3MU303 ADVANCED

COMPOSITION
Nathan Kirby (209096064)

Featuring:
1. Talks About Flowers: A Talk About Gladiolus
2. She Gave Me: A Symphonic Rock Epic
3. Waffle Stomp
Quarantined Note:
Originally, all were intended to be recorded with vocals in some capacity, be they vocals
largely by myself (“She Gave Me”), as a duet (“Waffle Stomp”), or hopefully by a professional
(“Talks About Flowers: A Talk About Gladiolus”). Along with the vocals, it was intended to
have live guitar, bass, and drums on “She Gave Me”, with these members providing backing
vocals.
Furthermore, a piece had to be scrapped entirely which would have taken the place of
“Waffle Stomp” for Gamelan and live electronics. While attempts were made to used
sampled instruments, it was not successful post-closure. Along with this, the death of my
grandmother meant that I did not wish to dwell on the subject matter. Therefore, instead of
a five-tone equal temperament electro-gamelan piece about a murder-suicide I am
presenting an early-Broadway inspired piece about feces. Take that how you will.
Prefix: A Word on My Portfolio
As third year winds down, quarantine happens, and people die, one thing that has suffered is my
composition. The portfolio presented here is one tied together largely by madness, starting with a
setting of words from a gardening book that has absolutely nothing to do with the yarn she is
spinning, through a eight-and-a-half-minute long rock epic about someone devolving into suicide,
and ending with two posh people kicking a turd down a plughole. While all including vocals and
some form of keyboard, each one uses the instruments in very different ways, each telling a story
through accent, ornamentation, characterisation, and prominence. How I wish I could have full
recordings of them, but alas it was not meant to be.

One note: upon uploading to YouTube, the pieces gain a large amount of dead sound. I do not
understand why this is, but it

The portfolio is presented in such a way that you start with a solo instrument and end with two,
though only one being prominent. It peaks in the late centre with the full brass and string sections,
with the rock band, of the second movement of “She Gave Me”. They all share certain characteristics
that manage to bring together what could otherwise have been three completely disparate pieces. I
certainly hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed composing them.

Postscript: I certainly hope you sing She Gave Me “1. She” bars forty-three and forty-four as loudly as
possible at least once with the orchestral backing. Preferably away from children and/or thin walls.
Table of Contents
1. Talks About Flowers: A Talk About Gladiolus............................................................................... 3
Recording ................................................................................................................................. 3
Programme Note ...................................................................................................................... 3
Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 3
2. She Gave Me: A Symphonic Rock Epic ........................................................................................ 5
Recording ................................................................................................................................. 5
Programme Note ...................................................................................................................... 5
Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 5
3. Waffle Stomp............................................................................................................................ 7
Recording ................................................................................................................................. 7
Programme Note ...................................................................................................................... 7
Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 7
1. Talks About Flowers: A Talk About Gladiolus
Words adapted from a book by Mrs. M. D. Wellcome

Recording
Link
Programme Note
“Talks About Flowers: A Talk About Gladiolus” was born from a call for scores roughly one hundred
seconds in length. Though coming in at ninety-eight seconds, this piece does not lack story or
diversity. The text is adapted from a late-1800’s book on gardening, where the author, a Mrs. M. D.
Wellcome, of Yarmouth, Maine, gets side-tracked and goes on an existential journey thinking about
flower bulbs.

The piece, along with the section of book entitled “A Talk About Gladiolus”, opens with her stating
comparatively plainly that she was intending on writing about “ornamental foliage plants”. This,
however, she does not do. The middle section, therefore, focusses on the two bulbs she holds,
represented in the music by contrasting rhythms in the left and right hands of the piano. As we enter
the final section, however, she is speaking on a purely faith-based level, therefore the piano strips
itself back, only coming in for a final flourish with the interlocking rhythm to finally “behold the
flowers” that have grown so different from two bulbs initially so alike.

While the natural focus is on the vocalist, the piano player often naturally bounces off the melody,
though naturally underpins the melody for rhythmical and harmonic flavour. For instance, during the
section where the author describes the wrapping of the bulbs, the piano player uses a bell peeling
structure to underpin this idea, using the wordplay of “peel”, in both peeling bells and peeling
wrapping paper from around a plant bulb.

Technical Analysis
While the piece starts in 4/4 on the first beat, the second bar is a 10/8 bar. This unusual time
signature is allowing for a hesitation in the vocalist’s part, whereby she lingers on the “de” of
“devote” a tiny bit longer than may be expected. This is to parallel the hesitation and deviation
within the lyrics. The repetition of the first bar’s melodic line, a semitone down (barring the higher
Bb and the ornamented following note), here in bar three sets up that the listener knows where the
melody is heading in bar five, whereby this same melodic pattern is highly ornamented, paralleling
the lyrics, along with rhythmically varied to fit into a more natural stress pattern for the downbeats
in bars five to eight. This is especially important after the unusual stressing of “denote”.

The section beginning bar twelve is the first time is built up in the previous bar, bar eleven, with an
excess of tension, which disperses immediately, leaving the piece in the same tempo but with an
entirely different feel, with the melody largely focussing on minims to slow the feel down. The piece
is moved forward by the driving bassline, which only moves out of its lower usable register one
when the vocalist sings “separately”. This minim movement is often underpinned by triplet
crotchets, which sets up the next change of feel.

This comes at bar twenty, where the long notes split into three equal sections are dotted minims.
This has the effect of slowing the piece down while not changing tempo. This sets up the
accelerando by bringing down the feel before the change to moderato. This is used in a similar
manner starting bar thirty, though here without the accelerando. With it being solely the piano
playing at bar thirty-three (though with the single word from the singer), they can set their own
tempo without having to worry about the vocalist keeping up, and vice versa.
The glissandi in thirty-eight going into the following bar, along with similar movement in bar forty-
three, represents the planting of the bulbs, as they go down into the ground.

The quintuplet in bar fifty-six, followed by the sextuplet in the following bar, is harkening to the
growing sense of impending underlying faith. Again, the tempo does not change, but the feel
increases before the following ritardando that brings the piece to a close.
2. She Gave Me: A Symphonic Rock Epic
Words by myself, based on a true story. Except for the murder. I did not admit to it, for a
start. Warning: mildly explicit content

Recording
Link
Programme Note
It is a tale as old as time. Man would like to have sex. Man gets scabies. Man goes mad and murders
the person who gave him scabies. It is a very relatable story, here presented in three intertwined
movements.

1. She: in which the narrator explains the circumstances as to how he got scabies.

2. Gave: in which the narrator goes mad from the itching and decides finally upon the murder

3. Me: in which the narrator murders the woman who gave him scabies, questions why he did
it, then admits to the murder.

Naturally, this is told through a variety of rock-based genres, starting with pop-punk, through prog,
“math” rock, as well as hints of classic rock and heavy metal. For instance, while the harmony and
content is largely based on bands such as McFly and Busted (though largely based around a chord
progression known as the Andalusian Cadence, found largely in Latin music) for the first movement,
“She”, the structure is entirely classic rock, in the style of Van Halen or AC/DC, where the second
verse and pre-chorus is shortened as a repeat to keep the energy continuing. Furthermore, while the
second movement, “Gave”, starts as noise metal, once said noise cannot be built any more, then
turns into a complete pastiche of Queen’s “The Prophet Song” from A Night at the Opera.

Reoccurring melodies and motifs appear throughout, including the line which first has the lyrics of
“itchy back and itchy penis” which appears in all three movements. Along with that, the rhythm for
the cabasa at the beginning repeats, and spells out “SCABIES” in Morse code, with the rhythm at the
beginning of “Gave” approximately spelling “MITES”.

Technical Analysis
A brief rundown of the most notable motifs:

• The Horn’s Moment

o First found in “1. She” bar one in Oboe 2
o Most prominent in the horn entry in “2. Gave” bar four
• SCABIES
o The Morse code in the cabasa in “1. She”
• MITES
o The amended Morse code in the agogos found in “2. Gave”
▪ Note: correct code would be as follows:
• -- .. - . ...
▪ Morse found in the piece
• -- .. - . ….
▪ With the long tones being implied by extended rests. The extra quaver
makes it actually spell “MITEH”, but made it considerably more rhymical,
therefore was a necessary change for the music.
Other small motifs appear but much more in passing, such as the aforementioned “Itchy back and
itchy penis” melody, or the small interlude in “1. She” bar seventy-eight reappearing in “3. Gave” bar
seventy-six.

When balancing the rock band with the orchestral instruments I focussed largely on making the band
the driving rhythm section behind the rest of the instruments. Small pockets of more traditional
instrumental writing, such as “1. She” bar twenty-three in the string section, has to balance with a
rock genre here not known for its complexity. While the guitars rarely play full chords, largely opting
for power chords throughout (with the notable exception being the rhythm guitar in “2. Gave”), the
orchestral instruments provide a rich harmonic backing. While not adventurous, it remains
interesting through instrumentation and rhythmical variation.

The choice to quote Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” came from the desire to make the section crazy
but grounded, and this famous motif sprung out to me. It can also be found in “Waffle Stomp”
serving a similar purpose in a very different context.

The tenor vocal range is based upon my own, and the placement for melodies largely shows my
intentions. Mid-range the narrator is telling the story, high range they are deranged, low range
sinister. With this comes natural tonal differences that, when recorded and mixed, make much more
of a difference than dynamics of the voice. Therefore, I made the choice to not include dynamics for
the vocal lines to allow my untrained voice to be the most comfortable without having to conform to
the notation too strictly. Furthermore, this is what caused me to include the half flat in “3. Me” bar
fifty-seven where I struggle to hit these notes, and the narrator is also struggling with what he is
going through.

As listed in the Encyclopedia Rudientia, for the introduction of “3. Me”, I have used drum rudiment
patterns on both the secondary percussionist and the rock drummer to create interlocking patterns
from such rudiments as the “flama-diddly”, “bugada chickens” and “Swiss Grinders”.
3. Waffle Stomp
Words by myself, thankfully not based on a true story.

Recording
Link
Programme Note
Written for a hypothetical musical about a toff and his butler, Sir and Jeeves, this piece of music is
pure deranged cheese. The story is that the toff, Sir, has had an accident while in the bath, and it is
up to his butler, Jeeves, to explain what to do. Of course, instead of picking it up and placing it in the
toilet, the butler describes the act of “waffle stomping”, which, naturally, leads to them having a full
tap break in the bath. However, all is not well, and once they have placed bleach down the shower
drain they start to become rather less sane, if it were possible. Consequently, they hallucinate a
roving, whispering, band of evil spellers who lead them tapdancing into certain doom.

Naturally, when one inhales too much bleach fug, things go rather weird. Therefore, once this
occurs, there is a hypnotic repeated section where each instrument’s dynamics are largely
independent of each other. This means that, when presented in the formation of a pit band, there is
a mild effect of the instruments swirling around the stage. This contrasts with the next section
where each member of the pit band whispers at ever increasing dynamics to simulate the voices
getting closer menacingly.

Technical Analysis
All vamps through the song can be exited from any bar on cue in a pleasant cadence. This allows the
singers to take as long as they like with the speech sections.

The chord progression for the chorus is the “stomp progression”, named after Jelly Roll Morton’s
“King Porter Stomp”. This links perfectly with the title, naturally, as well as lending itself towards the
tap dancing as the replacement for the “stomp” dance.

The upbeat to thirty-seven into the bar of thirty-seven is, naturally, the same quote from “Rhapsody
in Blue” by George Gershwin as above. Here it serves as bringing in Broadway salute to a fanfare,
harking in the knowledge of Urban Dictionary.