THE COMPOSING OF
THE MUSIC OF DRIFTWOOD
for choir SATB with piano accompaniment

THE COMPOSING OF
LUX AETERNAM
for choir SSAATTBB a capella

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THE COMPOSING OF
THE MUSIC OF DRIFTWOOD
for choir SATB with piano accompaniment
Set to the poem "The Music of Driftwood" by Reed Whittemore
Composed for the College Park Chorale.  Allison Hughes, Music Director

DESIGNING THE CONCEPT BASED ON THE TEXT

November 2019.  The general process of composing for a given poem starts by understanding the text, in this case, “The Music of Driftwood” by Reed Whittemore.  I search for the natural cadence and sections that may translate into a principal theme, a chord progression, a harmonic shift, a change in texture, etc.

​I usually print the text and write notes on it to see a skeleton of what the piece may become, and then I start writing the music.

The meter I chose is 3/4 because of the round waltz-like of waves coming ashore carrying the driftwood.  The piano introduction describes this image with activity in the first beat and a longer more relaxed second and third beats.  I didn't write any key signature to have the freedom to travel through different key signatures without feeling attached to the initial one.

Following the handwritten outline, but letting the piece speak on its own, I start writing. "The music of driftwood?" which ends with a question mark and an immediate response "Yes". The word "driftwood" has an ascendent motion for the question mark, and the "Yes" is the resolution of the chord carrying the word "driftwood".  Just like that, other sections in the piece will use harmony to carry the nuances of the text.

The text "and floats with the wind in the foam and is beached and bleached" starts with rhythmic movement until the image of arriving to shore slows down the movement until it stops completely on the word "bleached", 

The continuation "Lying still for a movement or two" resumes the gentle waltz of the waves, until the sopranos take the melody much higher with the text "then floating farther", which starts the musical development while the poem describes where that driftwood is going: "to enter the mind's many chambers..."

With "it changes" the piece momentarily goes from an environment of F Major (one flat) to B Major (five sharps), emphasizing that change in the text, but gradually the piano gently bends the B-sharp environment in to G Major (one sharp), bringing us closer to the tonal environment we were before, but not all the way to the initial F Major because the driftwood itself keeps traveling and doesn't return to the initial point of departure.  The melodies that follow carry familiar elements of what was sung before but they are not identical.

Like this, the poem continues its description while the music gives a gentle vehicle, gradually increasing intensity to the climatic point at "in the midnight recesses, yet true too" to suddenly become introverted at "to its own poor selfless self", sung in unison by the tenor and basses.

Another venture starts at "bare yet bearing from way, way over yonder..." where the sopranos and altos choir take the text to the upper register, traveling farther away from our G Major (one sharp) to the much farther harmonic environment of A-flat Major (four flats).  

As we approach the end of the piece, the music seeks a feeling of conclusion by returning to familiar material.  For that ir comes back to G Major and uses familiar melodic motives used before on the text "The music of driftwood" plus other times throughout the piece.  It emphasizes the word "supplications" and finally the piece is put to rest on a gentle chord with "art".

Thank you to the members of the College Park Chorale and the Chorale's director Allison Hughes, for being the vehicle to turn this concept to music, and special thanks to Ned Whittemore, son of Reed Whittemore, and Reed Whittemore's publisher Merrill Leffler, for granting us permission to set this poem to music.

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THE COMPOSING OF
LUX AETERNAM
for choir SSAATTBB a capella

LUX AETERNAM is  being composed at this moment using provided parameters:  The lyrics must be of sacred nature and must be for SATB choir with the possibility of doubling the voices (SSAATTBB).  It also must be between 4 and 6 minutes.

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First section.  LUX AETERNAM, LUCEAT EIS DOMINE

DESIGN OF THE CONCEPT

September 2019.  The initial steps in composing a piece for choir is to gather the lyrics and extract the meaning, symbology, imagery and their projection. Then take all this information and figure how this is going to be represented with the music.

LUX AETERNAM (Eternal light) will start with a beam of clear light, a pure A-440 as the start of the piece, representing pure white light.  This pure light will then open into a color spectrum as a cluster of sound traveling in crescendo as the light passes through environments.

When the spectrum settles, then the word AETERNAM will develop forming a Eb Major chord with 6 and 9, which is a settling chord that doesn't require resolution and doesn't inspire tension or movement.  It represents eternity.

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LUCEAT EIS. (May the light shine upon them).  Contemplating the options of developing it as texture or as harmonic melody.

Texture is a very interesting tool for the modern choir composition, yet if abused, it can easily disconnect the listener from the piece.  Alternating the effects of sound texture and harmony, or melody, or both, provides the listener with a thread to follow throughout the section and link all the elements together.

Therefore I am more inclined to develop this section with a melodic element led by the soprano line, coming from the previous section.

The meaning of LUCEAT EIS (May the light shine upon them) has important elements in it: light, and them. These elements will be reflected in the treatment of the music.

Light (LUCEAT) will bring sound in a pure tone, starting with an unison voice. Upon them (EIS) will take that light and convert it into all sort of colors as it pours upon the people. To explain that we go to the next image.

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The cascade effect of LUCEAT EIS will start with a pure unison melody in the soprano line (LUCEAT) representing light, and the moment it reaches EIS (upon them) the unison will start cascading down and opening up forming a complex chord of 1-3-5-7-9-11-13, yet this chord must follow some parameters to be in concordance with the message.

The resulting chord should be complex because it represents the diversity of the people the light is shining upon, yet it should not be a dissonant chord because it represents the light upon the people, in a state of illumination.

I will be experimenting with the resulting chord, altering the tensions until I find the sonority that balances the elements of complexity and luminosity.

There is a chance I may also modify the chord so rather than being pure stacked thirds, I may use a #4 to evoke the ethereal environment of the lydian mode.

For the text DOMINE (Lord) I started by listing four options.

- Treating the word as a plead
- Treating it as a statement
- A conclusion of a section
- Developing the color that came from before and continue unfolding the inertia of the unfolding harmony
- Treating the word DOMINE with simplicity and resolve it into an open chord of 1-5-8

The page to the left shows that I have gone the route of creating a melody that leads the harmony, and the voices will form a chord progression that ends in a non-conclusive cadence, and therefore continue the inertia of the energy into the next section.

I find this solution will provide more flow than closing small sections with concluding cadences.

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CUM SANCTIS TUI IN AETERNUM.  (with your saints for ever).  Movement of voices in counterpoint or in paprllel, with the impression of plurality (the saints).  I am choosing to move the voice vertically in parallel motion.  

The motion will be lead by the melody of the original gregorian chant.  For this I extracted the chant melody and create a harmonic progression that blends chord voicing from jazz harmonies, yet maintains the image of an organum.
​The entire sequence and chord progression will be repeated, elevated one whole step up to create a progressive build up that will conclude in QUIA PIUS EST (for You are merciful).

QUIA PIUS EST (for you are merciful) will be the conclusion of the first section of this piece.  The word QUIA (You) will be the highest point yet in the piece, emphasized by repeating it three times (a reference to the concept of "three in one") and holding a great amount of energy.  This statement will be followed by a descending progression that holds the weight of the voices, gradually entering a quieter place, a place that will prepare the mood for the next section: REQUIEM AETERNAM DONA EIS DOMINE.

REQUIEM AETERNAM DONA EIS, DOMINE, ET LUX PERPETUA LUCEAT EIS
September 30, 2019.  
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This section is sketched with rich harmonies using a wide range of the voices, with a melody in ascending motion carrying the entire texture on an upward journey.  When the text says "ET LUX" it will briefly go back to unison to open up the sound into the "PERPETUA" and traveling through the "LUCEAT EIS".

I still have not decided if I am going to end the piece in "LUCEAT EIS" or in a more conclusive "AMEN", which in my opinion would provide a more resolute closing, especially on the syllable "A-MEN" which has a better vowel than the syllable "E-IS".

Other large format multi-movement Requiems end in "EIS", but considering that this piece is not part or movement of a Requiem, but a single self-standing piece, I will defend that it sholud be appropriate to close it with an "AMEN".

The next step:

Now that the complete sketch of LUX AETERNAM is finished, my next chapter is to develop these ideas into a fully written piece.  While I work on this, I will also start the sketch for my next project: a commissioned piece also for choir, with a text by poet laureate Reed Whittemore.  The text is still to be chosen.

​Thanks for reading these notes!    -Gabriel