Nath – 12 minutes 56 seconds
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12 Minutes 56 Seconds
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Written for two pianos and strings at 57 beats per minute, this piece was created for one of our Global Freeloaders, Nathalie, you should check out her blog here. Originally conceived as a blues development, the track had other ideas and changed dramatically during a visit to see Charlotte earlier in the year.
People Power
Human beings fascinate me; it seems that the most compelling music2work2 pieces come from themes inspired by people. I’m always interested in meeting new personalities and while traveling isn’t an option right now, inviting travelers into our house is.
Much to the chagrin of various family members, we host international travelers through a website Global Freeloaders. Over the years it has been a great experience, no axe murderers and mostly super charming people happy to offer politeness and good conversation in exchange for food and accommodation. I ask our visitors to give me a couple of numbers which I then use to work up a theme based around my experience of them. Some, like Nath & Coyote, get worked up to full tracks, others I learn from.
The Process
Normally I will sit at the keyboard and have a picture of the person on the screen, I will think of them and then play whatever comes into my hands. This time however, I had the idea of introducing the blues scale to the piece and the early developments did have some kind of promise.
However, the more I worked the theme, the less I connected to it and I was feeling pretty down on the piece by the time I got to North Carolina in June.
After talking to Charlotte it was apparent that I was bringing too much of myself into it and wasn’t allowing the piece to reflect the subject – Nathalie – who is a very French lady. The light bulb went off and we searched YouTube for La Marseillaise – the French National Anthem.
National Anthems
The French tend to get a bad rap – particularly from Americans – which is odd really as along with the Scots, there are some very deep similarities and relationships between the nations.
America’s Star Spangled Banner with its rocket’s red glare and bombs bursting in the night, pales in comparison to La Marseillaise’s ferocious soldiers coming to cut the throats of our sons and women! Add to that Scotland’s real national anthem (the one they sing at Murrayfield not the one they play for the queen) in which the sons of Scotland fight and die against proud Edward’s army – and you get a feel for the violence that shaped these nations.
If you listen to the Marseillaise you’ll hear the genesis of Nath’s theme – I’m using the same 4 notes that urge the citizenry to arms to form the basis of the entire piece. You can hear the theme being picked out for the first time on Charlotte’s old upright Kimball.
Instrumentation
While I was working on Nath I often found myself listening to Frustration – it is the most popular music2work2 piece and is just now starting to get some traction on YouTube. The instrumentation of the piece – 1 piano and 2 strings – is something I was actively thinking about and I hadn’t intended on writing a second piano part until it came out about 4 weeks ago.
I’m very wary of creating something that wouldn’t work in the real world and you don’t hear two pianos together that often outside a dueling piano bar! However, there are certain parts that just sound perfect with one piano holding down the groove in the lower register while the other picks out the melody higher up.
The Other Nat!
I can’t finish these notes without acknowledging the original Nat – one of our first global freeloaders and a Lady who became part of our family. Nat was a wonderful person to have in the house (as was her cousin Annelise) and opened the door to many other travelers. Nat should send me some numbers ;-p.
320KMP3, AAC, FLAC or Apple Lossless
12 Minutes 56 Seconds
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