As I have
developed as a musician, I began to notice that the most engaging music has a
strong sense of motion. This motion does not necessarily have to be
communicated through dance or visual art (though it certainly could); it is
simply felt by the listener along with the emotions and memories that the
harmony evokes. Based off of Kurt Vonnegut’s “shape of story” plots, a quality
piece of literature, viewed from the lens of one dynamic character, has a
strong sense of motion to it as well. With this common denominator of motion, I
combined music and literature by composing a classical composition that
represents the shape of story plot for Sethe in the story Beloved.
In order to
make the interpretation and comparison between the two less arbitrary I made a
key of musical devices translated to the motion of the story (pictured below).
Just as a writer makes use of a wide array of rhetorical and
literary devices to convey his/her meaning, I sought to use various musical
devices to convey the Sethe’s “happiness/sadness curve.” (pictured below)
Starting
from when Sethe is in labor with Denver, the piece starts off in d minor with
fast harmonic minor runs towards the end; these fast harmonic minor runs along
with diminished chords on measure seven all help to convey the rising tension
that Sethe experiences due to her fear for staying alive to give birth to her
child and her distress for the well-being of the rest of her family who she had
been separated from; though the presence and “help” of Amy Denver was a slight
ray of hope, the overall tension in the motion of this part of the story
prevails. A ritardando (slowing down) and a modulation to the parallel major
portray the huge sense of relief that Sethe undoubtedly feels upon her arrival
to 124. This slow section, though it is mostly calm to portray the sense of
peace that Sethe feels just after her arrival due to the almost assured future
of family and freedom, there is still some dissonance (measure 16) conveyed
through the flat six in the base line. A flat six is a reference to the minor
key. This dissonance is due to Sethe’s angst about the well being of her
husband, Halle, who has yet to arrive from the escaped plantation.
The
happiest section of the piece modulates back to minor and ends with a fast diminished
arpeggio run (measure 32); this correlates to Sethe’s killing of one of her
children due to the presence of the school teacher and her dreading the
prospect of her children having to experience the sufferings of slavery. The
“second movement” of the piece starts out in minor again portraying Sethe’s
life 18 years after the killing of her child; the tension and melancholy feel
of the music in this section represents the death of Baby Suggs, the running
away of Howard and Buglar, and the continued disdain that the surrounding black
community feels towards Sethe. The modulation to major is meant to portray the
short spurt of comfort Sethe experiences as a result of Paul D arriving; it
references the happy theme I composed earlier on in the composition because
Sethe is constantly attempting to get back to that sense of peace she
experienced during her first days at 124. The whole tone scale and chromatic
scale (measure 46 and 47), meant to provoke a sense of ominous confusion and
uncertainty, correlate to the unusual behavior of Beloved towards Sethe and the
developing relationship between Sethe and Beloved; the piece modulates back to
major to portray the short time of joy that Sethe, Beloved, and Denver
experience together
The last
section of the piece is again in minor/ harmonic minor and is in ¾ time; this
all helps to convey the rising tension that the relationship between Beloved
and Sethe is causing; the tension continues to increase as all of the women in
town gather in front of 124 along with Mr. Bodwin coming to 124 to pick up
Denver so she can work at his house to earn money for her now mentally ill
mother, Sethe. The ending harmonic minor run (measures 61-62) indicate Sethe
rushing at Mr. Bodwin to kill him with an ice pick, mistaking him to be someone
to be the school teacher.
Though the
story ends with a sense of hope with Paul D’s comforting words to Sethe, the
piece still ends in minor to illustrate what the story of Beloved represents: the
evil of slavery.
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