Current into this week

As you may be able to realize from my last post, I'm seeking to add more richness to my overall melodic/harmonic sound. I'm seeking to make my music darker. That's unnatural for me...I'm a joyful optimist. My type doesn't naturally produce melancholic, dissonant music. I can twist a diminished key into sounding like bubble-gum pop music. It frustrates me because I want that sound of when I hear a song so dark that it makes my soul cringe.

So I've been researching atonal and polytonal music as of late. I've also run across composers who write using tonal centers but employ chromatic harmony to enhance the dramatic effect. I'm not sure in which direction I will trek. I definitely don't want to write Romantic Period sounding pieces...that's just not my niche. However, I do want to use their philosophies to execute the music I long to create.

I'm currently studying Moussorgsky's "Tableaux d'une exposition." I enjoy breaking apart chord by bloody chord of a score. Learning what the greats do and have done to achieve the sound of brilliance. To me, it's like having a posthumous conversation. I ask questions and the ink and paper respond. I wish I took the time to study scores more often.

So...do I know what I'm doing? Not quite. Could this week's track turn out to be a complete disaster? The future of that is likely. Does that bother or worry me? Not at all. So Bobby, how can expecting to poorly write a song, and fulfilling that prophecy not cause any anxiety? In the words of Arnold Schoenberg:

"My music is not modern, it is merely badly played."

Let's go explore uncharted territories.

Vaya con Dios.