"November Snowfall" Analysis and Writing Process

A wrote a new orchestral piece this month called "November Snowfall". Here is the video I made with the score.

Inspired by Alan Belkin's book "Musical Composition", I wanted to show how a simple but complete piece of music could be made from just a single theme, played only twice. Take a look at this lead sheet, and then I'll explain the form and my process for writing.

November Snowfall - Lead Sheet (note: the lead sheet doesn't include the two-bar intro, which I added during the orchestration phase. Bar numbers in my analysis will refer to the lead sheet, not the score.)

The Model

I used Chopin's Prelude No. 1 in C major as a model but wrote my piece in a completely different mood and style.

The form of Chopin's prelude is simple but effective; it starts with a basic 8 bar theme in the form of a sentence and using a single motive. The theme then repeats, but this time instead of turning the melodic line down halfway through, he pushes the melody higher and higher, extends the line with repetitions, and introduces chromatic harmony and restless energy that pushes the piece to a climax. After reaching the height of the piece, he resolves it with a simple coda that rests comfortably on the tonic.

First Section

The piece starts with an 8 bar sentence. The first two bars are the basic idea, bars 3-4 repeat the idea with a small embellishment (the triplet). Bars 5-6 are the continuation, in which I use a harmonic sequence (rising by 2nds) to reach a half cadence. Notice how the falling triplet idea has been continued. Also notice how the continuation is the first time we get any real harmonic motion, which gives the middle of the theme energy and a feeling like it's finally going somewhere.

Second Section

At bar 9 I return to the same opening theme, except this time instead of repeating the basic idea exactly I extend it upwards to reach new heights. Also notice that instead of sitting statically on the tonic F in the bass (which restrains the harmony from moving), I increase the harmonic rhythm and have a stepwise bass line. All of this gives the same theme new life and energy.

For the continuation, I push it even higher until reaching a climax, where I stretch out my original idea for bar 14 into two bars to loosen the form and give more weight to the climax. I loosen/extend the theme even more with the deceptive cadence at 17, allowing me to back up two bars and repeat the same phrase towards the true cadence now at 19, which I then sit on for an extra bar.These loosening techniques make the middle section feel richer and more interesting and have allowed me to turn the 8 bar theme into a fuller 12 bar section. But part of what makes this middle feel "loose" is also that it compares to the very "stable" opening theme of a neat and tidy 8 bars. The decision to make the first statement of the theme somewhat "square" is intentional.

Something interesting to note about this middle section: I actually wrote the first four bars of this section first, meaning that I intended it to be the opening theme. But when I went to write the second section, with the plan to extend the melody upwards, I found that I couldn't come up with anything more reaching and satisfying than that leap up to Db-C that I had already written.

The solution turned out to be simple but also very effective; I decided that this would become the middle section, and wrote a simplified and more grounded variation to be the opening. So the near identical repetition of the basic idea in bars 3-4 and the decision to keep the harmony static over F were all made as a response to what I knew was coming, not as the original conception.

One other note on this section: the "short long-long short long-long" pattern in bar 14 was sticking out a little too much, so in the orchestration phase I found a way to "prepare" the idea by putting it in the brass counterline in bar 13. That way, by the time we hear it in bar 14 it's already familiar and natural to us, even though it's the first time we hear it in the melody.

Coda

Finally, I end the piece with a simple coda. The accompaniment from the introduction returns, giving us a nice A-B-A feel to the form even though there are no contrasting themes. Harmonically the piece stays firmly grounded on F minor, making it clear that we have arrived "home" and the adventure is coming to an end.Ending with the picardy third (F major instead of Fm) was just for fun; I could have just as satisfyingly ended on Fm but I thought the overall tone of the piece was more uplifting and warm.

Writing Process

My first thought was to make sure that whatever I wrote was quite different from the Chopin. I wanted the prelude to be a model and guide, but not something to imitate. I wanted to do something orchestral, which already would make it very different than the solo piano, but I also intentionally chose a slow tempo and a minor key so that I was very far from Chopin's brisk C major.

I wrote the melody and chords first in their entirety, not allowing myself to move to the next step until I was satisfied. As mentioned earlier, the first four bars of the middle section actually came first. As I often try to explain to my students, music does not need to be composed linearly! It is perfectly OK to write things out of order, to back up and rewrite, to insert or remove material as needed. Improvisation is a wonderful and fascinating art, but there's also a reason that it has a different name than composition.

Then I applied some of Alain Mayrand's "Orchestrating the Line" techniques to shape the phrases, as can be seen in the lead sheet. I was careful to include phrasing, articulation, dynamics, etc. so that what was written had real musical intent and much more life than just dots on a page. You can also see the places where I "shaped the line" with added harmonic notes at points of accent or dynamic increase.

Next, I took this to a 4-staff sketch to flesh out the orchestration, which included choosing the main colors and filling in the accompaniment parts and counter lines. This is a really fun stage of the process, and sometimes I do the "melody/chords" and 4-staff sketch at the same time. But here I kept the stages quite separate which worked well for me on this piece.With the 4-staff sketch complete and very thorough, putting it into a full orchestral score was relatively easy. The last step was a quick mockup in Logic using Spitfire sample libraries.

So what do you think? If you enjoyed this article please let me know, if people get value from it I am happy to do more.

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