For this project I used twelve-tone technique to compose the melody and then added harmonizing chords and bass line. The melody instrument is cello and the accompanying instrument is piano. The lyrics were taken from sections of Georg Thürer's book Free and Swiss: Story of Switzerland. For more information on the composition process go to the bottom of the page.
Video of score with audio
audio file of piece with no harmony
To create the melody I made a twelve-tone matrix with help from this website. The goal is to make 48 unique strings of numbers (from 0-11) that do not repeat a number. The rows going left to right are known as the prime rows, the rows going up and down are the inversion rows. The rows that go from right to left are called retrograde rows and the rows going from down to up are called retrograde inversion rows. On my sheet I have labeled them P, I, R, and Ri with their corresponding number.
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I randomly picked 13 rows using cards. I shuffled a full deck of cards after removing all of the kings. Then I drew 13 cards and wrote down what they were in order. Clover= Prime Spade= Inversion Heart= Retrograde Diamond= Retrograde Inversion The number on the card would determine the number of the row (1 of Diamond= 1Ri). Ace=1 Jack= 10 Queen= 11 From the cards drawn, the rows for the melody are: 5R, 4Ri, 2i, 9Ri, 0Ri, 11R, 7i, 4P, 7Ri, 9R, 4i, 8R, 10i To the right is a picture of the matrix. The rows that were picked are numbered in order. |