JAA Assignment 01 Part 2

BRGMIK002 – Mika Burger

For this assignment I decided to compose and arrange my own tune, influenced by different kinds
of music that I have listened to over the years. Even though I felt like I would enjoy arranging an
existing tune, I wanted to use this opportunity to exercise my compositional skills as well as receive
feedback in order to improve on that which I lack. I also felt like I would enjoy doing this
assignment more if I were able to express myself from scratch instead of digging into that which
someone else has already expressed – although I do see the value in doing so and will in the future.

The style is greatly influenced by the music of Frank Zappa. Since I have spent much time listening
to his music, I am sometimes automatically inclined to think in his style when I am writing out of
my head without the influence and limitations of what I can accomplish on a traditional musical
instrument. This is especially true with melody. Somewhat like in ‘Oppervlakte’, his melodies are
rigid and erratic, that sometimes have drastic and sudden changes in statistical form, utilising a
mixture of longer-held-notes and short outbursts of sixteenth note phrases. It also uses tuplets of
various values. Examples of this can be heard in his composition RDNZL1.
For the harmonic rhythm I drew inspiration from the sound of modern metal artists as well as
Tigran Hamasyan, where some of the groove is constituted by aggressive hits that are spaced in odd
numbers of eight notes (like 3 or 5). The effect is realised when heard against the 4/4 time signature.
Examples can be found in ‘Ara Ressurected2’ by Hamasyan.

A compositional skill in which I have always felt I am lacking is structure and being conservative
with the addition of new material. This is why I have decided to go with the very standard AABA
from with variation taking place only in the counter melodies and harmonies provided in by the alto
saxophone. The rhythm section and soprano saxophone parts remain mostly constant through the
various times that each section is heard.

Since the rhythm and harmony of both the melody and accompanying harmony have posses
somewhat foreign sounds respectively, it was necessary to start the piece with an intro containing
the A section’s rhythm parts more or less. The horn parts in this section directly support the rhythm
section with long notes. The actual ‘head’ of the tune the horns playing only the melody as is in
octaves for the melody to settle in the ear of the listener before counter melodies are introduced.
The A section has a dark, dissonant and aggressive sound supported by the drum parts that
accentuate each beat equally. This tension is then resolved in the B section where the drums switch
over to a groove with a back beat and the harmony has a more ‘hopeful’ and ‘bright’ tone.
After the A section is heard again, this time with some differences in the alto saxophone part, the
tunes moves to the solo section that is generally open to interpretation except for the harmonic
rhythm. In between solos, the piece goes back to the hopeful B section on cue. The head is then
repeated in it’s full form with minor extra additions to the alto saxophone part.

I wrote the ‘Ending’ section based on the short tag in the last bar of the second A section, where it is
merely transposed to different places that I thought sounded nice with an extra new motif added to
fill up the sound. These motifs are treated somewhat as they would be in baroque music with the
two motifs modulating as switching between parts. I also excluded most of the rhythm section from
the first part of the section to create satisfaction when they return in the last few bars.

The entire rhythm section is built around emphasising the harmonic rhythm throughout the tune,
with all the harmonic rhythm instruments essentially playing the hits with the exception of the
guitar part that swells on the chords with the use of the volume knob or a pedal. The guitar also
does a funk-like strumming pattern in octaves in the A sections. The horns are used to provide the
melody and counter melodies and also sometimes merely helps out the rhythm section.
 Sources
1. ‘RDNZL’ Track 4 on ‘Studio Tan’. DiscReet, 1978. Frank Zappa. 1978
https://open.spotify.com/track/4fEYRB53e3cJZYpbipTL2O? si=014f79e819494559

2. ‘Ara Ressurected’ Track 3 on The Call Within. Nonesuch Records, 2020.

Tigran Hamasyan. 2020
https://open.spotify.com/track/5tGZQwvvkYR68maK85XLXhsi=5bdc978ccc7a44fa