The Making of ‘Tyrrhenian Coast’
– Apr 2, 2023
Nov. 21, 2021 at 21:57 on Sunday : The prototype was played on the sofa.
Dec. 26, 2021 : Finished composing.
Apr 2, 2023 : Published. ⇒ Tyrrhenian Coast – The view from Ravello Blog.
One night, after drinking a little more than usual, I sat on the sofa with my guitar, and was seeing YouTube videos to get inspiration for the next song. Below is what I played while seeing the walkaround video of Corniglia, Italy. It’s a terrible performance because I played it freely as the video showed the sea, narrow alleys, churches, etc. one after another.
It’s too disorganized. Please stop listening at the point you feel sick.
The name of recorded file was ‘The port town Corniglia with a Church’. It was late that night, so I left the song as it was.
— By the way, the sea of Corniglia is the Ligurian sea, not the Tyrrhenian. And maybe Corniglia doesn’t have a port.
When I listened to the song a few days later, I liked the first phrase and decided to make a song using it.
Drunk version – The first phrase played on the sofa
How should it be written in staff notation? It was the rhythm played drunk. Even I didn’t know what I wanted to play. 🙂 And I managed to specify that it might be this.
Triplet in double beat triplet! I’ve never seen such a complex score. So I wrote a simpler rhythm and thought a more relaxed tempo would be good for it.
Relaxing version
I wondered very much which was good. The ‘Drunk’ version was good because it had the feel of the whimsical sea wave. The ‘Relaxing’ version is good for the peaceful spring sea. I liked them both, but I can’t go on composing unless I choose one.
In such a case, I always search the internet for photos that match the sound, as I wrote in ‘Start With Photos‘. But it was not easy this time. I couldn’t find good photos for these phrases by searching “Corniglia” on the free sites. And when I searched “Italy sea”, there were too many photos. For each photo I thought it might be good, I had to play the phrases on my guitar, and check if which phrase matched better. It took a long time.
Finally, I found the photo of Ravello, Italy, shown at the top of this page. The sea in this photo is the Tyrrhenian Sea, not the same sea of Corniglia. But it matched to the ‘Relaxed’ version very well, so I decided to make a song with this. I spend half of the whole composition time for these. But it’s not a problem because it’s my time of pleasure. And now I had the first phrase and the photo to start composing.
This photo made the theme clear. “A relaxed sea of spring. And it’s not ‘maybe’ spring, but ‘truly’ spring”. The first phrase had a relaxed rhythm and a warm sound. It should go well!
Now, the next phrase recorded on the sofa was below.
The original 2nd phrase
It was too ambiguous and not the feeling of spring. But when the 1st phrase and the theme of the song are fixed, it is easier to continue composing. Here, I wanted to express the joy of spring more directly, and the next phrase came out soon without wondering.
The 2nd phrase remade
It had portamento, little trill, swaying rhythm, and they all matched well with the theme. And I had come to love this song. It was very important in the making of this song. Now I could ride my song myself. I continued composing regardless of the first song played on the sofa.
The song was uplifted now, so I calmed it down in the next 3rd phrase. And in the 4th phrase, I expressed more warm and relaxed sea by using the 4th string to repeat the same melody.
Calming 3rd phrase and Warm 4th phrase
And the next, I needed ingenuity a bit. I liked the first phrase much, so wanted to return the song back to the beginning. I tried to change the mood so that the first phrase is heard impressively when the song returns to the beginning. The trigger for the change was the last measure of the 4th phrase.
The trigger for change
The idea worked well, and I could change the mood naturally. It’s not often going smoothly like this.
The 5th and 6th phrases changed the mood.
I think there are some major and minor chords in here. I don’t know much about chords, so I can’t understand them clearly. But I could make this phrase as I wanted, so it’s OK.
The 6th phrase was the repetition of the 5th, but I expressed the ‘melancholy of spring’. I made the first note the same as the last note of the 5th phrase, but changed the bass only A to D. They are marked blue in the score above. And continuing with the pitch, I repeated the same melody 4 degrees higher.
— ‘”Melancholy of Spring” is an emotion which Japanese people have been felt in the middle of spring, because the spring is too “spring”. Is it a common feeling over the world?
These ideas matched well what I wanted to express. Are they well-known technique? I don’t know, but I could get it out naturally, so it’s OK too.
The C# bass, marked green, is not playable on open string. Somehow I felt that I had to use the bass which I don’t usually use, and searched it moving my index finger fret by fret. I was sure that the bass must be this note, so I allowed this measure to be a bit difficult to play.
The last 24th measure had the same melody as the 19th measure, but I increased the number of notes to make the feeling that the song returns to the beginning.
When I continued playing from the beginning, I felt annoying that the 5th and 6th phrases were played twice. So I made the song go to the Coda after the 2nd phrase played.
The following is the coda part. I played the melody in sweet sound on the 2nd string, and finished the song with the first melody I liked.
Coda
It was fun to write the Coda part because I could make the song freely regardless of the next phrase.
It’s almost finished, but when I played all the songs, I started to worry about the details. For example, which is better for the end of the 3rd phrase?
Such a trivial difference doesn’t matter at all. But having the time like this is the luxurious fun of composing. When I stop it is when I feel satisfied.
Throughout the song, this composition went smoothly. And I like this song very much, so when I play it, I enjoy making the strings resonate fully.
The score and my performance of the whole song are below.