Gazing at the Night Sky - Composition Walkthrough Pt.3 - Bars 21 - 36

After the first 20 bars, we enter the first two statements of the main theme for this piece. I spoke in great detail about the thematic idea in previous parts of this walkthrough, so I'm going to focus more on the orchestral translation of it in this part.

As always we will use score reductions (including the most essential information). The score sheet is available at the bottom of the post.

Here's an audio file of the section that we're having a look at today:

 https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/gatns-bars-21-36/s-SsKblqJNHuM 

Bars 21-28

I wanted to present the theme in a more or less "prototypcic" scifi-main theme way in its first statement. You will find arrangement strategies that have become more or less the standard for such a theme since the Star Wars Main Theme which usually is the theme being presented in high brass (Trumpets or Horns) with harmonic information being provided by rhythmizised chords in low brass/low strings(/low woodwinds) and some high "sparkly textures" provided by high strings and/or high woodwinds (slightly simplified but you get the idea).

Nevertheless, it is always essential to present the theme for the first time in its most clear and unobscured way so that the audience can get a clear idea of what it is (and memorize it) so that any future references to it make structural sense.

I wanted this first statement to be presented by the trumpets to start off with a bright and bold statement of the theme. I mentioned already that this theme has a challenge of having a quite large range but placing it in Fmajor fit rather nicely into the range of the trumpet.

From a dramturgical standpoint, I wanted this section to be bold and exciting, but not "full throttle" yet as I wanted to save some "gun powder" for the reprise of the theme after the B part. It would be dramaturgically very awkward to return to the theme after the B part without having anything left to add there, so this very first section was rather an energetic approach with reserves for later.

Speaking of energy: the way that I set up the theme entrance in the 20 bars before this made it clear that I needed to generally stay in a 16th note grid as playing for instance 8th note rhythms would have deflated the entire rhythmical energy that I set up in the intro. 

You see there were quite a few parameters set already that needed to be fullfilled even before I wrote the first note of that first thematic statement. In general, this "thinking in larger arks" is one of the most essential things when writing music. It can happen very easily to get lost in details of a passage or section and lose focus of the big ark. Especially when you're rather inexperienced, it is very challenging though to create a feeling of how to "manage forces" and being precise in translating things like "let me go 85% energy in this section". However, as always it is much better being aware of it and failing to translate it perfectly than not being aware of it at all and trying to guess why the dramaturgy of the piece is not quite where you want it to be.

Having said that, for instance the measured tremolo figure in the high strings that sustain over these eight bars are an "restrained high energy" device. Especially bars 21-25, they form a Fsus2 vocing that fits harmonically very nicely over the underlaying harmonies, introducing rather attractive tension notes like 9ths and 11ths into the chords which always help "opening up" chords. And while due to the measured tremolo, the 16th note pulse is clear and maintained, it is a accompanying device that feels musically rather "transparent" in a way, that it serves the function of providing rhythmical momentum, high harmonics sparkle and harmonic information without dragging too much attention to itself and leaving space for the theme (no pun intended).

Alternatives here would be:

• Sustained high notes that would provide the high frequency sparkle but would not provide rhythmical momentum or a lot of harmonic information
• Trills/unmeasured tremolos that would do the same with as the sustained notes with a bit more energy/sparkle
• Actual 16th note patterns that would most likely drag too much attention on themselves for a first statement (see bars 29-36 where I use them)
• Actual 16th note arpeggios of that Fsus chord which would probably be a useful alternative but I felt them to be too nervous and generally already pushing too high on energy

In general, it is also important to not ask too much from your audience, so staying in one textural configuration for a while (as done here) is essential to guide the focus to what is important here (digesting the theme).

Another big factor here that plays a big role and is more or less a mild counterpart to the theme is the harmonic accompaniment of the low brass/low strings and low woodwinds.

The 16th note pattern in the high strings are a great support here to orient the audience in the rhythm and allows me a bit more freedom in placing the "off beats" of the harmonic accompaniment. Imagining this "orientation grid" not being present would make some of these rhythms potentially hard to understand (e.g. the long rest before the first harmonic information in bar 21).

If you follow the rhythm of this accompaniment closely, you will notice that I preferedly placed it in rhythmically inactive spots of the theme as a complimentary rhythm. You will also notice that I very often try to leave down beats free. As important notes of the theme often fall on downbeats, doubling that up with the accompaniment would potentially disturb the clarity of the theme (as in covering the trumpets) and give that section a rather static character that runs against the intention of a "soaring main theme".

In music theory, rests that delay the reveal of musical information to later points than the downbeat of a bar are called "tension rests" as this is exactly what they do. The absense of information on a downbeat creates a high degree of anticipation with the listener which in the larger structure makes something feel more exciting and keeping the attention. They work especially well if the delayed information can be anticipated (e.g. in this case it is pretty clear that it will go to an F major chord).

It would be too much work to rework this section with more downbeats but I feel you can try to imagine how different this section would feel if these chords were all placed on downbeats. I have to admit, I always spend quite a bit of time in placing something like this rhythmically, generally trying to find the minimum amount of such rhythmic events that are needed to keep the momentum alive and provide enough harmonic information as it is also very easy to go overboard with something like that and become annoying by overdoing this. So if you try to write a section like this, take some time to get this right. 

Also, it is essential in most of such cases to avoid repeating rhythmical patterns over and over again. The "tension rests" plus the unpredictability of what the accompanying figure will be while keeping these figures clear and undestandable is quite a challenge to get right but pays off in feeling very exciting and keeping the listener interested. For instance also notice how in bar 27 and 28 I place the accompaniment on the downbeats. In these cases we switch the scale material quite drastically by inserting that Dbmaj7 chord in 27. Delaying that information into later in the bar would drastically confuse the listener (as the melody doesn't give away the switch). So they would presume that the old scale of Fmajor still pertains (and hear that in their head) and being thrown off completely when the new information of harmony comes too late. Same applies for the switch back in 28.

Looking at bar 25, a few properties get a slight change: The horns enter into the mix joing in on the harmony and providing a few exciting short runs in 25 and 26 and the high string pattern moves away from the static Fsus2 chord arpeggio to more linear figures. However these changes are so mild that they don't feel like a shift but rather like a "added layer" to what is already there.

Bars 29-36

The second statement of the theme gets a spontaneous (pump up) modulation up a minor third to Ab (employing a brief transition chord of Bbm7 at the end of 28. This modulation serves two purposes:

• the introduction of new scale material makes it feel fresh and exciting again, modulations up a minor third are quite common and always feel quite satisfying. The spontaneous modulation feels quite unexpected and other than transitioning to a new key this surprise again adds to the musical excitement
• I wanted to have the second statement of the theme in the horns and in order to get them into a more brilliant range, I simply needed to change the key

As you might have noticed, there are slightly different harmonisations in both statements (e.g.using slightly different chord types) with the biggest difference being between bar 23 and 31. In bar 23, the harmony sustains over a Bb/F while bar 31 has a different harmony on every quarter note. Also, the accompanying rhythm differs between both versions. In general, I prefer to not repeat entire forms exactly as the listener in me often feels them to be redundant but prefer to do subtle changes without compromising the structural quality of a repetition. Adding some new information feels to me like as if the idea is "growing" rather than stalling on one level. Of course that is more work but I generally feel it's worth doing it. Especially in a piece like this that plays the same theme 4 times in more or less exactly the same "style", I feel it is essential to keep the interest of the listener by providing new musical information.

You might have also noticed that the measured tremolo figure in the strings from the first statement now turned into an actual 16th note melodic accompaniment by the strings and woodwinds. The latter ones keep giving the line back and forth between first and second players ("dovetailing") to accomodate for breathing. This feels like a ramp up in energy and while this would have been confusing and too much information in the first statement of the theme, the second time it adds that above mentioned new information that prevents the repetition from being redundant. However, if you have listened through the multitrack of that track that I posted a while back you will also have noticed that this passage definitely caused the biggest troubles as of course this is a quite rapid succession of notes to sight read. However, I'm sure that if we had a bit more time for a few more takes (and do a slower practice run through) we would have gotten a perfect version of that as well. With great session players you would also rightfully expect to get a good take of that quite quickly.

Bar 33/34 again switches around a few things: The high strings play a more long note oriented counter line to the theme while the high woodwinds and trumpets take over the small runs that in the first pass were given to the horns. From  the end of bar 34 onwards horns and trumpets play the theme together in octaves. In the second half of bar 35 you can see that the trumpets switch into a three part harmony of the theme which is a nice way to enter a different colour on specific moments of a theme or key motifs (such as Williams does it in the last triplet motif of the Star Wars Main Theme).