Compose Along With Me

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Contemporary Composer
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Zack Browning
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Track
My
Progress

A more-or-less monthly chronicle of the piece I'm working on now.
Compose along with me....

Past Works -
Jung Again
Dark Energy
Man and His Cymbals
Dreamanicity

December 2008

Transcendala is nearing completion. Once again, I find that the finished piece is not at all what I had imagined at the outset. I thought I would be developing the elegiac melody described below but other things happened instead - good things, I'm very pleased. It's the first time I've wandered through several keys (listen to sample). Also, things took an unexpected turn when a driving bass line jumped into my head (listen here).

October 2008

Transcendala will finish off the Jung Again Suite. The title is more Jungian word-play (transcendental plus mandala). I started by seeking inspiration from Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 2 because it has catchy rhythms and a zany spirit, attributes suitable to being 'Jung Again'. Of course, you can't really be young again, so Transcendala will close with an elegiac and nostalgic melody following a frenetic section featuring rhythm and percussion. I also sought guidance from Joni Mitchell's For the Roses album because I like the way her every phrase is a stand-alone micro-melody. Neither source sparked any ideas in me, so I moved on to the heart of the matter, the elegiac melody which came to me a couple of years ago when I was generating a batch of new ideas to develop.

Transcendala is two-third's complete. The piece is characterized by cross-rhythms (different rhythms in different voices playing against each other), one of George Gershwin's favorite compositional techniques. Sample one of the cross-rhythms here.