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Topic: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog  (Read 1622 times)

Offline ranjit

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The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
on: March 26, 2020, 09:02:06 AM
I used a lot of chromatic mediant-ish chord changes here, which give a very movie-like impression. My favorite bit is around 3:45.

Offline quantum

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #1 on: March 26, 2020, 02:36:44 PM
Are you referring to modal mixture?  It works very well in this piece.  I felt there were parts that were reflective of Nyman's music.
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline ranjit

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #2 on: March 26, 2020, 03:48:03 PM
I hadn't heard about Nyman before. I thought what I played was different in that it had more "movement", like a background track to a movie as opposed to "static" ambient music. I only checked out a few minutes of Nyman, but he seemed more ambient.

I think it can be referred to as modal mixture, but am not sure. Mostly, it was jumping to non-diatonic chords linked related by a third relationship. For example, from an A major chord to an F major chord (as opposed to F minor), and then jumping down another third. These harmonic movements are used very often in film scores. At points, I shifted to E Lydian.  There was some chromatic movement and a descending chromatic motif starting at around 3:45 which I liked. I also sometimes jumped to the E Lydian scale, and played the E major and F major chords over it.

The idea was somewhat similar to this:

Offline ted

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #3 on: March 27, 2020, 12:56:52 AM
I operate almost entirely in intuitive fashion these days, and any discussion of music in terms of harmony, chords, modes and things has always been pretty well incomprehensible to me at the best of times, to the chagrin of my teachers, so I shan't go there. Nonetheless I find this one pleasantly evocative, the best bits for me being where metrical or synchronous pattern is absent and the listening mind directs itself to internal phrases. 
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce

Offline ranjit

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #4 on: March 27, 2020, 04:03:36 AM
Thanks for listening, Ted!

... the best bits for me being where metrical or synchronous pattern is absent and the listening mind directs itself to internal phrases. 

What do you mean by this?

Offline ted

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #5 on: March 27, 2020, 08:00:12 AM
I had an idea you might ask that, I am too verbose sometimes. It amounts to no more than a personal preference for music which is governed by neither discernible pulse nor clear coincidence of the hands.
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce

Offline ranjit

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #6 on: March 27, 2020, 12:01:24 PM
I understand the metrical and synchronous phrases bit, but what I don't quite understand is what you mean by internal phrases. I have a vague idea that you mean that the playing is not "metronomic", and that you intellectually forget that there is an underlying pulse (you will still feel it of course, otherwise music would not be possible) and hear the phrase as a single entity, like a sung melody perhaps. Does it involve rubato and agogic accents, or is it some other idea which can not be described by this framework?

Offline quantum

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Re: The Mysterious Adventures of Elvin the Hedgehog
Reply #7 on: March 28, 2020, 03:29:22 AM
I think it can be referred to as modal mixture, but am not sure. Mostly, it was jumping to non-diatonic chords linked related by a third relationship. For example, from an A major chord to an F major chord (as opposed to F minor), and then jumping down another third. These harmonic movements are used very often in film scores. At points, I shifted to E Lydian.  There was some chromatic movement and a descending chromatic motif starting at around 3:45 which I liked. I also sometimes jumped to the E Lydian scale, and played the E major and F major chords over it.



Modal mixture is basically borrowing chords from a parallel key.  I think you were using it as a subset of the mediant modulation theme you were going with. 

Nontheless, I think the harmonic movement in this piece worked well. 
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach
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