rhythms and funky off-beat accents. Using these approaches to composition can be liberating for those students who feel constrained or unconfident when working with more conventional harmonies. This way of working is more of a trial-and-error, ‘let your ears be the judges’ approach.

ACTIVITY 1: IMPROVISING PATTERNS

Using a keyboard or a guitar, students should devise one or more unusual chord groupings that involve close intervals and sound satisfyingly strident. They should then repeat this chord (or chord series) using a driving, pounding rhythm with irregular accenting, similar to the example extract from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring above.

The piece can then be ‘orchestrated’ for a group of instruments, where some of the louder instruments are used only for stabs on the accented beats. This can be done either with acoustic instruments, or compiled within a computer sequencer environment.

Another approach would be to use Bartók’s Allegro barbaro as a model, where there is more of a sense of a harmonic progression and a recognisable folk-style melody. There are several pieces scattered throughout Bartok’s Mikrokosmos that might also serve as reference points.

ACTIVITY 2: PREPARING PIANOS

If you have any pianos (upright or grand) that are not in regular use, then students can experiment modifying some of the notes to produce the type of sonorities used by John Cage. A less radical approach would be to use Velvet Underground’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ as a basis, for which John Cale prepared a piano simply using paperclips. Another idea is to use masking tape, which can be applied and removed quickly and easily, as demonstrated in this video.

Guitarists can also employ these ideas using any small objects that can be wedged between or underneath the strings. iPad users might want to consider downloading a simple app that provides a way of triggering a range of typical prepared piano sounds.

Once students have prepared an instrument using one of the above approaches, they can then begin thinking about composition. They will need to switch to a mindset where they are now thinking about having a range of percussion sounds at their disposal. So they will be composing music for a rhythm ensemble. It might also be worth listening to some of the early works of Steve Reich for further sources of inspiration. This way of composing will appeal especially to drummers in your class.

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PETER MAXWELL DAVIES AND MAGIC SQUARES

Peter Maxwell Davies would sometimes use magic squares to help generate musical material, a grid of

numbers where each row, column and main diagonal adds up to the same figure. Here is one such square –

the Magic Square of Mercury. Notice how the rows, columns and diagonals all add up to 260:

8 58 59 5 4 62 63 1

49 15 14 52 53 11 10 56

41 23 22 44 45 19 18 48

32 34 35 29 28 38 39 25

40 26 27 37 36 30 31 33

17 47 46 20 21 43 42 24

9 55 54 12 13 51 50 16

64 2 3 61 60 6 7 57

Maxwell Davies used this magic square in his 1970 work Ave maris stella, where his starting materials were

the first eight notes of a plainchant.

Let’s explain the process by taking the first eight notes of another astronomy-associated song: David Bowie’s

‘Life on Mars’. Those eight notes are these:

C D E F E D C E

They are given in the first horizontal row and duplicated in the first vertical column of the magic square. The

next stage to transpose this eight-note fragment across each row. The second row begins with a D, so the first

phrase of ‘Life on Mars’ is transposed up a tone as shown on the second row. The third line begins on E, so the

phrase is transposed up two tones, and so on. We then number the 64 squares, as shown in red.

C1 D2 E3 F4 E5 D6 C7 E 8

D9 E10 F#11 G12 F#13 E14 D15 F#16

E17 F#18 G#19 A20 G#21 F#22 E23 G#24

F25 G26 A27 Bb28 A29 G30 F31 A32

E33 F#34 G#35 A36 G#37 F#38 E39 G#40

D41 E42 F#43 G44 F#45 E46 D47 F#48

C49 D50 E51 F52 E53 D54 C55 E56

E57 F#58 G#59 A60 G#61 F#62 E63 G#64

We now use these numbers to map the notes onto the Magic Square of Mercury. The first square in the top left

corner is number 8. So we use the eighth note from our ‘Life on Mars’ chart, which happens to be an E. The

next note number is 58 which gives us an F sharp, and so on.

ACTIVITY

Find a folk tune that links in some way to the piece you are writing – perhaps a sea shanty for music with a nautical theme, or work songs for a rhythmic or repetitive piece. Alternatively, consider unusual juxtapositions to suggest something eerie or strange – perhaps a transformed nursery rhyme in a piece suggesting danger and tension. Change some notes or the tonality to alter the mood. Experiment with different tempos and instrumentation. Try different types of accompaniment that differ radically from the original.

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From this process we derive the following composition chart:

E F# G# E F F# E E

C D E F E F# E E

D E F# G F# G# F# F#

A F# G# A Bb F# E F

G# G A G# A G F E

E D E A G# F# E G#

D C D G F# E D F#

G# F# G# G# A D C E

By using notes from adjacent cells (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), we can derive melodies, chords, riffs and

harmonies.

A few possible examples are shown below:

These three pathways through the magic square might yield musical material as follows, where A is a bass riff,

B a chord and C the beginnings of a melodic idea:

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS AND MEDIANT RELATIONSHIPS

At the beginning of the 20th century, many composers were looking for ways of breaking away from the

perceived restrictions of the major/minor diatonic stranglehold. Vaughan Williams set about doing this in two

ways. Like many other composers, he started making use of pentatonic and unusual hybrid or synthetic

scales, such as the whole-tone scale, in his melodic writing. His harmonic explorations led him to start working

with chords based on a mediant relationship – two chords (usually one major and one minor) whose roots are

a 3rd apart. This harmonic relationship is now considered symptomatic of his style in general. So, for example,

at the beginning of the Sea Symphony, he writes the following –

ACTIVITY

Students can use the chart above, or devise a similar one, to use as a basis for generating musical materials. These could include chordal ideas, riffs, basslines and melodies.

The music can sound quite avant garde or fairly tonal, if we look at possible scale implications. So for example the F sharp and G sharp notes might steer towards an A major scale; the B flat can be used to work in the keys of F major or D minor. There are, of course, all kinds of other interesting possibilities.

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– a B flat minor chord followed by a D major chord, which becomes an important motif throughout the piece.

This is the first thing that happens in the Symphony: a brass fanfare uses the B flat minor chord, followed by

the choir singing the same chord on the words ‘Behold the’. The full orchestra then comes in on the word ‘sea’,

which has resolved into D major. Students can build their own motifs, based on mediant relationships, which

will add extra colour and distinction to an otherwise predictably diatonic composition,

ACTIVITY

Here is a list of some possible mediant relationships. Students should experiment to find a pair of chords they wish to work with and then devise a motif, based on alternating the chords. Try to give the motif some rhythmic interest.

B Dm

Bm D B C sharp D E F sharp G A sharp BD E F sharp G A B C sharp D

Bm Dm

B D

B flat D B flat C D E flat F G A B flatD E F sharp G A B C sharp D

B flat Dm

B flat m D

B flat m Dm

Find the notes that are common to both scales associated with the above chord pairings to create a workable hybrid scale. Some will have many notes in common, others just a few. We have filled in two examples in the above table.

The chords B minor and D major share many notes in common, so devising melodic lines can be relatively straightforward. Students could find ways of exploiting the two notes that are not common to both scales – the A and A sharp.

The chords B flat major and D major have scales with fewer shared notes, but provide the basis for a more distinctive motif. A more adventurous approach would be to construct a scale using all the notes from both scales, in this case:

B flat B C C sharp D E flat E F F sharp G A B flat.

In other words, a chromatic scale missing a G sharp.

This type of harmony is not just found in the music of Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries. Many rock/pop musicians who work in more adventurous ways make extensive use of similar ideas. Listen to some music by Radiohead, for instance, and you’ll find frequent examples of mediant relationships.