Darkness Descends

Intention

I wanted to create a dark mood, sadistic and fatigued to reflect how I currently feel about online learning.  That feeling of having to do something, but it would be so easy not to.  I chose the piano, the tempo of adagio and the key of A minor to portray this sadness.

Process:

I began with experimenting with ideas with what could be a theme, with just three or four notes. I put pauses between each of the phrases to create the feeling of fatigue and procrastination. Learning from Rachmaninov’s Theme and Variations based on a Theme by Paganini, I planned to use some of his variation techniques in my own improvisation, such as repetition, adding and taking away different notes, melodic augmentation, a pedal note for the bass line; a bass line that descends and ascends later on and then taking the theme to a higher register for timbral variation, giving the effect of hope.  I decided to keep the bass really simple with just whole notes – they sound like a statement of doom.

When I pressed record, I tried my best to stick to my plan but in my nervousness, the plan changed, but because I knew this was an improvisation, I just steadied my breath and told myself it was ok.

Outcome:

I learned that although I don’t play the piano well, I could improvise something that evoked emotion. This process helped me understand the techniques used for theme and variation even more. Though this was my first improvisation, I feel that it turned out better than anticipated and I believe I could transfer my musical experience to other compositions, but also I could apply the way I accepted and embraced the challenge to any other area of my life.