Fagin

@jim-4

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Living in the twilight world of Victorian London. Where he controlled a gang of children, who where often orphans or runaways with nowhere else to go. He offered shelter and companionship and in return he opened the door for them to a life of crime. This would end either in an early death at the end of a rope or in transportation to Australia. Here is a character that Charles Dickens hated, his name was Fagan. He was portrayed as a coward, sneaky around getting others to do his dirty work. Unless others of course it was he that was being bullied by others more frightening.

It is interesting that Dickens who today would be seen as a reformer, portrayed Fagin as a Jew, a byword for people who were not to be trusted and treated as outcasts. Antisemitism was alive and well then. Dickens also made sure that he came to a bad end, hanged in Newgate Prison. He would have had no time for the more cuddly character of the musical.

For my part I envisioned a character in the shadows sneaking around until suddenly! there he was. Like the character in pantomime, he’s behind you, only perhaps a bit more deadly. I have no doubt that in Dickens’ mind he was a killer and a disgusting human being. I have no doubt that in Dickens’ mind stealing was a worse crime than the murder of other criminals. Bear in mind though that in Victorian times the price of life could be very cheap.

I have again used the wind quartet. It has sounds that can be a little spooky and creepy. It also has an earthy sound you would associate, with the dark underworld of crime. As well as before, it is a section of the Orchestra I want to better acquaint myself with.

Again The final music is straight out of Muscore and I am pleased with the results.

Oliver Twist

@jim-4

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The next instalment in this little serious of mine is based on Oliver Twist. Confession time, I love the book and I love the musical. But to be honest Oliver Twist is very far from being one of the strongest characters that Dickens ever created. The only way I can describe him is meek, he is also a little lost. I suspect he was a simple character on purpose. In the story he was the victim, pushed around by one strong character after another.

his is the second attempt. The first was far more melodic and thats where it failed. I did not feel it was simple enough to fit my vision. The problem is meek to me means very little, a bit wishy washy. The melody and the arrangement had to be simple. So I decided to make to use a simple arpeggio that follows a not so simple cord progression. I chose a wind quartet for two reasons. One, in the hope this can help me improve my orchestrations. Working with just one section of the orchestra, will force me to more inventive using it. Also I will gain much needed experience in the nuts and bolts of this section of the orchestra. The second is that in my opinion the wind section contains instruments that do not sound very solid. I then added a simple backing that builds up and viola you have my piece.

Personally I think I cracked it. The biggest problem for me was deciding which Orchestra to use. I made a mock up with all three options, Muscore3, Garageband and Spitfire. I prefer the Muscore3 straight out of the box option. The spitfire version sounded far too rich for what I want, and I feel I can get better control of the dynamics and panning (if that is a word) in Muscore.

Mr Boundary

@jim-4

Link to Score

The next instalment in my series of character themes, is Mr Bounderby. This person can be found in a book by Charles Dickens called Hard Times. The book itself is set in Industrial North England in Victorian Times. One of it’s major themes is black and white decisions, Utilitarian ideas where something is either right or wrong, there is no grey area in between. In the book Mr Bounderby was a factory owner who belonged very much to this school of thought. To me Mr Bounderby was a pompous ass who would listen to nobody and had an unfailing belief that he was always right. To himself and all who would listen he was a self made man from humble origins.

I could see him in my minds eye him marching around the town, pumped up and fall of his own self importance. With no a thought for anyone worse off than himself. He was not a character I had any sympathy for, nor did Dickens for that matter. So I tried to catch that in my music hence the use of a tuba as the lower line. To me the tuba has a thump thump sound that ignores all around it. Great for a bass line, that needs to be heard. I picked the vibraphone for the main melody as it is has a light tapping sound. I think this not only signifies his attitude and to my way of thinking, his attitude stinks.

The result I think is a great theme for marching around town, totally full of yourself, totally oblivious to what is around you. The whole thing together sounds like a headless chicken on the march, relentless. With that underlying feeling of a pompous ass at work. I think I got this one right.

Again this was taken straight from Muscore3.

Lupin

  My latest idea to get the old creative juices going is to pick a person real or other wise and write a short piece about them. My method is to pick out two of their characteristics and try to put them over in music. It’s a bit like writing their theme music.

My first attempt at this is inspired by the adventures of Arsène Lupin Please don’t get me wrong I have not suddenly become interested in French Literature, rather this was inspired by a television series. In it the title character was a big fan of the books written by Maurice Leblanc and took the main character as his role model. He wanted to act as a gentleman thief and do his thing through guile and using his wits not by hurting anyone. A touch of the Robin Hoods but in French Society.

The two Characteristics I have chosen are Sophistication and action. It is like the magician, putting on an act, being a gentleman and so that the charm offensive hides your true intentions. I think that is a little naive as I can think of many characters in History who were Gentlemen but still committed horrendous crimes. Jack the ripper for just one example. For the second part I have decided to go for an Ostinato. There are many examples of using this in action sections in films and TV. It also makes sense to put the action part in the middle to reflect the fact that like the magical act it is the part you should not see.

So here it is in three parts although part one and part three are pretty well the same. Considering the whole piece is only 30 seconds long, I decided to use the same arrangement for both the clarinet bits. The clarinet was chosen to play the melody because I think it has a more sophisticated sound. While the piano can be very rhythmical as well as being a very capable backing instrument for the Melodic part.

I like the melody, and I think it has the degree of sophistication I was looking for. The sound of a piano and clarinet combine to give a Cocktail Jazz vibe, So there is success there. Through with the time constraint I am not so sure about the Ostinato. I think that maybe it should run through a few more times, so that it would work better.

The result is straight out of Muscore 3.