In general, the tracks haven't been mixed as much as I'd have liked. Since we are being marked on the composition more than anything, I only mixed/mastered the tracks very roughly. Perhaps in future, I will produce them properly.
Both tracks were created using Logic 9.
Piece 1 - Urban Camouflage
Urban Camouflage is an imagery based song. A melody first came to me when I was reading about an 18th century family, who, like many rich families at the time, had a maid, who they treated like dirt. The start of the song is the idea of the maid being left alone in the house with the piano, playing to herself; the chilling melodies and sounds represent her torment.
When I came to play this idea into Logic one day, I discovered a whole pack of warped piano settings. I decided to create a piece of music with sounds only from this pack, apart from the strings which support the bassline at the end.
The song is split into four sections;
A - the quiet part at the start, where the recurring ideas heard in the rest of the song stem from.
B- The 'verse' if you will. Heard when the drums enter and the song becomes more upbeat.
C - Back to a quiet piano line (based on a Bach prelude, to fit the theme)
B - the 'verse' again until the end.
The basis of the song is the melody that comes in at 0:18. This melody is the song's main motif, and one that repeats throughout the piece until the end.
The 'B' section of the song represents this maid's desire for freedom - hence the soaring bassline and hard drums. The C section represents The Maid playing 'nice' things - living the life her oppressing and abusive family are bestowing upon her. The quick piano run up to the final B section represents her cracking and going for the freedom she's always wanted.
I added strings in the final part to give the bass line more of an 'oomph'. When the strings come in and the drums stop, the bassline becomes a part of the main melody, until the end where the main motif rings out alone, almost eerily.
Piece 2 - Left Ashore
As stated previously, I am not a singer. Left Ashore is a very personal piece, however, and I decided to sing it myself.
The song has a very basic, well used structure;
A - Verse
B - Chorus
A - Verse
B - Chorus
C - Middle 8
B - Chorus
It was written in a day. Fed up of trying to write overly complicated pieces, I took inspiration from songs heard at the HND1 concert and decided to write a song comprised simply of vocals and piano. The music (chords progression, vocal melody, tempo, etc...) were written first, and lyrics were added later. At first, I hoped the piano in the recording would simply be a guide track, with the intention of adding more complicated piano parts once the song had been recorded. I decided against this, however, keeping the piano part simple. Instead of using strings at the end to boost the song, I filled the last chorus with my own vocals instead.
I used a Roland RDNX700 plugged into Logic to play the piano part and an AKG Perception 100 microphone to record the various vocal tracks. The tempo speeds up after the first chorus, to represent the change in the character's mood; the lyrics in the verse are upsetting and pessimistic. I sang them softly and as fragile as I could, to emphasise the meaning. Once the tempo speeds up, the lyrics become polar opposites of the lyrics sang at the start, now optimistic. I sang out more for this part.
The middle section of the song works effectively as I bring in a D major chord straight after a D minor chord, giving the song an edge. It's a basic formula used by many artists, but one that seems to work.
The final chorus sees me sing many harmonies (11 vocal tracks were used in logic for the final chorus). Had I had more time to mix and master the song, I would have concentrated on making each harmony work together perfectly, as currently, there are some (ie. the highest one) which is very difficult to hear. Like many pieces that I write, the final chorus is filled with polyphony. My vocals heard at the end were actually a mistake - I accidentally moved one of my vocal tracks while editing and didn't notice the vocals calling out at the end until I was mixing the harmonies. While it sounds horribly cheesy, I felt it added a touch of personal emotion to the song, so I kept it. I think in future I will mix and master this song properly. The fact that I wrote it so quickly, as opposed to the weeks I've spent writing other pieces in Logic in class has allowed me to realise that trying to write a compacted piece of music is ridiculous.
Lyrics;
I am a stag without his horns,
alone in the woods
An old man without his eyes,
blind and lost in the dark
Like a sailor without a ship
forever ashore,
just a runaway child who wants to be found
Wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could be who we want to be
wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could see what we need to see
I am a stag who’s found his mate
king of the woods
A blind man who awoke to see
his grandson’s first smile
a sailor out to sea,
all the ocean he’ll ever need
Just a run away child who yearns to be found.
Wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could be who we want to be
wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could see what we need to see
please don’t pray for me dear,
let me ask Him myself
I feel like the old man,
who lost both his eyes,
or a sailor who’s drowning at sea
I never asked you for help, iso now im telling myself
to stop being a run away child
Wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could be who we want to be
wouldn’t it be so sweet if we could see what we need to see
(runaway child who wants to go home, gotta little bit of love left so just come home)
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