John Harrison

@jim-4

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John Harrison was a major clever clogs of the 18th Century. His claim to fame is to to build a clock that was both accurate enough and resilient enough to be both taken to sea and to be used to measure Longitude to a very high degree of accuracy. This was essential for safe navigation of the ‘Seven Seas’.

I do not know much more about him, other than what I read in Wikipedia, but what came to mind was an artisan working away in a workshop, probably at home, trying to improve his design until he could claim his prize.

The music would not be out of place in Pinocchio, where the puppet maker is toiling away in his workshop. I added the tick tock sound to give it a feel of a clockmakers, although surprising enough, I do not think that John Harrison was noted as one of these.

For once (don’t worry it won’t happen too often) I have used a simple 2 2 time. The melody is played by a Fantasia, which has a very light sound. To balance this I had to change the sound of the piano backing to an electric one.

Parallel fifths and octaves, have a bad press in Classical music (although they can be found in both Mozart and Beethoven’s music). This is because they can take some of the richness out of the melody, but on the other hand some times that is what you want. I have decided to look into this in my own music. Sometimes you want this to happen, but as with all things knowledge is power (they can be hard to find even in small scores). So I have decided to use a plug in for Musecore that detects parallel fifths and Octaves. Hopefully this will make the harmony more interesting. I also want to split out the melody and harmony before Orchestrating by using a SATB lay out. So I have a new plan.

1. write the melody on a Piano with cords
2. expand the harmony over a SATB choir, maybe change sound to Piano
3. Run the plug in as above and see what happens, (don’t have to fix them all)
4. It is the recommended by Teachers to have a piece laid out in SATB before Orchestration

Again the result is straight out of Musecore and I am happy with the result.

Catherine The Great

@jim-4

Link to Score

In my opinion Catherine The Great was to Russia what Queen Elizabeth the first was to England, a great Monarch who brought stability in troubled times. By todays standards you could easily accuse both of being blood thirsty, but those were the days. The Russian people were used to being ruled by force. Many of it’s people where serfs, which is really a form of slavery. I think that this goes a long way to explain why Russia is what it is today. It’s people have never been able to enjoy democracy.

For my part I envision her as a proud, strong Woman. Yes, she had to scheme and plot, but I also think she had a softer side that knew how to let her hair down and have some fun. She was born of royal blood in Germany, a country then made up of small states ruled by Princes, who were really electors for the title of Holy Roman Emperor. She was able to hold her end in a court where intrigue and plotting was part of the fabric, failure in this regard could lead to death. Underneath there had to be a lot going on, strong enough to wrestle the throne from her husband, She then went on to rule for many years.

I have tried to make the music sound courtly, I hope the melody sounds like it could have come from the late 1700’s, about the time of Mozart. To my ears it sounds like a courtly dance, arranged for a simple backing of Piano and Violin, (I think Pianos where about then, although very much under development). Underneath there is a lot more going on. I have tried to experiment with constant time changes, without making it sound too weird.

Again this version is straight out of Musecore. I am pleased with the result.

Fagin

@jim-4

Link to Score

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

Link to Score

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.