Experimenting with modal / non-functional writing

Good evening,

Many of you know me as a die hard zealot of the common practice period. But I have been experimenting recently with model / non-functional harmony. My reason for this centre largely on my admiration for the music of Jeremy Soule (famous as the composer of the video game series 'Elder Scrolls'), the film music of Howard Shore (e.g. LOTR) as well as my general appreciation of minimalism (Max Richter, for example).

In many respects the theoretical basis of modal and non-functional harmony could not be more different - even sacrilegious - compared with CCP given the more 'liberal' approach to voice leading. For example, there is often an appetite for omitting the third of a chord for the effect it produces can be aligned with the 'scene' being supported (e.g. inducing a feeling of emptiness and mystery) as well as usage of consecutive 5ths to produce an 'archaic' style of voice (which could work if the scene involves exploration of a dark, ancient ruin, for example).

Thus, with this type of music, what matters is less the 'rules' than the effect the writing produces.

This has fascinated me. Although my own background, in which many of these 'rules have been embedded into my consciousness, taking this different approach to music has its challenges. It is all too tempting to revert to the voice leading that I know best. But it doesn't necessarily need to be one or the other... perhaps I can combine the two approaches.

So I share with you my first serious attempt at this style. A few notes on my approach:

• In the first half, I prioritize establishing a tonal centre around C & G. The E is intentionally omitted to create tonal ambiguity - are we in C minor or C major?

• The first violin opens with a central motif that I later manipulate and exchange between the different voices at various pitches. This motif applies chromaticism that further adds mystery to the tonal centre

• Resolutions are avoided in a traditional sense: the cadence may end on an inversion without the third.

Only towards the end of the piece do I start to apply resolutions but not without several evasions, before finishing with a compound cadence that marks the first and only moment with a complete cadence.

Naturally I'd like to hear your thoughts. What do you feel? Also - those experienced in this type of music - what could I have done better?

With thanks,

Markus

Weariness.pdf

Edited yesterday at 06:11 PM1 day by Markus Boyd

Hello @Markus Boyd. I hope everything around you is going well.

As for this feedback, I want to say I'm sorry that I can't provide you with constructive feedback based on music theory.
But I will try my best to help just a little bit for your improvement.

Impression and Feedback

First of all, the very first Violin 1 note immediately drew me into your work.
I personally feel this is very noteworthy because it is very difficult to immerse people in a piece of music.
Perhaps that is because that violin sound was probably a contrast to the abruptness of Violin 1 against the fluid opening by the quiet Violin 2 and Viola.
My suggestion is: how about making the initial performance of Violin 2 and Viola a little longer, and delaying the introduction of Violin 1 a bit?
I don't think that even if Violin 2 and Viola are played just a little longer, it will cause people to get bored, and depending on the timing, it may even draw them in more.
I also liked the development of the harmony from 0:40.
One thing I liked was the final ending from 1:23.
Personally, I thought it could have been extended a little more with some kind of development.
The progression was a little too cheerful, and I felt it was slightly out of sync with the somewhat melancholic atmosphere of the piece.
This is just my personal opinion, so please don't take it too seriously.
Overall, I think it's a good piece.

Suggested works

In the middle section of this piece, I personally felt a similar vibe to Ligeti's Atmosphères.
At the same time, I also felt the vibes of Pärt's Tabula Rasa: I. Silentium.
I think Markus is familiar with both, so I'll share another piece with you.
You may already know this, but I felt a connection between your work and this one.
Please take it into consideration :)

I hope this feedback helps you a bit.

Best,

Lithl.

Hello. A super interesting topic that could go a long way.... First of all, let me say that your short piece sounds very beautiful and I love it. I would only change one thing, which I will comment on later.

I’m definitely going to say it here: I consider myself quite deeply involved in these matters of modality; in fact, my own curiosity led me to write a mini-manual where I explain how to develop musical systems from a scale-mode (any of the hundreds out there).

The first thing to point out is that I think it’s a mistake to compare modal systems with tonal ones (and these with atonal ones). We need to forget about voice leading, 'forbidden' parallels, etc.... Modal music predates tonal music by more than a thousand years, and it didn't need any comparison. It must be understood as a horizontal, melodic system where there are no notes to avoid, and where certain colors (characteristic notes of the mode) are highlighted. The fact that we use chords in modal harmony today is a much later 'construct' in which the concept of the triad-chord is applied to the vertical coincidence of melodic lines in modal music. That is how harmony was born...

From our perspective, since we are already familiar with functional-tonal harmony (which has thoroughly saturated our brains), we can approach a composition from an extremely wide spectrum. You can be purely modal, purely tonal, or a varying mix of both. Anything goes.

In your composition, and based on your comments, one can sense a hesitation that comes and goes, which is more conceptual than musical, since the piece is completely valid and effective. But let me comment: the beginning establishes a C-G drone... typical modal style. It doesn't matter that you haven't introduced the third. The very moment the first Db note sounds on the violin, you are defining some mode of C Phrygian. In fact, it is a note that is heard at many points.

If you were strictly following C Phrygian, the notes would be C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb.... However, in measure 4, we see an E natural in the bass, then an F#... These can be interpreted as approaches to the following notes they resolve to... A typical tonal concept. In tonal music, notes resolve; in modal music, they don't—they are there to provide color. You want to use notes outside a scale-mode? There is no problem at all. It's just like using chromatic notes in a tonal composition.

The problem is that if you want to maintain the color, the specific flavor of a mode, you have to be careful not to use tonal-functional resources that easily destroy that 'modal framework'. And that is what happens at the end of the composition, where there is a ii - V - I pattern ending in C major, which, for me, cancels out everything that came before. I insist that one can do whatever they want when composing. But our ears are so contaminated by tonal music that this progression ending in a perfect cadence G - C.... takes you right back to any period of the common practice. Especially the B-C..... That sounds like leading tone-tonic anywhere.

But like I said: very beautiful music.

@Lithl I agree with your comments. I had considered lengthening the opening, actually. I couldn’t quite pull it off but there must be an effective way to extend the idea.

It’s interesting that you and @Luis Hernández expressed disengagement with the ending, that is the first and only genuine tonal cadence. My rationale was an attempt to somehow merge the tonal and modal into a simple and relatable narrative: anguish first, uncertainty in direction that follows, before a somber finish with a picardie third cadence that offers some form of renewal. That was the concept, anyway.

I can certainly play around with it more, but i have a question…

If a tonal conclusion is not satisfactory for this type of music, where the expectation is perhaps sustain ambiguity above all, how should it end? I am aware of layering technique in this genre, where essentially in the latter sections the music just falls away - disintegrates if you will - as a collapse. It leaves not resolution but a lingering unease.

In the ‘more’ tonal music of Jeremy Soule, he sometimes ends the music with a central motif but with ‘messy harmony’ with ‘sonorities’ that correspond not with the harmony but contribute towards a lush atmosphere that sounds beautiful but does not make much logical sense. I’ll share it, if you want to hear.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Markus Boyd

Modal musical ends with the cadential harmony, in this case bII - I = Db - C min.

Mixing modal and tonal is possible, of course. But if you stay modal along the piece and at the very end you use a perfect authentic cadence it sounds as a mistake.

If you want to make a mixture you have to do it not only in the end. This is the way our ears will take it as “normal”.

11 minutes ago, Luis Hernández said:

Modal musical ends with the cadential harmony, in this case bII - I = Db - C min.

Mixing modal and tonal is possible, of course. But if you stay modal along the piece and at the very end you use a perfect authentic cadence it sounds as a mistake.

If you want to make a mixture you have to do it not only in the end. This is the way our ears will take it as “normal”.

I do appreciate you saying that we should not compare tonal and modal music; for each are trying to very different things. I’m genuinely interested, though, in ways to combine the two…