Expanding a simple texture

Building on an idea

Expanding a simple texture

When I first tried to compose something, I actually found that the harmony (chords) came quite easily. There were a variety of clichés to choose from and simply by changing some of them a bit, a chord progression that I liked would emerge. Next, was the melody or the tune, and that was more difficult because even though you are taught that it usually contains similar notes to the chords or that they are essentially different expressions of the same things, one vertical (harmony) and the other horizontal (melody), there are many possible choices.

After a while I would stumble across something that I thought, at least in that moment sounded alright and that would be my melody, and so now came another challenge. How do I turn these basic building blocks into a piece (for piano in this case) that sounded like a full piece, like it was pianistic, like something worth listening to beyond these humble beginnings.

This next stage was something that I found difficult to find good resources for, sure there were books, but they often were uninspiring. I found the best resource was simply to study great pieces and try to break them down as best I could and categorise the different elements.

As a side note, Thomas Goss has a great YouTube channel on orchestration which talks about texture, balance and function and I really like this way of thinking, much better than the traditional foreground, middle ground and background.

So I chose a piece that I liked, in this case the main theme from Final Fantasy 7 by the composer Nobuo Uematsu and looked at different ways the first four bars could be expressed. Here is the melody in its simplest form.

The melody is stated plainly in a single voice, other than the second bar were an alto voice is introduced were the minor 3rd is used to harmonise with the top voice. The harmony is also played simply with sustained chords and using inactive rhythms. This is largely were arrangements of my own pieces generally start but I didn’t know where to go from here until I looked further.

Now we can see that although the left hand has remained the same, the melody has been moved up an octave, and the alto voice is now present under every top voice. I used to think that I needed to always harmonise the melody with 3rds and 6ths because they sound consonant, but this would lead to non-chord tones, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily but it is something to notice. In the first bar the alto voice is simply providing the arpeggio of the chord underneath, resulting in a 6th and lastly a third but also a fifth in the middle. This breaking up of 3rds and 6ths makes for a more interesting and independent sound I think. The second bar is just 6ths, but I do love the sound when the melody has a non-chord tone to be harmonised by another, in this case the melody is a 9th and below is the 4th of the chord. It’s nice to hear both voices fall together to their respective chord tones (root and the 3rd).

Here is another expression of the melody. It has returned to its original octave and the biggest difference is how the left is now more connected to the right, with wider spread voicings across the hands, using more of the range of the piano and using inversions of chords also. The first chord where the Root and the 5th are below with the 3rd above is very common for a lush sound in the lower range of the piano. As a general rule, to have clarity on the piano the lower you play, the wider the intervals/gaps need to be between the notes. In this example (Shiro Hamaguchi who arranged this) also added an octave of the Root at the top, so: 1 5 and then 3 8.

Another thing to notice is the use of three voices in places. Looking at the right hand in the second bar, we can see the melody on top, then G# the 5th in the middle and then another third voice playing the minor 3rd and the Root, again supporting of the overall harmony, whilst the melody moves. So even if the voices are simply playing chord tones, the fact that the chord tones are changing is creating a sense of movement.

Next time, I will continue to talk about the last example above, as there is so much to discuss.

Warm Regards