7. Reflection

“In this process, three creative figures (the composer, the arranger, and the performer) were combined in one person, the present author of this text. It led, I feel, to a much more gradual, exploratory, and creative approach than what is observed in a traditional compositional process.”

(Borem, 2020, p.3.)

Though I worked with three different research questions in this project, this separation of subject is a somewhat artificial one. As Borem reflects, the fact that I in one person incorporates many different roles, affects the process and consequently the results. In this chapter, I will try to relate my findings in regards to each of my research questions, but the findings will fuse into each other on many occasions.

7.1. Reflecting on the compositional process

- How may chamber music influence my popular music compositions?

As discussed in chapter 1.1., I had previously been afraid of genre mixes, and tried to limit them. After this project, I rather feel the opposite: the results have tingled my interest, my signature is more unapologetic and true to my expression, and if anything, I want to continue composing this way, exploring it further. 

This is in alignment with Borgforff, Peter and Pinch´s view on practice based methods, when they stress that the cognition is embodied through the material practices.

(Borgdorff, H., Peters, P. & T. Pinch, 2020, p. 4)

In acknowledging my compositional processes, and the results generated by them, cognition has been formed in regards to both my practice and my artefacts. As a result, in the future I will most likely experiment with more complex harmonic content, inspired by classical music, and explore structural formats of songs to an even greater extent. 

Procedures inspired by chamber music have allowed a continuation in my musical expression. In this case, blurry lines between my first two research questions become apparent. 

For example, while the composition phase of Stop motion was largely without references to classical music, the result was not satisfactory until I arranged the song for a classical string quartet, as shown in chapter 5. 

In which extent am I to consider this as composing, and to which extent arranging? Like in Borem’s initial quote of this chapter, my process became more experimental because of the many artistic roles I had. This made the process more difficult to divide than I initially thought. 

The processes became further intermingled because of my relationship to the songs.  When a song, like Stop Motion, was intended for my own project, rather than being a song I composed for someone else, I found that I only became happy after having tied it to chamber music. The form ofthe song was now more than just an arrangement, it was part of the fundamental essence of the song. 

Morten Büchert relays how his approach to music changed when he was not “just” the producer in his research, but also the composer, performer and artist. The songs now represented “him” to a larger extent. (Büchert, 2024) 

Another aspect this discussion highlights is how my intertwinement with the material might have made it difficult to ensure distance. As Vassenden calls for more critical reflection from artist-researchers in Norway, I might have been well off creating more distance between me and my subject. (Vassenden, 2013).

Another example of when composing and arranging became entangled was when I composed Acolyte. Already as I composed the verses of the song, I knew that I wanted a string quartet to play something inspired by Lutoslawski. The harmonies I chose, and the harmonic pulse, were chosen with the string parts and arrangement in mind.

The process of setting my practice into a larger context, as part of the artistic research methodology, (Hannula et al, 2014) has been rewarding and will affect my future work. As I have investigated other bands and artists that have fused classical music with popular music, I have discovered that some of my favourite bands have been unrepentantly quoting classical music for years. Just as Büchert sometimes recognises a newform of music when two existing ones meet, (Büchert, 2024) I have acknowledged this as an inspiration.

Discovering similar practices that are not compatible with how I want to place my music, has been a discovery equally advantageous. It has helped me become clearer of my own artistic preferences. Through this research, I recognised several differences to how I wish to compose music compared to other artists. While I recognise the beauty of their work, they are quite minimalistic, introspective, often with low BPM:s, and often more acoustically based than my artistic vision for this project. 

There is also a tradition of combining rock with strings, and sometimes whole orchestras, often under the genre name of “symphonic rock” or “symphonic metal” or other variations (examples could be Rammstein, Nightwish etc). I don’t feel a particular kinship between this music and what I intend to do. Upon reflecting on my process, I argue that classical music and chamber music is a more integral part of the process of both creating and shaping my music than what I experience in this music. 

I have also found practices of classical composers that I wish to continue exploring. As I wrote in chapter 3.2. about chamber music, the romantic lied has been an inspiration to my songwriting. In almost all of my songs, I have tried to keep a correlation between lyrics and music. In some of them I have gone even further, and made actual gestures and figures in the music depicting items in the lyrics, just as Schubert did in the example Gretchen am Spinnrade and many other lieds. I hope that some of this imagery is conveyed to the listeners of my music, but regardless if it is, working in this way has been a useful compositional process for me. It has ensured a continuum between myself as a writer of lyrics and music. I have taken to heart the romantic ideals of allowing myself to pour a range of emotions into music. “Music is also a complex auditory signal with the capacity to communicate emotion rapidly and effectively.” (Bhatara et al, 2014). I hope this rings true for those listening to my songs.

7.2 Reflecting on my sound signature

- How can I use the extended chamber ensemble to form a sound signature?

“In all its permutations, music production is - at its essence - an art form, whose goal is to produce a unique sonic artefact that captures the vision of its creators, the imaginations of its audience, and that will serve the needs of its stakeholders.”

(Burgess, 2014, p.179) 

The extended chamber ensemble turned out to be at the centre of my musical identity. Throughout this project, I have explored how to arrange for diverse instruments and musicians, and I have seen how I can intertwine them with electronically created sounds and samples. I have also researched how the processing of these sound sources affect my sound, and if this sound can become a signature of my own. 

As I wrote in the initial chapter, I don’t consider the product of this research (the songs) as mature for publication on streaming sites yet. The demos presented in this thesis have nevertheless succeeded in being a demonstration to myself that I can create a sonic signature that reflects my expressive preferences. 

“The act of crafting new music—this delicate interplay of creativity, technology, and human connection—has demanded an acute awareness of my own internal emotional landscape. Each choice I make, from the most minute tweak in sound design to the overarching direction of a piece, is informed not just by technical prowess, but by an intuitive, emotionally charged understanding of what each moment in the music calls for.” (Büchert, 2024)

The artistic process described in this thesis has indeed been a challenging one at times. Just as Büchert, I have had to monitor my own emotional response to each artistic and technical choice. Unlike Büchert though, I have not got big “technical prowess” in the field of music production. As I have not been able to lean on years of expertise in this field, my process has had to have been an exploratory and curious one, trying - for me - new approaches with each processing of a recording. 

Buchert writes about how he shapes his process by “initiating actions that demand a new type of response”. (Büchert, 2024). In my case, I have seen how the recording and processing choices I have made - my “initiated actions” - have led me down different paths than I expected. As we saw in the method chapter, artistic research methodology needs to be open ended (Hannula et al, 2014, p. 3-5), and I have experienced it as a strength that the method could be emergent and personally tailored. (Barrett, 2007) 

As an example, I envisioned the song Silence speaks to be deep, rich and full-bodied as I wrote it. My initial thoughts concerning arrangements were inspired by the piano trio ensemble (piano, violin and cello) I used while composing the song. However, as a novel action, I decided to play around with the clarinet as a first step, and this produced ripple effects. As I processed the clarinet tracks, the song took on a very different atmosphere to my imagination, and my references to it changed. The process was allowed to be open ended, and It turned out to become the most sonically “open” song of all the songs in this thesis - contrary to my expectations. 

I was afraid that the diverse genre references and instrumentations of my songs would make it difficult to collect them in one continuous sonic landscape. However, here the extended chamber ensemble was of help binding the songs together. Some elements I found to be acting unifying, were these: 

- The combination of a classical way of playing by classical musicians, together with the playing of the rhythmically trained band members.

- The classically inspired arrangements together with the input from the popular music rhythmic section and electronic instruments by me and other producers.

- The electronic processing of recorded material.

The audio processing was especially effective in meshing the acoustic classical instruments into a common universe with the other sections. I have been used to hearing drums, bass and other band instruments with heavy audio processing, but I myself have not heard a string quartet being treated in the same way in a song before. 

I also moved away from mixing in the way you might commonly mix a classical ensemble. For example, it would be unnatural to place instruments in a string quartet in different sonic rooms, as I did in Love your lover. These are techniques which I will point to as part of my signature, and that I will continue to explore past this project. 

Another finding is that although I might use samples in certain instances, it is imperative to have recordings by real musicians whenever I can. There are enough examples of why throughout this thesis, from the difference between my electronically programmed drums in comparison to a good drummer playing an actual kit in Ease and flow, to the striking contrast between string samples in Love your lover and my real string quartet playing the same passage. 

I did however find some places where I could use samples: For example, the woodwinds in Love your lover, and the added string samples behind the recorded ones in the chorus of the same song (see chapter 5).The reasoning was such: the winds do not play big parts in the song, and can be placed in the background. The mass of strings samples in the chorus could be hidden behind the recorded ones and the rest of the arrangement, which is quite thick at this point. 

I would like to point out that these are still compromises, made mainly out of convenience. I would have preferred recordings of musicians playing the parts, but it would have to be a big job to organise studio sessions for such small parts in the background. 

The different way to think about music that happened when I worked in my DAW was also an important factor to the sound I evolved. Bell writes in his doctoral dissertation Oblivious trailblazers: Case studies of the role of recording technology in the music-making processes of amatuer home studio users about one of the case studies:

“Tara is classically trained, she can compose and read an orchestral score, but this song would be exceedingly difficult to realise using Sibelius, a score-writing program……. The issue is not music literacy; it is music translation. DAW:s provide a solution to the problem because they produce sound, doing away with the intermediary (the printed score) and the need for an interpreter

(Bell, 2013, p. 143-144)

In a DAW, it was possible for me to create and morph sounds in a way that I couldn’t achieve working only with acoustic musicians. 

Playing live, I also learned a lot about my sound by engaging in this research. First of all, I found that I didn’t appreciate playing this music with pre-recorded tracks, and preferred playing with a large ensemble. When using background tracks in the live performances, the overall sound out to the audience was good. I, on the other hand, felt a sense of inauthenticity, as though I was “pretending” to perform. I also missed flexibility in tempo in the slower songs, as everything had to be played with a click track to match the tracks. I felt that by playing with tracks, I moved away from musicking and towards a treatment of the material as an object. (Small, 1998). There was less space for the relationships between performers, but also between the audience, as the music couldn’t “breathe” with the atmosphere of the room. This experience made me sure that I prefer to perform my music without pre-recorded tracks as often as possible.

The master concert was the first experimental space for the new live ensemble, and I was happy with the choice of instrumentation. However, I found that for the continuation of this project, it is important to have good time for pre-production with a sound technician in advance of live concerts. I do wish for more effects and processing, and specific processing for each song. With such a large and complex ensemble, and such diverse songs, a large part of the realisation of my live expression lies with the sound technician. To have the possibility to achieve my vision, a longer period of time will be needed.

In regards to myself, I wish to have more control of my vocal effects. Some parts of songs that I think work well on the recordings, for example, the high notes in the chorus of “Brightly coloured pieces”, lost their punch live without heavy saturation and overdrive. 

In the summer tour of 2023 I partly processed my vocals myself, and had automated certain effects to a midi keyboard and a foot switch. This worked better in regards to what I mentioned above, but it also meant I had one more thing to do, which left me less surplus, affecting my interaction with the audience. This is another example of where a long pre-production with a sound technician might be a solution to a problem.

7.3. Reflecting on the musical collaboration

How can I successfully collaborate with musicians from both classical and popular traditions? 

Music is often said to be a universal language. That being said, we certainly approach it differently depending on our background. In my master project, I have had to move between different traditions, and to navigate between different approaches on how to play and perform together.

One important aspect to balance between was to find my place on an democratic/authoritarian axis. 

Many classical musicians are used to having a clear hierarchy. In an orchestra, taking private initiative and cultivating a unique expression is not necessarily rewarded. Instead, paramount is to develop a high level of craftsmanship, perfecting the instrumental technique and musical idiom of the period, but also to hone your sound to your fellow group and to follow directions and cues from the conductor. 

“Classical music as a musical tradition focusing on notions of excellence lays prodigious value on the maintaining of a standardised framework by which high or low quality can be measured. Wrong notes, ‘bad’ style and unfaithful interpretations are therefore all foundational to classical music’s self-understanding and the subject of meticulous discussion, justification and correction. ”

(Farnsworth, 2024, p. 47)

This differs greatly from the depiction of Schubert´s familiy string quartet in chapter 3.2, Music-making at homes and in intimate settings. It seems to me that this informal chamber music setting  is lacking in the modern classical trained musicians. Perhaps musicking should be mandatory at every classical conservatory? 

While you have a greater possibility to make musical choices when playing solo- and chamber music, you still have to consider the tradition of the piece and the idiom of the period it is from. In a way, you could say that you have a standard for execution, within which you can emphasise your own certain turns of phrase or colour choices, while still remaining within a defined set of parameters. These parameters range from directions from the composer within the score, to traditions regarding instrumental tone, tempo choices, embellishments etc. 

On the opposite end of the axis, many bands compose songs together and experiment together to find their “sound” (Dybo, 2013). While you might still follow expectations regarding a tradition (for example if you label yourself as a rock band you expect a certain drive in the rhythmic section etc), novel and new expressions are often rewarded and actively sought after (see the discussion on “signature sound” in chapters 1, 2 and 3). This can be done by:

-A group effort, where members of a band collaborate together. They shape their playing and sound of their band members. 

-Solo acts

-A band with a clearly defined leader or front figure, deciding the direction of the sound. The degree of leadership and autocracy might differ greatly between each such case. 

In general, I’ve experienced that people with a rhythmic background are more comfortable with getting general instructions. For example, working with a drummer, my directions might be: “play a groove with the snare drum on the second off-beat, and make it all feel laid back and slightly odd”, give feedback on what I want to keep or change in the attempt he made, until we find the expression I aim for. In this case this is definitely a joint effort, where the drummer is a co-creator. I gave some directions, the drummer tried out different things, but in the end I held the executive power to decide which version was the best fit for the song.

With the classical musicians involved in the project, many times they seemed to respond better the more information I wrote in the sheet music, and the more I took command. They dared more the more detailed instruction I gave. In the cases where I hadn’t written much information, I noticed that they rather refrained from playing, or tried to retract into the background. Haaland seems to have similar experiences working with classical string players, as he writes “Writing for strings is an exact science: The musicians will only play what is written on the sheet notes”. (Haaland, 2020) While my band musicians took command and came with suggestions if I left things open, the classical musicians seemed to have a reversed liberation process: becoming freer and taking more space the more closely I reined them.

Both live and in the studio, I faced interesting other challenges when assembling rhythmical and classical musicians in the same song. 

In both scenarios, different traditions operate with different notions of time. While rhythmical musicians generally try to adhere to a metronome or clock and use other means in order to achieve changes in intensity, classical musicians use the rhythmic pulse much more freely as a means of expression, often called “rubato”. Part of the classical music education is to learn the period-typical ways to bend or flex the rhythmic pulse. It is not done at random, but is a tradition where the musicians “feel” each other's impulses and try to act as one unit, and certain harmonical structures demand certain impulses regarding phrasing. In some cases there are directions in the sheet music, but in many cases, there are not. 

In my recordings, although they were done with a metronome as a reference to all musicians, I found that the difference between traditions still became apparent. Büchert describes how he recorded the same song in two different places and musical cultures as a part of his artistic research. While each of the recorded groups worked well within their own internal reference system, he had trouble combining the two recordings to one. (Büchert, 2024)

I faced similar difficulties. Just as Büchert had to do, in certain songs I had to quantiseand stretch every single track manually to meet the metronome in a similar way. It was a slow and tedious process, but now, months later, those boring evenings are forgotten and I am happy that I took the time to do it, and some of the songs work well together. Other songs I will have to revise: either record again with more time to prepare and practice, or edit more closely, or possibly change my arrangements. Further exploration is needed.

All these experiences can be viewed in the light of Gadamer’s hermeneutic circle. The text of the music was the same, everyone was playing the same songs, but the con-text we brought to them was different depending on our respective backgrounds. This was also apparent when playing live, maybe even more so, because I obviously couldn’t post-edit the music in this case.

In the slower songs of my master’s concert, I would ideally have wanted to keep some of the flexibility in time that classical musicians have. However, it was challenging to achieve. 

The first difficulty was the limited amount of time to practise, especially together. As we were such a large band, and the amount of time I could demand was limited, I had to structure and limit the rehearsals accordingly. We actually didn’t have a single rehearsal with every single band member present until the concert itself - not ideal. 

Since my band members don’t have the reference system of classical music phrasing, I couldn’t expect them to catch it from the classical musicians without more rehearsal opportunities. I am also uncertain of how much devotion is needed for band musicians to absorb these classical musical idioms: classical musicians devote many years to learning them. Operating within the limitations of this project, working with many different musicians and in short supply of time, I did not venture into it. It is however a subject I would like to explore further.

Likewise challenges arose working within a popular music framework with classical musicians. In his book Representasjonsformer i jazz- og populærmusikkanalyse, Dybo writes how sound and grooves both are important factors to popular music, and that conventional notation isn’t enough to cover these dimensions. (Dybo, 2013, p.11) It was sometimes interesting how small the difference was when I felt the string quartet “grooved” to when it didn’t, sometimes it was the matter of a millisecond longer with the bow on the string. Working with musicians who relied heavily on notation and not being able to communicate this feeling through sheet music, was a challenge.

Ideally, moving forward, I would surround myself with a set band for concerts in the future, who wish to explore these diverse musical expressions and challenge their own assumptions of music. As I discussed that both of these traditions had tacit knowledge of “rules” to their music, and these rules, according to Dybo, cannot simply be notated, I propose that more time to work together, to musick together,is needed to find common ground. If this is possible for me to achieve in regards to practical issues, is outside of this master thesis, but I do wish to try. 

Another problem that arose playing live was the difficulty in balancing different instruments. Strings are soft compared to a drum set, and in many of the songs I wanted the strings to punch through and be the “body” of a song. That meant they had to be considerably amplified on stage. This posed a problem, as on stage, especially a small one, we faced the problem of “bleeding” into the string microphones from other instruments. If we gained the input on these microphones too much, we would easily have gotten feedback problems, to the extreme unpleasantness of musicians and audience alike. Special attention had to be made in the stage plot, and throughout the performance, my excellent drummer held slightly back so as to not drown the strings. 

For the future, I would ideally find some better solutions to this problem as well. Either through processing of the strings, or by trying an electric string quartet. If I want to play with acoustic strings and a large ensemble again, I also have to do it on a rather big stage.

One scope of the project, which I hoped the artistic method would help me realise, was to see if I could introduce a sense of intimacy from chamber music into my music. I think the string quartet in the concerts worked very well to convey this. The opening of Love your lover was one of the most fragile, intimate moments in the concert to me, and I also loved how the whole chamber ensemble introduced a sense of risk into the concert.  

I also wished to use a classical ensemble in a way I normally associate with a guitar or an indie-band, playing in informal venues. I found that the extended chamber ensemble worked well in this context, that it was satisfying to bring classical musicians into a more popular context (again drawing on both musicking and hermeneutics). Although the ensemble I used for my master’s concert is large, as long as the stage is big enough, I can envision playing this music in a wide variety of locations. Even in smaller venues, a stripped-down version of the ensemble and the songs could work. In a continued process, I would also want to explore possibilities of inviting all the musicians to take more space on the stage, interact more with the audience etc.