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Composition: sketching a musical landscape

Using a timeline can help the composer structure a piece of music

Jason Yarde's timeline

HERE’S HOW Jason’s timeline looked.

By sketching it out in this way, the composer could determine how long each section of the piece would last in relation to the others, and how to distribute the input of the various players to get the maximum variety in the time available.

But Jason was thinking about something else by drawing his timeline: the highs and lows of the ‘story’.

Listen to the contrast, for example, between these two passages of Where Will It Take You?, as one transforms into the other.

Open QuoteFor some reason I have become very visual about things … it’s nice to have a visual representation so I can clear up a few ideas in my headClose Quote

Jason Yarde

Jason felt, as many composers do, that there should be periods of strong emotion and intensity, and periods when things cool down; periods in which all the instruments are playing together, and others when there may be only a few quiet sounds, inviting the audience to listen more closely.

Some composers ‘see’ music more ‘visually’ than others – Jason is certainly one of them.

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