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Galen DeGraf
United States
Приєднався 10 вер 2008
A channel to explore creative, practical, and fun music theory.
I am a theorist, composer, organist, drummer based in New York, with a Ph.D in music theory. I believe that animation and virtual orchestration software have extraordinary potential to enhance music pedagogy.
Get more educational content (such as my post-tonal ear training materials) through the Patreon shop and help support my vision to make music theory more inspiring and accessible.
I am a theorist, composer, organist, drummer based in New York, with a Ph.D in music theory. I believe that animation and virtual orchestration software have extraordinary potential to enhance music pedagogy.
Get more educational content (such as my post-tonal ear training materials) through the Patreon shop and help support my vision to make music theory more inspiring and accessible.
The Colonial March (illustrated score)
"The Colonial March" is a whimsical tiny set of variations loosely based on the tune "The Ants Go Marching One by One" with an illustrated score to depict some of the thematic transformations including inversion and augmentation. A stylistic amalgam of Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker) and John Williams (Hedwig's Theme and The Imperial March) composed and designed by Galen DeGraf.
This is a draft, as I want to expand it into a suite for various animals. I'm looking for an orchestra that would commission that suite, and I can tailor the orchestration to fit the specific instrumentation of the group. Music can pair well with Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals and/or child ballet dancers. For professional inquiries, contact info is found on the channel page.
Notation here is an orchestral reduction. Full score with all instruments (unencumbered by insect drawings) is available on Patreon along with other swag for members www.patreon.com/c/GalenDeGraf
The idea of an illustrated score was inspired by Ludi Leonum (a book of lion illustrations by Ad Pirolem drawn over the score of Paul Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis).
This all began with a statement by Marlon Feld: "I prefer to think of imitative counterpoint as a kind of infestation"
#composer #orchestration #musictheory
This is a draft, as I want to expand it into a suite for various animals. I'm looking for an orchestra that would commission that suite, and I can tailor the orchestration to fit the specific instrumentation of the group. Music can pair well with Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals and/or child ballet dancers. For professional inquiries, contact info is found on the channel page.
Notation here is an orchestral reduction. Full score with all instruments (unencumbered by insect drawings) is available on Patreon along with other swag for members www.patreon.com/c/GalenDeGraf
The idea of an illustrated score was inspired by Ludi Leonum (a book of lion illustrations by Ad Pirolem drawn over the score of Paul Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis).
This all began with a statement by Marlon Feld: "I prefer to think of imitative counterpoint as a kind of infestation"
#composer #orchestration #musictheory
Переглядів: 782
Відео
Why you can identify some themes from just two notes
Переглядів 80314 днів тому
What information can you use in identifying a theme when given just two pitches in the melody? I give examples involving pitches, harmony, orchestration, timbre, rhythm, and meter. Help support my vision to make music theory more inspiring and accessible by joining on Patreon. Members can get exclusive content for free through the Patreon shop (plus occasional Easter egg shout-outs like the one...
How to ear train post-tonal trichord set classes
Переглядів 2,9 тис.Місяць тому
A walkthrough of my approach to ear training post-tonal trichord set classes and interval classes This video is intended to follow my introduction to post-tonal theory: ua-cam.com/video/CLb2bM7pdnA/v-deo.html www.patreon.com/c/galendegraf/shop Download the full ear training modules on post-tonal intervals and trichords, with a total of: - two PDF worksheets with answer keys and 61 accompanying ...
Post-tonal theory explained using film music
Переглядів 9 тис.Місяць тому
An introduction to fundamentals of mod-12 circular pitch space and basics of pitch class set theory, using analyses of film scores (Aliens by James Horner, Captain America and Back to the Future by Alan Silvestri, and The Matrix by Don Davis). POST-TONAL EAR TRAINING Watch an overview with sample exercises ua-cam.com/video/x18ZX8h6mMc/v-deo.html Get the ear training modules on intervals and tri...
Transforming a theme, Lord of the Rings style (scalar mapping demonstration)
Переглядів 17 тис.2 місяці тому
A demonstration of how to transform a theme, in which I radically rework the Happy Birthday song in the style of themes from The Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore) and Rings of Power (Bear McCreary), imitating The Stranger, Fellowship, The History of the Rings, Sméagol, Sauron, and Valinor by combining scalar mapping, reharmonization, orchestration, ornamentation, and other techniques. Happy sixt...
Sauron's musical disguises in Rings of Power
Переглядів 89 тис.3 місяці тому
An analysis of Bear McCreary's music to Rings of Power, and how he disguises the theme for Sauron's deceptions as Annatar among elves. Support my vision to make music theory inspiring and accessible by joining the Patreon and get access to extra material free through the Patreon shop. www.patreon.com/GalenDeGraf Check out more of my music analysis videos about the music to Rings of Power (Bear ...
Why some lyrics sound awkward (text setting)
Переглядів 4,8 тис.3 місяці тому
How to set a text to melody, focusing on the ideas of accent in musical text setting, using recordings from Shawn Kirchner/GHOSTLIGHT, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Katy Perry. This video introduces fundamental concepts, but keep in mind that it also simplifies out many nuances and details in order to keep the runtime short. SUPPORT my vision to make music theory that is inspiring and accessible by j...
How to practice transforming themes, scalar mapping
Переглядів 258 тис.4 місяці тому
A set of exercises to practice transforming themes by moving between different underlying scales, combined with some guidelines for harmonization and orchestration. This is the fourth video in a series on transforming themes and scalar mapping. To get the most out of this video, I recommend going through the playlist "How to transform and develop musical ideas" in order the order given. That pl...
Game of Thrones style Happy Birthday (for Ramin Djawadi's 50th birthday)
Переглядів 1,9 тис.5 місяців тому
The Happy Birthday song orchestrated, fragmented, and mapped onto different scales and harmonies in the style of Ramin Djawadi's main theme to the HBO series Game of Thrones. Full score available www.patreon.com/GalenDeGraf This silliness comes from the video "How to transform a theme (fragmentation, scalar mapping)" ua-cam.com/video/lJSS2L9eFFc/v-deo.html which is in turn part of a larger seri...
How to make a musical theme fit any context
Переглядів 85 тис.5 місяців тому
A guide to how musical themes can be transformed to fit other harmonic, metric, and emotional contexts, using examples by Claude Debussy, Béla Bartók. and John Powell's score to How to Train Your Dragon. This is part of a series on transforming themes. DEMONSTRATIONS Scalar mapping of Amazing Grace ua-cam.com/video/Ve-ASqMnT6U/v-deo.html Fragmentation and scalar mapping on Happy Birthday, Game ...
How to add to music by taking away from it
Переглядів 2,7 тис.6 місяців тому
How to add to music by taking away from it
How to transform a theme (fragmentation and scalar mapping demo)
Переглядів 5 тис.7 місяців тому
How to transform a theme (fragmentation and scalar mapping demo)
How to transform a theme (scalar mapping demonstration)
Переглядів 185 тис.7 місяців тому
How to transform a theme (scalar mapping demonstration)
Amazing Grace inverted chromatically
Переглядів 2,8 тис.8 місяців тому
Amazing Grace inverted chromatically
McCreary’s Rings of Power changes how you’ll hear Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings
Переглядів 3,3 тис.8 місяців тому
McCreary’s Rings of Power changes how you’ll hear Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings
Bach, but the voices are all different meters
Переглядів 3,2 тис.9 місяців тому
Bach, but the voices are all different meters
Musical continuity without quotation (Rings of Power, Lord of the Rings)
Переглядів 4,3 тис.9 місяців тому
Musical continuity without quotation (Rings of Power, Lord of the Rings)
Mozart style variations on Happy Birthday
Переглядів 10 тис.11 місяців тому
Mozart style variations on Happy Birthday
How to compose like Arvo Pärt, tintinnabuli style
Переглядів 60 тис.Рік тому
How to compose like Arvo Pärt, tintinnabuli style
Bach im Spiegel: Cello Suite no. 1 in the style of Arvo Pärt
Переглядів 3 тис.Рік тому
Bach im Spiegel: Cello Suite no. 1 in the style of Arvo Pärt
Shostakovich style prelude on Happy Birthday
Переглядів 2,1 тис.Рік тому
Shostakovich style prelude on Happy Birthday
Children’s songs, Imperial March style
Переглядів 3,8 тис.Рік тому
Children’s songs, Imperial March style
Animated chase scene (Tad Jones 3) | Scorelive 2023
Переглядів 83 тис.Рік тому
Animated chase scene (Tad Jones 3) | Scorelive 2023
Sounds and looks amazing!
Great composition, how was the playback? NotePerformer (NPPE?)
I composed it in Dorico with Noteperformer but the audio here is Cubase with OT Berlin series VSTs. Could have been a lot more real, but there were so many notes I just did some copy and pasting and not much fine tuning.
Fantastic stuff. How are you doing the scrolling score?
Was thinking about making a tutorial video soon on that, but short answer is I just export the score as single png and set a couple keyframes to match the audio. (For this video the score took a detour through photoshop to add illustrations though!)
yt43
Another masterpiece!
mozart had mad swag
Debuts | dəbysi | 😮
👍
The rings of power - each character having a unique sequence, that is amazing. I hadn't caught that. Great stuff.
You can see from my ring of post-its that it isn’t an exact system with one theme per interval (and there are many themes omitted fron the board), but overall it was definitely a conscious decision. (Bear McCreary mentions this in his blog.)
Always great insights in your videos. And your visual presentation highlights the point you're trying to make. One of my favorite channels rn.
Very good video!! Nicely done! And thank you for not using AI. :)
I did that investigation board by hand in a massive photoshop file with no AI or pre-made templates. Started to feel a bit like a crazy person as I was doing it... But then I realized that I shouldn't just feel like a crazy person, because I actually am a crazy person in my own way. Anyway, almost all of my videos have Easter eggs in them somewhere, and for this one, it is a big thanks to the crew over on Patreon. Thank you, patrons!
This channel is pure gold, thanks man
As a fellow crazy person I massively respect it
When you talk about chunking intervals, are you talking about the interval position or are you talking about the semitone interval? So for example, if I’m understanding correctly, if I want to map a Dorian scale onto the chromatic scale, I calculate the scale degrees. So if it was a root of C and it went to D it would be plus 1 in Dorian, but if it is mapped to chromatic, that plus 1 would get converted to D# since it is the new second scale degree? I hope that makes sense, it’s the only part I feel I am not understanding and it feels like a fascinating and useful concept.
C-D in dorian is one scale step. Mapped to a chromatic scale would become one step within a chromatic scale, which conveniently is always a semitone. You can pick any starting pitch for the new mapping. Starting on C again would become C-C#, but you could start on D and then the mapping would be D-D#.
@ amazing, thank you so much, I will it try to reharmonize some of my compositions. I have never heard of most of the stuff in your videos and I would consider myself pretty advanced. Amazing stuff! 👍👍👍
Very nice! thank you!
COOL! 😊
Although I don’t dispute the usefulness of pitch class analysis for demonstrating i.e. that {0,2,7} is the prevalent pitch class in the BttF cue, I can’t help feeling like that particular cue is best understood in a modal context as G mixolydian. The D-G figure in the low horn near the start of the excerpt centres the music on a modal centre of G, and the melodic figure FEDCD sounds to me very much like b7 6 5 4 5, which an idiomatic figure for the mixolydian mode. Further, the association between the mixolydian mode and drone music (because b7 occurs as a harmonic of the modal centre) and because the pitches GCD do not change, I’m inclined to hear this as a sus chord functioning as a “thickened” drone. As someone whose training and practical expertise as a performer involves a lot of plainchant accompaniment, I think the wealth of mode-specific figurations and harmonic devices has a lot to offer in this particular instance. As the suspended chord does not move through multiple different pitches, a unifying pitch class here seems superfluous. The whole point of pitch class analysis is to elucidate underlying coherence in post-tonal contexts where h that coherence is not obvious to the ear or to the eye. If anything, modal contexts aren’t post-tonal but pre-tonal.
I agree that post-tonal theory is not how I would generally analyze that BttF passage. Instead, my aim with that part was to point out that a) post-tonal theory can be applied to tonal music (if you want to) and b) doing so provides different information than a tonal analysis would provide. I definitely didn’t mean to imply that BttF should only be analyzed using a post-tonal perspective!
Been looking for this scalar mapping term for a long time.
You don’t even need to “learn” piano…you just PLAY! You should be able to play anything on any scale. So…play the song in the normal key, then just….CHANGE it. Just have to fully understand that it’s all the same song over and over”here” instead on “there” because it has a sad or happy feeling. You don’t need to know the differences or the theory. You just move around to get the sound you want. Eventually, you just do it without thinkin about what you doing. And not even knowing the technicals.
Do you people know that if you just forget about all this and just sit down on the keys and play Sim play just play and explore the feelings in the sound you get when you put your hands in certain positions and things like that. Did anybody ever have to teach you to whistle in tune no right it’s the same thing but with your hands just sit down and play. Forget about all of these things you will just do them without realizing it. It’s like when you learn to speak English you didn’t go to English classes Probably?
I think my whistling has a very limited range even though I’ve been whistling for a couple decades, and there are also several types of whistling I’ve never been able to figure out. Would always appreciate some tips on how to increase my whistling range and techniques. I don’t quite follow the last point because (in the US at least) students still do take English classes in school, and those classes improve reading levels and literacy.
Just discovered your channel. Gosh this is utter perfection - your music mastery, teaching style, soundtrack samples and the effort for those cool animated presentations. YT should double pay you! Thanks so much!
I really liked the octatonic example. . . Severence is a "delightfully unsettling" world, and this would fit right in! Great idea.
All i can say is your a very clever man to be able to transpose that song into so many different modes😊😊😊😊😊
at 5:01 gives “mary had a little lamb” a new meaning
Scaling back. Very pungent! 😂
Your videos on this encourage me to try getting through Forte again after almost 40 years. Though my interest in these theories is more practical for composing in similar manner as your examples. Fwiw, though I was good at math, geometry, and algebra, set theory stayed beyond me.
BTW are there better resources than Forte? His writing is so thick as to be almost unlearnable without a class/teacher.
@@ThomasLock-n2r In my opinion, Forte's text is historically important and good in combination with other resources, but ultimately not the best starting point. I love what I used: an unpublished textbook Joseph Dubiel wrote for students of his class. Among books publicly available, I recommend any edition of Straus's Introduction to Post-tonal Theory. (No pressure, but if you did decide to buy that text, this affiliate link supports the channel amzn.to/41erRCJ )
This is excellent. Been trying to find ways into that "cinematic" sound and this is super helpful. Thank you!
Muito bom. Obrigado por compartilhar seu conhecimento.
A perfect example of years of study and still feeling like you know nothing
the funniest scene in the film in my opinion 😂
Noice!... Great video!
Super coincidental that this was pushed to my phone while im also playing keys and percussion simultaneously 🤯 Maschine x seaboard2
This was such a helpful introduction to a topic that made my head spin every time I tried to read about it. Thank you for this video!
Can you make a whole music chord whit a bit of Eroic and mystery sound and. Happy Thanksgiving 🦃
Link me some reference music and I’ll see what I can do!
May I ask what VST’s you used for producing the choir voices?
Tallinn by Orchestral Tools
A very great explanation, clear and effective. Well done!
I don't understand the last example; shouldn't it be 028?
(Graduate-level music theory warning.) The numbers for a set class take the most compact option out of both a set and its inversion. The notes {C#, F, G} would be (046) without including the inversion (theorists call this a Tn-type since it only involves transposition). If you also include the inversion, then (026) is slightly more compact by considering the first two digits. So the set class label is [026].
4:53 if you applied the 2x playback, you'll get a Pokemon Background music
Isn’t this called set theory? EDIT: never mind should have waited till the end to comment. lol. SMH. Great explanation!
This looks very interesting, as I'm new to set theory in music. How did you study it?
Intro to pc set theory was a course I took en route to my Ph.D in music theory.
@@GalenDeGraf wow, okay! I had to search on Google the meaning of "Ph. D" since I'm a French 😂
Amazingly well produced video and great pedagogy, love the sequence and choice of the examples too ❤
Just earned a sub
일본 세끼 바보인가
일본 세끼 바보가
Why don’t more people see this short? This is honestly the best Atonal theory training I have seen. Unfortunately, I am not the one who needs the training, as I already did my time at university. If only the algorithm understood what you have created
Make one whit Eroic type sounds
Really loving these videos! I know it’s a niche topic and not as viewed as LOTR but so glad they exist
Glad to hear it! I generally don’t like how people use shorts to rush and oversimplify content, but it is interesting to experiment with the idea of a looping content format. (Two more of these scheduled to release soon to the channel! And they’re easy to make if people want more after that…)
Thank you very much. I learn a lot from your videos @@GalenDeGraf