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Ever suffered composer's block? Join the club! Here are some inspirational aids to get you into gear. Expand the possibilities in your mind through the poetry, video clips, photos, birdsong and Pacific Island drumming in this topic.
Some of the photos in our selections relate quite strongly to the film clips. Others are there to help trigger the inspiration into life! What do you relate to most readily? Is it the photos where human faces are portrayed, or do you find the photos of differing landscapes more inspiring? Knowing how we respond to other art forms, poetry, photography, film, dance, can lead us to a greater understanding of ourselves - as artists, composers, and in fact as unique human beings.
In this section you will find a selection of photographs depicting Parihaka Pā in 1881. Much emotion surrounds the invasion, and sacking of the Pa in 1881 and the subsequent imprisonment of leaders Tohu Kākahi, Te Whiti o Rongomai and their followers. Notice your reaction as you view the images, This could well be a starting point for your musical interpretation.
Here are some poems of varying subjects and styles that may help you 'get started'. Many triggers can lead us to composing music. Poetry is a strong trigger - it engages us emotionally, it evokes memories of places or situations; the words on the page can dance and suggest rhythms to us. Read the poems and notice the one or few that really mean something to you. You may be inspired to write a piece of music not directly related to the poem(s), but which seeks to create a similar emotional feel. You can also set the words to music to make a song, or a work for choir, rock band and vocalist.
Buchanan, Dorothy. Inspirational. Discover: Te Kohanga Taonga, updated June 29 2002. URL: http://discover.natlib.govt.nz
From Chamber Music (James Joyce)
XXXV
All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the seabirds when going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the waters'
Monotone.
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.
A Farewell (A.R.D. Fairburn)
What is there left to be said?
There is nothing we can say,
nothing at all to be done
to undo the time of day;
no words to make the sun
roll east, or raise the dead.
I loved you as I love life;
the hand that I stretched out to you
returning like Noah's dove
brought a new earth to view,
till I was quick with love;
but Time sharpens his knife
Time smiles and whets his knife
and something has got to come out.
quickly, and he buried deep
not spoken or thought about
or remembered, even in sleep.
You must live, get on with your life.
Bright Fine Gold (Crosbie Ward. c1864)
Spend it in the winter
Or die in the cold;
One a pecker, Tuapeka,
Bright fine gold.
Bright fine gold,
Bright fine gold;
One a pecker, Tuapeka
Bright fine gold.
Some are sons of fortune
And my man came to see;
But the riches in the river
Are not for such as he.
I'm weary of Otago,
I'm weary of the snow;
Let my man strike it rich
And then we'll go.
Keep It Small (Anonymous)
I don't want the multinationals,
I don't want them here at all;
I'd rather have the lakes,
The rivers and the trees
That keep New Zealand green and fertile;
Don't want your big investments,
I'd much rather keep it small;
For I care about New Zealand,
My future and my freedom,
So keep it small and green for you and me,
Oh yes now!
I don't want to be a worker
In a smelter or a mine;
I'd rather keep my job
In local industry,
Working with a boss that I can talk to,
Not some multinational robot
Run by their technology;
So we'll stay here in New Zealand,
Free and independent;
Just keep it small and green for you and me.
I Name This Place (Lauris Edmond)
I name this place
to find it
by looking truly
I can hear and speak my dream
this is where I stay
also my journey
for nothing rests except
within its timeless motion
the names of things are sleeping
in the way they've come
This is my waking up, my camp,
my resting-place along the never-ending
lines that cross the world. My song
waits here, I sing it.
On the Horizon (Ella Buchanan-Hanify)
On the horizon
See the rainbow of your life.
Full of beauty, hope and
Glorious range of colour.
Drifting over a silver sea
Calm and spiritual,
To distant rocky headlands.
On this beach I cry for you,
For the beauty and promise that you are.
Mountain Song (Robyn Hyde)
Not the grey trees bending
And not these quiet grasses,
But the gold flamer descending
On bare mountain passes
My eyes would be seeing.
Not this kind dew,
Nor the wind of gentle places,
But the hill-wind, steel blue
Where the brown torrent races,
One with my being.
No speech of streams
Nor of white dancing fountains,
But the dark song that dreams
In the hush if the mountains
My lips would be saying….
My heart would be praying.
Notes (James Brown)
How flaky to decide
to compose you as music
when I can't even sing.
Or play an instrument.
That's why we have pop.
Here come your notable legs
-right on song.
All the leaves are green
Home (Jenny Bornholdt)
What you think
about. Where
you come from.
Leave from.
Home. Where
the heart beats
hardest. It
becomes a
small room
in your head.
You visit
often. They always
Let you in.
Write the music to one of these silent videos. Look at the footage and notice your response. Some will evoke emotions, others will prompt a more abstract musical response. The most likely scenario is, the one that captures you most fully is the one you'll create really good music for. For example, if you find abstract images dancing on the screen evoking rhythmic responses from you, write them! The video clips are all about 50 seconds duration and suit the needs of your syllabus in composing for media, for example film or television. The subject material of the films include penguins in Antarctica, millennial celebrations, snowboarding, rafting, and more.
Here you will find clips of New Zealand birdsong to use as a basis for composition. Perhaps you can pick out one or two and use them as a basis for a composition - a musical motif. Many composers, New Zealand and world wide, have been inspired by birdsong. Some of them have used the bird motifs 'exactly' as a basis for their music; others have abstracted the birdsong, having been inspired by it, into music that may sound 'birdsongy' but doesn't actually quote exact birds.
Notice that some birds seem to go for repeated rhythmic motifs more than their more melodic brothers and sisters. Discover your response as a composer - have you found the rhythmic excerpts more inspiring that the more melodic ones?
If you are a drummer or percussionist it could be a great creative challenge to compose a rhythmic piece based on some of these rhythmic motifs. Or you may become so interested in birds that you become a famous ornothologist! The possibilities are limitless!
Here too is a recording of Pacific Island drumming, to use as a basis for composition. Alternatively, challenge your aural skills by trying to notate It!
If you would like to purchase a copy of the CD featuring this example of Cook
Island drumming please contact:
Ode Records Co Ltd
Box 37179
Parnell
Auckland
If you would like to purchase a copy of the CD featuring these birdsongs please
contact:
Viking Sevenseas Ltd
23 B Ihakara St
Paraparaumu
In this section you will find a selection of images depicting New Zealand native birds some of which you can listen to by clicking here. There are also some Māori poems and waiata on birdsong.
Apart from the innate beauty of these poems, notice the onomatopoeic nature of them. In other words, they often sound like the birdsongs they are describing. These poems can further inspire you with word rhythms, both Māori and English, and you may wish to make them into songs.
In this section you will find a selection of film clip images. These were removed by Chief Censor and Registrar of Films, Gordon Mirams from movies before they were screened in New Zealand in 1956.
In this section you will find a selection of images depicting New Zealand landscape. Many poets, film makers (think of Lord of the Rings!) and composers find inspiration from our unique and varied landscape. These images may inspire the composer in you, too.
In this section you will find a selection of images depicting the damaged buildings
and devastation caused by the Napier earthquake.
This earthquake struck on Tuesday, February 3rd 1931 registering 7.9 on the
Richter Scale. Over 250 people lost their lives ad the earthquake caused widespread
destruction throughout the Hawke's Bay region, particularly to the townships
of Waipukurau, Waipawa, Wairoa, Hastings and especially Napier.
In this section you will find a selection of images depicting New Zealanders at home and fighting overseas during World War Two. Wilfred Owen, a famous English poet was inspired to express his emotion regarding war :
"My subject is war, and the pity of war.
The poetry is in the pity…
All a poet can do today is warn."
These images depict some of the contrasting scenes and emotions surrounding War. They may inspire your compassion and bring forth a musical response.
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