Monday, October 09, 2006
Lesson-50: Harmony - The Basic Composing Tool - Part-1
We are back to WCM track….!
I would request you to just revise the Lesson-3 once again, where I tried to answer about the basic question of What is harmony ?
As said earlier, Harmony is the multi-line concept of music, but we must remember these multi-lines are integrated vertically also, note by note.
This vertical connection is what the Chord concept is all about !
Let us go into some simpler understanding…!
While listening to any IR song, you can listen, visualize, and feel the various voices and instruments all are complimenting each other, so beautifully !
Now, you will be wondering, if a single line song composing needs so much pains taking effort, how much will be the efforts to be made in composing each of the instruments that are accompanying the voice…?!
Your query of worry is true to some extent, in that, most of the composers see the various accompanying lines of instruments as a separate entity and struggle to compose them.
Even after synchronising them, the outcome of combined song+instruments may be either successful or unsuccessful depending upon the experience and ingenuity of the composer in composing and getting the output.
So, these old time MDs (or generally MDs not using WCM-Harmony as basic tool of orchestration) used to claim credit for orchestration and usage of 40 instruments songs, 60 instruments, 100 instruments etc etc….!
That is Not the case with IR…..!
The Complexity OR the Simplicity, in whatever way you look at it, its one and same for IR…!
Whether two instruments passage or 20 instruments passage, for IR’s composing, it’s fundamentally based on Harmony (which usually viewed as Four Part Harmony in WCM ! .......meaning in a lay man term, a four line integrated music…!)
For less than four, the principle and effort is same and you only hide the not-required-now parts !
For more than four, you either multiply some parts or take the clue from any one part and further develop that…!
The point here is, when you compose, all the lines of voices and instruments are to be seen as integrated item and not as a separate individual lines !
We can enjoy the SPB voice separately, the Violins separately, the Bass Guitar separately, etc….!
But in reality, all the notes of these are interconnected ….every moment of it…!
So next time when you enjoy a song of IR, visualize it as an integrated system of lines !
I would request you to just revise the Lesson-3 once again, where I tried to answer about the basic question of What is harmony ?
As said earlier, Harmony is the multi-line concept of music, but we must remember these multi-lines are integrated vertically also, note by note.
This vertical connection is what the Chord concept is all about !
Let us go into some simpler understanding…!
While listening to any IR song, you can listen, visualize, and feel the various voices and instruments all are complimenting each other, so beautifully !
Now, you will be wondering, if a single line song composing needs so much pains taking effort, how much will be the efforts to be made in composing each of the instruments that are accompanying the voice…?!
Your query of worry is true to some extent, in that, most of the composers see the various accompanying lines of instruments as a separate entity and struggle to compose them.
Even after synchronising them, the outcome of combined song+instruments may be either successful or unsuccessful depending upon the experience and ingenuity of the composer in composing and getting the output.
So, these old time MDs (or generally MDs not using WCM-Harmony as basic tool of orchestration) used to claim credit for orchestration and usage of 40 instruments songs, 60 instruments, 100 instruments etc etc….!
That is Not the case with IR…..!
The Complexity OR the Simplicity, in whatever way you look at it, its one and same for IR…!
Whether two instruments passage or 20 instruments passage, for IR’s composing, it’s fundamentally based on Harmony (which usually viewed as Four Part Harmony in WCM ! .......meaning in a lay man term, a four line integrated music…!)
For less than four, the principle and effort is same and you only hide the not-required-now parts !
For more than four, you either multiply some parts or take the clue from any one part and further develop that…!
The point here is, when you compose, all the lines of voices and instruments are to be seen as integrated item and not as a separate individual lines !
We can enjoy the SPB voice separately, the Violins separately, the Bass Guitar separately, etc….!
But in reality, all the notes of these are interconnected ….every moment of it…!
So next time when you enjoy a song of IR, visualize it as an integrated system of lines !
