4 - One Note Composition

One Note Composition

This week's composition is a single note composition.
The guides for this piece were as follows

• Create a composition using only one note
• Transposition to different octaves allowed.
• No sustaining sounds.
• No drums or percussion.
• Can use multiple instruments.

Try and think about:

• the quality of that note.
• Rhythm.
• Texture.
• Dynamics

Research into One note compositions

It would appear that the internet yields very little information on the concept of single note compositions. One reference that was consistently thrown at me was Tenacious D's "One Note Song" which is essentially a skit based around mocking Avant Garde music.

Of course this is obviously not the style of music that this week's composition is based on but I felt it deserved a mention for it's entertainment value.

Selection of Note

I opted to use the note Eb. This was originally because I planned to use electric guitar for a majority of the piece and Eb was the lowest note that my guitar was tuned to. After experimenting with synths and overlay ideas I ended up not using any guitar in the piece and taking it in a different direction altogether, albeit still using the same note. Although the note is very central to the composition it is quite evident that the particular note is irrelevant as the piece would be the same and have the same feel using any note - even those outside of equal temperament.

Parts

The piece contains 4 main parts. The primary part is the strings with the drone playing an important role towards the start of the piece. The synth acts as an underlying part that begins to develop during the second half of the piece and is complimented by the chants that fade in throughout the second half.

Strings

The strings were created using Action Strings through Kontakt Player.

The patch allows pressing a single note to trigger rhythms of a string section playing a particular note. This made the composition a lot easier to toy with as I could quickly test differing rhythms against each other. I used, in total, 4 separate string parts at 4 consecutive octaves.

Synth

The synth sound was produced within NI's Massive. 

This synth was played as a single note during the first half of the composition. During the second half the synth's note is followed by one an octave above, allowing the portamento feature to effect the synth whilst being quick enough to not settle on a note and thus ruin the single-note ethic of the composition.

Drone

The drone used was also created within NI's Massive.

The drone is used to open the piece and act as the glue that ties together the combination of instruments until the first drop. The drone is also used to lead into the dynamic change where the whole track increases in gain. The drone has heavy tremolo on it which is then filtered to give the impression of rising up and down in pitch whilst actually remaining the same.

Chants

The chants were recorded by myself and auto tuned to Eb. 

These chants were then faded in through the second half of the composition to become the final thing that is heard.

Structure

I wanted the strings to be the main part of the piece but also wanted attention drawn to the other instrumentation. I felt the best way to do this would be to bring them in separately so the ear is drawn towards the new things occurring within the piece.
In composing this piece it seemed that rhythm was the most obvious element to work with and by using different rhythms within Action Strings I was able to have the different rhythms playing against each other.
As the central part was the strings I didn't want to open the piece with them. I used the drone to open and had one track of strings to give a taste of what was to come before the dynamic change. The dynamic change served to kick-in the track fully.
I opted to use a lot of stabs within the strings sections as the song progressed to give cliche tension the the piece before any changes. I was also able to use the dropping out of string parts in line with the stabs to create an almost melodic run up through the octaves at the end of the first half of the piece.
The second half of the piece made use of the expansion on the synth part and the addition of the chants. This served well to build up to the close of the piece along with the later return of the high octave strings stabs.

Compositional Narrative

The composition covers the story of a war effort from preparation, full scale war and the effect of powerful weapons and superior manpower on the war.

The opening section describes the preparation and mobilisation of the war effort which culminates in a fast and dramatic leap into full scale war with the volume increase. The middle section is the ongoing war and is followed by the introduction of new weaponry (the synth) akin to the A-bomb of World War 2. The chants represent the march of masses of troops that, when combined with the new weapons end the war by dominating the enemy (or in this case, the mix).