Wounding Dart - Analysis Part

The following analysis is based on the commentary provided for my Mmus.

In class, we had been given a folk melody and set the task of composing a piece in 20 minutes. It was during this task that I came up with the method of taking the melody from the first part of the folk tune and layering it note for note over the top of the second part to form two-note chords. I decided to do the same with the Dowland when composing Wounding Dart. I removed some of the repeated notes from both parts and ended up with the following:

Note that on the 'working staves' the green melody (which corresponds with the vocal line of the verse to Come Again!) is 19 notes long, and that the red melody (the vocal refrain from Come Again!) is 21 notes long. I copied and pasted these melody (with slurs to define their beginning and ends) until they repeated 399 notes later. They were then layered together to form a two-note chord 'pitch isorhythm' (see top stave of 'working'). The subtle differences between the piano score of Example 1 and the final score will be explained in due course.

I created a number sequence by working out the amount of quaver contained within each melody notes of the first phrase of the Dowland:

This gave me the pattern 3+1+8+4+4+4+6+2+8 which I planned to use throughout the piece. In the first draft of the piece the grouping and accents of the piano part employed this number sequence throughout the course of the whole isorhythmic pitch pattern:

etc.

The time signature were eventually adjusted (mainly to 2/4) to aid reading. In the final version the 6/8 and 2/8 bars were retained whilst the 3/8 and 1/8 bars were ironed out into 2/4 with appropriate accents to retain the original feel.

The drum line was also created using the number sequence, but this time backwards:

Note that the written accents following the number pattern but backwards. Also note that the snare drum and bass parts of the drum line appear to conform to parts of the number pattern when counting the hits and the gaps in between. I cannot remember the actual system but I think I applied number control rigorously and then adjusted the result according to intuition in order to make the line more musical.

As a result of using the pitch isorhythm outlined above, the piano part sounded a little too stable (an effect I didn't want). In order to disrupt the note rows, I used the number pattern to add chromaticism:

Example 5 shows how the final piano part compares to the original pitch isorhythm. Notes that are highlighted blue have been chromatically altered from the original isorhythm shown on the top stave. The choice of which notes to alter was determined by the note pattern: the distance between each highlighted note is 3+1+8+4+4+4+6+2+8 (thus following the original bar lines). This was continued throughout the isorhythmic pattern.

I felt that it would be a good idea to bring the Dowland melody briefly to the surface of the music. It can be found in the piano part (rh) in bars 64-69 (original) but to chromatically alter it. This would prepare the way for the middle section of the piece in which I wanted the melody to be on the surface of the music. I also wanted the middle section to interrupt the isorhythmic pattern and to contrast in terms of apparent tempo and range. The second section, which begins in bar 88 (in original score), introduces an unsettling triplet idea in the left hand of the piano. I decided to use triplets as I wanted to give the impression of a tempo change without actually writing one. I wrote out various triplet forms to create a matrix from which I would build the piano part:

1	2	3	4	5

I used these rhythmic cells in various orders and with the addition of ties to create the piano LH between bb88-120 (original score). The right hand of the piano part was based around the lute accompaniment figure of the Dowland. This can be seen Example 7 below in which the first 9 bars of the middle section of Wounding Dart are written below the lute part to the first phrase of the Dowland:

This method of composing continues with the piano right hand employing snippets of the lute part and also the refrain's main melody: bb98-107 are based around the lute part of the verse, while bb108-120 are based on the refrain melody with interval stretching superimposed over the note row. At b121, the piano RH joins the LH in employing the rhythmic cells in its construction. The general pitch of the section begins to raise towards the climax of the piece.

The RH at bb121-129 is an exact copy of the opening LH of the section transposed up a number of octaves (compare with bb89-97). The pitches of this whole section of the piano part were based on the Dowland and seem to conform to some pattern, but unfortunately I cannot remember how I came about them.

A new variation of the rhythmic cells begins at 135 which is constructed from a 8 beat ostinato beginning on the 3rd beat of the bar 135:

The right hand is based on layered 4ths and 5th and the whole ostinato is repeated in a rising sequence leading the climax.

Throughout the middle section, the vibraphone part is constructed from the original Dowland melody but with the intervals stretched and with octave displacement.

The vibraphone part to the first half of the middle section [bb92-132] is constructed from the verse of Come Again! whilst the remaining part of the middle section up to the climax at b149 is a variation on the refrain's melody with its rising pattern.

At b150 the vibraphone reverts back to the pitch ostinato of the first section, picking it up where it left off. Initially the piano continues with the secondary idea but soon picks up the primary pitch isorhythmic idea. I wanted the tension to slowly dissipate before the true emergence of the prime theme and so I treated the instruments antiphonally with their discourse gradually becoming sparser. The section closes with a clear quote from the opening of the Dowland in the top line of the piano part bb183-196.

It was at this point that I revised the first section of the piece and dealt with some pacing issues by cutting transposed fragments of the isorhythmic pattern into the score, hence the prominent motif that can be found in the piano RH at bb24-26 appears throughout the first section in various transpositions.

By interrupting and extending the first section in this way, the overall form would result in a shorter recapitulation of the isorhythmic idea. The final coda section of the piece bb197-end consists of the rest of the pitch isorhythm up to the point where it would repeat itself (399 notes after the opening as previously mentioned) with additional notes added to the final bar. The final bar is also a motivic quote from the very opening motif of the Dowland.