Composers: if you wanted to write a theme that portrays avoidance loneliness and isolation how would u do that?

Question

this is for a theme for a character in this song im writing. he is very avoidant, he fears rejection and turns inward he finds solace in the quiet peace of himself. he builds walls around his heart. im looking for ideas as far as key (didn't tchaikovsky associate loneliness with Bb minor?) the melodic shape (uneven perhaps?) and the chord progression (perhaps disjointed?) just looking for some ideas but nothing too general PLEASE. im looking for specifics, detail detail detail. thanks !

Answer 1

As a composer, I can tell you that portraying different emotions is always different from composer to composer. There is no one specific answer, but I'd love to share my method. I would use a solo instrument to carry my main theme, and put lots of turmoil in the instruments around it, physically in the orchestra or band. So, if I wanted to portray loneliness, I would put a sad solo (minor tonality) in the clarinet, for example. Then I would have different things going on around it, such as some undulating runs (pp) in the strings, and some soft fanfare in the brass. The other woodwinds might interject their thoughts onto the solo as the clarinetist plays, indicating that the world is going on around him, but is at the same time kicking him around. Avoidance I would do by shifting the melody from instrument to instrument, section to section, and having a second theme follow it around. I might also have the orchestra play something in unison around it (pp), while the tune travels from soloist to soloist. In terms of key, I would defnitely choose a minor key for such an emotion, but I would probably choose D minor. My composition professor always said "D minor is the saddest key." I have since stuck to that. If you really want to get crazy with this, you can try composing it as an atonal work, which is usually effective at imposing the feeling of isolation on the audience. I LOVE Bb minor, but I usually reserve that for decadent beauty, such as a chanson de nuit or an elegy. It will largely be your choice of instrumental color and how you handle your theme that will determine the character of what you want to do.

Answer 2

Probably write an unaccompanied passage.

This is what Puccini does in Act I of La Boheme, when Mimi tells Rodolfo that she lives alone.



Or you could probably write open fifths, with no thirds. This is how Puccini writes a cold weather scene in Act III of the same opera.



A wide open space can be portrayed by writing in the low bass and the high treble with nothing in between.

This is how Prokoffief portrays the battle scene in Alexander Nevsky.



You can also consider a descending semitone, since it sounds like a groan. I understand that this was an idiom of ancient Greek music.

Answer 3

I wouldn't limit it to a specific key or time signature. With the words avoidance and isolation, I'd probably have something in the second octave above middle C with fairly large leaps between the notes. It would also be fairly slow, structurally and rhythmically simple ... quarters and halves. (I've got "||: Bb Fm :||" going through my head now.)



If it had to have a lyric line sung, that would be a counter-melody well below C (Low tenor or baritone range). Perhaps some retrograde between the two lines though I think I'd want them more independent, possibly no correlation between the two melodies other than key and time signatures.

Answer 4

You might want to investigate the Prelude to Act I of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", and the famous "Tristan chord" for which it is so famous:



The Prelude:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fktwPGCR7Yw&feature=related



The "Tristan chord":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_chord



Alberich