Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages (it’s never too late to have a happy childhood), please pardon my extended “about two weeks” to get back with a post for our fourth installment for The Chinwag, “Wagatelle.” This is one of those times when I can honestly say work got in the way. And I’m not complaining, it’s good work if you can find it. Oh, and after thinking about it- is it a cryptid or scriptid? Maybe it’s a scryptid. Yes, I like new words…
Our wagatelle is taking on a structure or “a division of the whole into parts” as John Cage liked to say. Our first part is based on the word CHINWAG. Our second part is from the word DEMONIC. And now our third part comes from BLAVATSKY. Blavatsky is a name that Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma would mention from time to time. The name comes from Madame Blavatsky, a Russian and American occult writer and mystic.
The musical spelling for Blavatsky
Here is what the musical cryptogram looks like for the name Blavatsky.
Notes on the first voice, the banjo
When I first played the notes above on the banjo, I liked the way they sounded but tried moving certain notes to different octaves and came up with this positioning that I liked.
Here’s what that line sounds like on the banjo.
I did decide to make the second “E” note in the phrase an Eb. With the “E” being flatted, it makes the step from F to Eb a whole tone and then a half tone from Eb to D. The line ends slightly off-centered.
One of my favorite films when I was a kid was The Wizard of Oz. The music and songs were magic to a younger me, and they still are. When Dorothy and her companions are taken to the witch’s castle, there is music with vocals featuring the witch’s servants, the Winkie Guards, singing, “All we own, we owe her.” What I really like is the rhythm of the musical accompaniment. For the opening statement on the banjo for the word Blavatsky, I decided to borrow from that rhythmic motive. That rhythm of three short notes and one longer one happens on Beethoven’s 5th Symphony as well.
The Blavatsky section could be thought of as two parts with subparts. Part 1 features the banjo and saw, with bagpipe at the end, while part 2 features the tuba and bagpipe.
On part 1 there are four subparts, (A) the opening rhythmic statement, (B) the melodic line, (C) the retrograde and (D) closing punctuation or jabs.
The second voice, the saw sound in the sampler
Next, I tried a couple of ideas with the saw sound in the sampler for the rhythmic opening statement on Blavatsky. Going on some of the stories I’ve read about Madame Blavatsky, I decided to have some unusual moments with the saw being a divine choice for the bizarro. I padded the two Wizard rhythmic motives and wrote a descending/ascending line under the melody.
The third voice, the bagpipe
At the end of part 1 of the Blavatsky music, I decided to bring in the bagpipe for a pad and two punctuations. Here are all three voices at that moment.
Part 2 for Blavatsky
Part 2 of the Blavatsky section breaks down dynamically more than any other time in the wagatelle. I went to the tuba voice for a melodic line that retrogrades from the end of the cryptogram melody for Blavatsky. The original line for Blavatsky is B-E-A-A-A-F-E-D-D. The tuba part starts with D-D-E-F.
The tuba line then takes pitch material from the start of the Blavatsky cryptogram which starts with B-E-A-A-A.
Here’s what the tuba line sounds like. It will be quieter in dynamic.
This part 2 of Blavatsky is six measures, again with a melodic tuba line that has a pulse. I played around with the bagpipe and decided it would be fun to have a part that floated above the tuba, but without much of a pulse. It ends with a chromatic descending then ascending line to a exclamation point ending.
I wanted to do something with the saw sound in the sampler and decided to use a long sustained tone under the tuba and bagpipe. The sampler in my DAW, Digital Performer, allows for creative editing within the sampler, so I created a single instance that stretches for eight bars, long enough to sit under part 2 of Blavatsky.
There’s just one more voice that helps with the buildup or crescendo at the end of this Blavatsky part. In keeping with the bizarro, I used the saw sound in the sampler again and wrote an ascending line ending with the punctuation on the last hit.
Here all of the voices on Blavatsky.
So now our wagatelle has three parts, CHINWAG, DEMONIC and BLAVATSKY. The music is running about a minute long, and I’m thinking it may be done. Have a listen.
I’d like to get away from it for a few weeks, come back for a listen, and then make a decision on whether to add another part or call it a day. If, however, I decide to call it a day, there will still be a mix process for the final to be released. Once I have a final mix, I will send it to Stephen Asma. I don’t have Paul Giamatti’s email. If you happen to know what that is, could you send it my way please?
That’s all for now…
Cheers,
Billy
Billy Kemp 
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