Here is an unusual musical creation from a few weeks ago (with video added today):
This project grew out of an in-class exercise we do in my Digital Music Production class. As a Catholic school, we begin every class with prayer. While most of my classes sing a little simplified version of an old chant for the Our Father, for this class, I often have the students play the prayer, using 64-pad MIDI controllers they also use with Ableton Live Lite. The melody is very simple, consisting only of the consecutive notes C-D-E-F, with almost exclusively stepwise motion. Notably (ha!), for many students, this is the first experience they've had 'playing an instrument.' I usually accompany the prayer with simple C, F, G, and A Minor triads (I, IV, IV, vi). To make it easy for untrained musicians to play triads, we have the MIDI controllers set so that each row of notes is separated by the interval of a third. Since triads are built from two stacked thirds, this makes it easy to play triads by holding down three vertically stacked pads.
Here's what that looks like with me playing both melody and chords, although the students generally split up with half playing the melody and half playing the chords. In this video, my left hand is playing the three-note chords (which students can pretty easily find when identified as starting on 1, 4, 5, 6 in the bottom row) and the right hand is playing the melody. Note that when I'm not playing, you can see all C's illuminated in red because the board is set up as C Major; the unusual criss-cross pattern comes about because the rows are organized in thirds, so the C's do not align. Although it is possible to set the board up so that non-chord tones are available (but clearly colored differently), the setup below is great for students new to playing. [To be clear, the pad controller is simply sending messages into my computer which is generating the sounds.]
Below, you can see what that looks like in notation form (click image to see enlarged):
Because we are also working on learning about modes, I often have them set their boards up in C Minor Pentatonic since this simpler, bluesy 5-pitch scale is nice for improvising and creating multiple melodic ideas that sound good together. One day, as a way to illustrate how much changing modes (various patterns of steps within a scale) can change melodic/harmonic effect, I decided we'd try to play the prayer with students using the same buttons, but with the board set up in C Minor Pentatonic (C, Eb, F, G, Bb). The result was pretty close to what you hear above in the first video.
I wish it was exactly the same, because I really like the idea that a completely different but effective output can result from the same input when one parameter (the mode) is shifted. However, the accompanying chords didn't work out quite as simply as I'd hoped. Because the Minor Pentatonic scale includes several intervals greater than a step, we don't end up with many triads, though the chords built on fourths sound pretty satisfying here. The one input pattern I chose to change was swapping out the "5" chord with a "2" chord, which actually ends up being an inverted C Minor triad of Eb-G-C. The "5" chord also creates an inverted triad of Bb-Eb-G, but that major sonority sounded out of place to my ears with this melody. It's also true that since the Minor Pentatonic has only six notes, a chord built on the sixth scale degree (A Minor in the C Major original) is the same as the first chord. I ended up deciding I was fine with that. So, I'm basically playing exactly what the students play except subbing a '2' chord for a '5' chord.
Here's what the notation would look like with the board programmed to C Minor Pentatonic, subbing in chords built on "2" for those built on "5."
It is definitely a very different mood. You will also notice that in the "chant noir" video" I chose to play over a drum loop, so although the meter still flows pretty freely, this gives the music a more contemporary-sounding edge. I also tweaked this a few other ways in Ableton Live, first of all by using a more forward-focused "lead" sound for the melody. I then created a guitar track from the melody, used an Ableton feature to enhance this shadow melody with added notes two scale degrees higher, and then kept that in the background with a strong delay which creates some nice texture. And, I have the bottom note of each chord doubled by a bass to provide a little more clarity.
I ended up decided it vaguely felt like music for a late-night, mediocre crime show which is how I chose the vague visuals you see. I find it strangely compelling. There is, of course, a whole category of "major to minor" and vice versa videos on YouTube. I have my own unusual contribution with this version of Schubert's famous song Erlkönig in which minor sections are major, major sections are minor, and the meaning of the lyrics is inverted as well.
Of course, it is a little strange to convert a melody designed for prayer in this way, but I think a melody can be usefully detached from its original context without doing harm to that context. Even as a prayer, although the vibe is quite different, there might be occasions where some found it useful to pray with such a melody, although that wasn't really my intention in this project.
I sometimes think of this kind of project as a "found music" experience. The music is already there and doesn't need to be composed. It just needs to be found. This playlist of flipped-around Bach is a good example. This truncated Für Elise comes directly from Beethoven - but half of each bar is left out. This monstrosity, a combination of Mozart and Chopin in which each work is played as written, but alternating by a beat. And then there's unusual mashup which re-enacts a miraculous moment when I had two students play two completely different pieces at the same time. It remains one of my favorite musical discoveries!
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