Sometimes I think gimmicks are the best thing in the world for artists.
When Underground Music Cafe owner Tim Cheesebrow and I realized our composer showcase concert would be on Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you), we knew we'd struck promotional gold. So in commissioning composers, we gave them a few different gimmicks to work with.
1. Write a four-hand piano piece.
2. Incorporate the number four in as many ways as possible.
3. Think Star Wars.
Every couple months, I challenge my Composer Quest podcast listeners to finish "quests" like this. If I've learned anything about myself as a composer, it's that I need inspiring prompts almost as much as I need deadlines. So I try to give other composers bizarre challenges, like writing songs based on fortune cookies, or composing for a children's Christmas musical called Elfluenza. Through gimmicks, art can thrive.
Let me try and prove it to you. I'll take you through a fuzzy journal of my own Star Wars piano composition.
The idea
Day 1: Sat at my piano most of the day, fleshing out an idea based around the interval of a fourth. It sounded good in my head, and I went to bed thinking it would be a beautifully complex piece of music.
Day 2: Entered my piece into Finale, played it back, and wondered what the heck I had been thinking. My painstakingly crafted chords sounded awful when all four (virtual) hands were playing them. My main problem seemed that I was lacking an artistic direction. After listening back and thinking about it, I couldn't tell what emotion or concept my piece was trying to convey. Idea scrapped.
A better idea?
Day 3: Woke up with the word midi-chlorians in my head. For the non-geeks (are there really non-geeks reading this article?), midi-chlorians are the microscopic entities that give Jedi Knights their force powers. Hardcore fans often blast George Lucas for writing midi-chlorians into the Episode I script and explaining away the mystery of the Force.
Regardless, I started wondering what a piece of music based on midi-chlorians would sound like. I pictured something fast, rhythmic, and repetitive. Just like millions of midi-chlorians adding up to something bigger than themselves, I thought of music that could be based on tiny little building blocks. I started by repeating the same rhythmic pattern on the note C, with an occasional G thrown in a fourth below C (maintaining the "fourth" gimmick).
I also imagined drumsticks converted into lightsabers, so certain beats could be lightsaber hits between the two pianists.
Day 4: Lightsaber idea scrapped, due to the high level of gimmickry and logistical challenges of holding lightsabers.
I stumbled upon an odd set of chords that reminded me of John Williams, and I started thinking about how many weird harmonies happen in his Star Wars scores. Just take a listen to his music for the desert planet Tatooine. My brain hurts trying to figure out what these dissonant woodwinds are doing.
After I finished my piece, I realized that it was the initial gimmicks, like thinking in terms of Star Wars and incorporating the number four, that enabled my brain to make fresh connections to the piano. When you're struggling for inspiration in your own art, just make up your own gimmicks and see where they lead you.
The concert
If you're looking for a way to celebrate Star Wars Day, I hope you can make it to our concert. I think it's always fun seeing what different composers do with the same basic materials. Several Minnesota composers have written new four-hand piano pieces, which will be performed by the talented pianists Susan Hsu and Franco Holder. They'll also give us a taste of some classic Star Wars tunes.
Sunday, May 4th 6 p.m. Free
Underground Music Cafe 1579 Hamline Ave N. Saint Paul, MN 55108
Tim Cheesebrow, Underground Music Cafe's owner, is also the director of MusicWorks Minnesota. His mission is to bring more new music to the stage, and that's why he's launching this Minnesota composer showcase.
On January 1, 2013, Charlie McCarron gave up most sensible sources of income to tempt fate as a freelance composer. To help shed light on the creative process of writing music, he started the weekly interview podcast Composer Quest.
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