Geovanny Morales-Santos

Honors English 10, 5th Bell

Proposal for “PLP”

16 September 2019
This will be an individual project that I will be completing. I work best by myself and I

think that the type of project that I’m hoping to do will really work best if it’s in an individual

project. Through the project that I want to do, I’m hoping to learn more about archetypal theory

and how it fits into music and literature. The project itself is an original composition of music

that would tie in to key moments of the Old Man and the Sea and the archetypes that are present

in the novel. I believe that this would be a new and unique form of presenting archetypal theory

because of how similar literature and musical literature are. I was inspired to do this because,

one, I’m a musician and I want to grow a musician and learn more about music theory and also

because I think that the Old Man and the Sea would be a great way to express archetypal theory

and musical motifs. I will be writing an original composition for this in order to work. I don’t

really know where I will start writing but I know that I want to at least establish the archetypes

that are mentioned in the novella and how it furthers the plot just how musical motifs push the

music. There aren’t exact dates that I have set yet because this is a flowing project. A week from

now I know that I want to have the archetypes done and have at least a basic chord structure and

progression set and ready for me to later go in and elaborate on. This will be an original

composition that I will have written specifically for this project. I know right now that I want to

base the chords in E major and E mixolydian minor because those chords are just really

reminiscent of the sea and also, they’re my personal favorite chords. I think that this project more

than exceeds the rigour for an Honors English class because I’m using a classic novel and then

applying it into a music which is a complex system itself. It’s not just me making up something

and calling “a composition”, it’s me writing an original piece that is specific to the novella and
the archetypes that are found. I will be expanding my knowledge of archetypal theory as well as

music theory. I’m going to need my laptop because that is where I’m writing a piece on a

program called MuseScore. I will obviously need the Old Man and the Sea book in order to find

the archetypes. I don’t really know what else I’m going to need for it. I’m really excited for this

project and I hope that you will allow me to do it, in order to further my knowledge in multiple

theories.