An Arranger's Handbook - Harmonic Storytelling.

Hello Steemit!

I am starting today a new series of lessons focusing more on music arranging concepts. This is one of my favorite areas of study in the big world of music. Apart from composing, writing or audio technicalities there is this area which focuses in providing the orchestration, harmony and all of the elements that surround a melody.

-What is arranging?

While there are many concepts around this to me , on a simple level arranging is the art of putting together all the elements that surround a melody. A melody conveys the main message and how we present this to the listener would fall into the work of the arranger.

To me, an arranger is a ''second storyteller'' , he is presented with a melody and he then chooses what story to tell with it , where to take it, turn it around, let it flow, how to ''dress'' it. This comes to the concept I like to call:

-Harmonic Storytelling.

As a melody carries the main message which becomes more evident if it also has lyrical content we also have a second story going on the harmonic level, as an arranger I can choose to accompany the ''obvious'' message of a song or try to ''add layers'' to it or create contrast as this will have a completely different impact in the end result. Also , it can be very powerful if used effectively.

Let's think of this in a more conceptual way, rather than throwing a book with harmonic techniques and elements, reharmonization concepts and such I would like to give you an idea of what you could generate by exploring different ''musical paths''.

To make it even more simple .. what if your lyrics said ''I love you'' but in that exact moment a very dissonant chord hits in... is then the message really that simple?.. or are you being ironic? Or just ambiguous? The listener then thinks of it a second time before accepting the obvious message that the main melody and lyric carries.

Let's do an experiment.

Let's grab a very simple melody, in this case I chose the first 8 bars of ''Somewhere over the rainbow'' .. a very basic but beautiful melody that holds a story in it's own and try to present it in 4 different ways.. let's see what happens.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Melody extract

So , we will be using this exact same melody over the 4 examples , no changing of any notes, I will only change the ''colors'' around it on a harmonic level, no change of instrumentation either. So , the melody on it's own would sound like this :

So, I decided to add a little vocal take to showcase the 4 examples so the melodic and harmonic separation is a little more obvious. This is not a performance, just a little demonstration.. so don't expect much ''feeling'' hahaha.

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Example 1 : Diatonic triads.

Ok, so.. our first arrangement is going to be the harmony in it's simplest form , a simple movement between diatonic chords to return back to our home base , the tonic chord.. in this case ''C''. So this would sound like this:

So, our story on this one is very simple and obvious (which is not a bad thing, most times less can be more). We start at ''home'' we take a little walk and come back home. Happy ending :D !

Example 2 : Added colors and movement.

This second example is derived from the first one as we will be telling the same story but just adding some color, as @yidneth says .. ''you are adding your 7ths!'' .. Yes.. exactly that and a few other things, simple harmonic decorations:

So, adding 7ths and 6ths in this case , a couple melodic connections, a little added harmonic rhythm , secondary dominants and a little modal interchange... all used in a very ''academic'' way to showcase them. Also the returning to the one chord is delayed until the last bar, to me this would resemble the same story as the first example... let's just say it's a little longer walk before returning home.

Example 3: Hybrid chords and inconclusive ending.

So now we move to another direction, the focus of this post is not the harmonic elements used in each example but the ''general idea'' behind them. In this case I wanted to create an example that contrasted with the first two, giving it a darker sound and different meaning in general, let's hear it:

I'm a big fan of hybrid chords since they are more ''open'' and can have different interpretations, I also decided not to ''return'' to my starting point. So in this case.. the walk had a ''wrong turn'' and we are not sure where we ended up, if we continued this arrangement we would have to find a way to return at some point in the song. How to play with this is in the hands of the arranger.

Example 4 : Non-diatonic harmony over a descending bass line.

Ok , let's try something a little more tricky, here I stopped caring about conventional harmony rules and went into a more ambiguous territory, the reason why this ''works'' is because of the continuous bass line that just keeps descending until we arrive to our last chord.

Music is not interpreted on a technical level, what we normally listen is something moving from one point to the other , something starting at a specific point and arriving somewhere, that's why this example makes some sense.. we have a bass that starts at an upper register and just keeps flowing in a same direction , the chords chosen are more to ''fill the gap'' between the bass and the melody. Some posts ago I stated that any melody can go with any bass note as long as you harmonize it properly .. well.. this could be an example of that:

I also decided to add more tensions as we progressed on the melody with the intention of giving a hint that ''maybe something is not right here''.. Also I did end in the tonic chord but in an inversion.. hinting ambiguity again.. ''did I return home?? or not?''

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''Ok, so you just went and destroyed a perfectly beautiful tune and added complicated chords... what's the point?''

Hahaha... yes.. in this case it is just an excersise used for sound exploration.. I would not likely throw 20 chords in the first 8 bars of a song like this, it would take away the whole essence of the song.. but maybe if I had more time to expose the song I could try and hinting more interesting colors if I felt it was needed. There is a fine line between song enhancement and just ''technical nonsense''.

''Will I ever use this?"

It really depends on what you want to say, if you are not attracted to these sounds that is perfectly fine.. but I do believe in exploration so I would definitely encourage you to ''see for yourself''

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Let me give you an example of a finished song, interpreted three completely different ways. Same song.. three ''storytellers'', maybe you can grasp the point I am trying to get across here.

Let's grab this classic and beautiful tune by Leonard Cohen ... ''Hallelujah''.

Let's listen to the original:

We all know this tune is just beautiful the way it was conceived.. but .. let's hear it told in a different way.

I just love Jeff Buckley's version.. the way he starts with those subtle dissonances and puts us in a darker mood before starting is just genius, also his voice was one of the sweetest I have heard.. completely different world visited by the same song.

Now, let's grab one more:

Jacob Collier blows my mind every time I hear an arrangement .. his command of harmony and texture is just out of this world.. also at the end he does a half-step down modulation to bring the song to a fresh sound before ''taking it home''. Also his melodic interpretation is a lot more free.

One thing I must add is the little lyrical genius phrase that Cohen included in his song:

'' Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah''

Leonard is refering to the scale degrees here , the fourth , fifth and such are the actual chords played in the song.. and also in all the other interpretations .. Talk about Harmonic Storytelling right ;) ?

Well, this wraps it out for today! I hope you find some inspiration in these ideas and of course I'm more than glad to go more in-depth with all the concepts discussed here! All questions are welcome!

Thanks for reading and listening
Pechiche Mena