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22nd May - Evaluation

Original objectives

1) Create a 10 track album that conveys the story of Paradise Lost.

This goal appears to be met fairly successfully perhaps to a greater degree than was initially anticipated.

It was initially decided that leitmotivs would not be used as the combination of leitmotiv and characterised instrumentation may result in too much repetition throughout the album. However, a variety of production/compositional methods, including leitmotivs, instrumentation, textures and harmonies were used to represent the variety of components of the story, including, characters, events, environments and forces. Repetitiveness was reduced by using different methods for different components such as leitmotivs for The Son of God and judgement day, and instrumentation for Adam and Eve.

The use of instrumentation was good although the fact there was a lack of consistency in the source for each instrument. For example, almost all the cello parts were played by one cellist, however, there was less consistency in the sourcing of the flute parts. For example, in track 2, the flute is played with a flute sampler instrument, in tracks 3, 8 and 10 it was recorded by the flautist and in track 7 an old folk flute sample was chopped up. Although this provides variation, a lack of consistency with the themes takes away from the cohesiveness of the project.

2) Incorporate at least 5 pre-existing compositions into the album, the subject matter of which relates to the subject matter of the track it is incorporated into

As the project progressed, this objective seemed less relevant for reasons discussed in the 'Dies Irae' journal entry. There were some instances, such as with the Dies Irae, where referencing a religiously and culturally significant theme seemed very appropriate. However, the more trivial references which were originally going to be included, such as to Saint Seans aviary (1886) theme for the presence of birds in track six, were left out as they seemed unnecessary. Despite these omissions, this goal was still exceeded using the following compositions: 

Track 5: Included 8 religiously significant compositions by renaissance composers as discussed in the '14th February' entry. 

Track 6: Included one of the more trivial references which was the opening of Debussy's 'The Sea' (1905), heard in the chords at 3:00. Although this was a trivial reference, it was kept in the album purely because it sounded good.

Track 9: The whole piece is based around the Dies Irae theme as discussed in the '8th April' entry.

3) Develop knowledge of music theory and the compositional techniques used in European piano and orchestral music

Reading Persichetti's book Twentieth Century harmony (1978) led to a greater understanding of intervals, modes and overtones as well as inspiring many experiments in harmony, the products of which found their way into the album.

My dissertation, the topic of which was Debussy's harmony, also lead to many discoveries and experimentations that enhanced the music theory used on this album.

Towards the end of the album, the focus shifted more to developing an understanding of folk and country music by analysing the works of Joni Mitchell and Julie Fowlis. These influences are most clearly manifested towards the end of track 9 and throughout track 10. 

4) In each track, utilise at least one unconventional production/compositional technique that distinguishes the track in the album and possibly in the broader electronic music scene it falls into.

This was mostly successful. Here are the main novel features of each track:

Heavy use of found sound for percussion

Water was synthesised, the melody is entirely pentatonic.

The contrapuntal movement of two melodies in a variety of interesting ways.

Bird song physical modeling, ⅞ time signature, use of whole-tone scale (1:55) use of three modes (Phrygian 0:23-1:55, Dorian 2:08-221, Aeolian 2:21-end) 

Combination of many relevant choral samples

Combining ambience and percussion to create an ancient otherworldly sound (most clear at 3:07)

Using only a short flute phrase and chopping it up, using various delays to change the rhythm of a melody to represent Eve's changing emotional state in her monologue(1:54)

Percussion largely formed from apple crunching recordings (all the percussion in the intro)

Using a short seven-note motiv as the basis for a nine-minute track

There are not any particularly unconventional techniques in this track except for perhaps the lack of progression. Aside from the development that occurs in the first sixteen bars, the track lacks development which is fitting given the extensive grandiosity and thematic development of the preceding track.

Application of Feedback

Following the production showcase sessions, there were two main pieces of feedback which were applied to the compositions.

The first was in track 4 in which it was suggested that the sub-bass melody at the end should not follow the lead melody exactly, which was previously the case. The bass's melody was modified so that it followed the chords instead. This made it simpler which allowed for a greater focus on the appearance of the flute.

The second occurred in track two, in which it was suggested that the dark side of Eve's narcissism should be brought out more. This was done at 2:00-207 by using the ethereal breathy texture used to represent evil at many points throughout the album. This may not appear particularly evil upon one's first listen of the project, however, if the listener is able to associate these sounds with evil from a few full playthroughs then they will notice that it was this 'metaphorically drowning in her own reflection' that led to her fall in track seven, which also contains the ethereal breathing sounds (0:11-1:11, 1:17, 1:31). 

Criticisms of the album

There were several thematically similar events that occurred in the story which were represented very differently in the tracks. For example, Eve is lured into eating the forbidden fruit in track four and in track seven she actually eats it, yet there are no musical similarities between these sections. Similarly track three and track eight are based around Adam and Eve's love/lust and their engagement in conjugal acts, however there are not any musical parallels between these two tracks. Although attempts were made to create parallels between thematically similar tracks, these generally resulted in the tracks sounding unfavourably similar and often distanced them from the aesthetic of the rest of the track. 

Another criticism of the project in its current state is the lack of consistency in the quality. There are many passages which are intricately detailed and mixed to a high standard and there are other passages which are less well developed. This is perhaps an inevitable consequence of creating such an ambitious project in a limited timeframe.

Finally, it's possible that the aesthetic variations within the project are too diverse, particularly the contrast between the very modern sound of track five and the low-fidelity ambience of the following track.

Strengths of the album

This album showcases a variety of styles while generally maintaining a fairly distinct and cohesive aesthetic. In terms of the relevance to the story, a great variety of narrative elements were incorporated in a great variety of ways. Similarly, The depth of the representation of the story gives the album significant replay value. The incorporation of orchestral elements was effective and distinguishes the project from many more synthetic electronic music projects.

Evaluation of collaborations

Initially it was intended that there would be lots of room for interpretation for the musicians to provide their own variations. However, as experience with collaborators progressed and more parts were sent out to be played, more precise articulations and expression markings were added. This was a result of learning that, without sufficient musical direction, one can not expect someone with a very different musical background to interpret a piece of music as requiring the same types of expressions as the oneself. There were a few instances following the first distribution of parts to the musicians in which parts had to be re-recorded as they were not as expected. For example, initially the flautist played a section staccato rather than legato which, did not appear to be in keeping with the musical aesthetic and narrative subject of the track (both of which was disclosed to them). However, the flautist obviously felt that this was appropriate. For this reason, the addition of many articulation and expression markings is beneficial not only for the composer but it also saves the musician the stress of wondering if what they're doing will be rejected. 

Releasing the album

The label has decided that the release will likely commence at the start of August, with the tracks being released bi-weekly as was the case with 'The Dark Deep' EP. However this time, rather than one track being released every two weeks, tracks will be released in pairs in the order they appear on the album. The biweekly approach was effective for the previous EP and releasing the tracks in pairs is appropriate as they all work thematically in pairs. 

The phenomenal album art has been completed to a very high standard, and was the result of great deliberation by myself and the artist. Ultimately it was based on multiple depictions of Adam and Eve, and mystical gardens, particularly those by Cranach the Eldar, Hieronymus Bosch and Edward Hicks. However a pintrest board containing a wide range of images was also created for the album and singles artworks  https://www.pinterest.co.uk/tamsinabbott1/paradise-lost/ . Only three of the singles artworks have been completed so far but the rest will follow before the tracks are released. The tracklist descriptors remain unformatted in the attached PDF as they will only appear on platforms where formatting is unavailable (lyrics on itunes and spotify and descriptions on soundcloud). Finally, The tracks will be mastered by the head of the label: Mat Zo.

Reference List:

Debussy, C. (1905) The Sea. Paris: Durand.

Saint-Saëns, C. (1886) The Carnival of the Animals. Paris: Durand.

Persichetti, V. (1978). Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. London: Faber

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22nd May - Orchestral Montages (Tracks, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9)

At several points in the album, key plot points in the story are pre-empted by orchestral montages using relevant instrumentation. One example of this is in track five, as discussed in the '14th Feb' entry. The son of God is represented by the three chords which occur in multiple relevant instances throughout the album (track 5: 0:52, 6:04, track 9: 5:57), usually played on an organ. The first of these instances represents the creation of the son and is pre-empted by many holy choral samples intertwining in a progressive manner. In track two, Eve, who is conveyed by a flute, is born. This awakening is preempted by a series of rising royalty-free woodwind samples obtained from UK Philharmonia website. The same does not occur in track one when Adam is born, as the creation of Adam is withheld for dramatic effect. Instead, Adam's birth occurs on the sixth day of the creation of the universe in track six (6:49) and is pre-empted by a series of various string samples, also from the UK Philharmonia website. This video provides a demonstration of how these samples were arranged in this instance. https://youtu.be/o7Tu57OBqsI 

Withholding this slow creation scene also aligned the album more closely with the book and other epic poems by starting the story 'in medias res' (in the middle of the action). As a side note, his awakening which follows this montage in track six (6:49) is represented by the same three notes (transposed up five semitones) as are present for his awakening at the start of the album. This model is also applied by pre-empting Eve's fall with woodwind trills in track seven (0:14-1:11), Adam's fall with string trills also in track seven (3:38-3:43), and the first death with a brass montage in track nine (0:00-0:55). This is a useful way to reinforce the use of instrumentation to represent characters/events.

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13th May - Track 2 - Eve's water

In this track (Eve's watery Image) Eve wakes up next to a stream and falls in love with her reflection. Consequently, it was decided that water would play a large role in this track. However, as well as being a physical element in the song, it would also evolve into a metaphor for her vanity. For example, as the song intensifies, and Eve falls more in love with herself, the water changes from sounding like a small stream to a turbulent sea/river and then when she metaphorically falls into the water and her own reflection, the water loses its density and appears to become submerged bubbles. This control over the apparent form of the water was created by the use of physical modelling synthesis. Researching Doel's (2005) article on the physical modelling of liquid informed this process, for example by explaining that all liquid sounds are essentially the combination of many bubbles which are frequency modulated sine waves. The range of the frequency's of these sine waves as well as the range of the frequency of the occurrence of these sine waves determine the form that the liquid appears to take. For example, 1000 bubbles per second creates an "intimate stream" whereas 100,000 bubbles per second creates "heavy rain or waterfalls". This was applied to track two using 3 instances of Serum and a random number generator max patch made previously. https://youtu.be/8JhaC38iwEM 

Many other effects were used to add to the immersiveness, for example, panning, changing of the stereo amount, reverb and frequency shifting

Doel, K. van den. (2005). Physically based models for liquid sounds. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 2(4), 534–546. doi:10.1145/1101530.1101554

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28th April - Collaborations with Session Musicians

The collaboration aspect of this module comes largely from working with session musicians. Initially, it was intended that these musicians would be found on the online freelance service Fiverr however, as the complexity of the project developed, it was decided that a dialogue between myself and the musician, which may not be possible on fiver, would be necessary. A flautist was needed to play one part, however, a cellist was required to play approximately four parts. Bristolian session musicians were prioritised over Fiverr musicians as I intended on recording and exchanging ideas with them in person, however following the Covid-19 lockdown this would not be possible. Instead, musicians were contacted via email and recorded themselves remotely. 

Currently, one flute part and two cello parts have been composed, however translating this MIDI information into sheet music was an unfamiliar task. The process involved; quantising the MIDI (to eighth triplets and sixteenth notes), in order to prevent unintentional messy micro-notation; opening this MIDI file in Sibelius and finally simplifying this notation as much as possible. This simplification was unsatisfactory for the cellist as there were a number of instances where the notation used the high register of the bass clef and marked +8va (up an octave) whereas he requested that they were put in the treble clef. There were other issues the cellist pointed out, for example, multiple small rests rather than a single long rest, all of which were resolved promptly. There were also two instances in which the compositions had to be modified to accommodate the capabilities of the instruments and musicians. In bars 89 of the flute part of Nuptial Bower, a number of the notes were too high to play effectively, and were consequently, lowered an octave. The chorus of the cello part in Nuptial Bower was too fast to play convincingly and consequently many of the 16th notes were removed. Fortunately, neither of these alterations were too problematic and both pieces maintained their character. Both musicians will be paid a single fee however, the cellist also requested that he claim PPL on the tracks he is working on and so a written agreement is in the works to establish that.

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8th April - Track 9 ‘Dies Irae’

The 9th track depicts the visions shown by Michael to Adam, which involves the history of man, from the death of Adam's first son to the combination of heaven and earth on judgement day. Although there are positive elements in this vision, the overarching theme is death and suffering as Michael is explaining to Adam the consequences of his fall to temptation. The Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) is a Latin hymn from the thirteenth century which describes the final judgement and souls being summoned to the throne of God by trumpets ("The mighty trumpet's wondrous tone, shall rend each tomb's sepulchral stone, and summon all before the Throne. (Tournoy, 1974). For this reason, trumpets form almost the entirety of this track. Also, the Dies Irae starts with a sinister 7 note motif that is used in many requiems in the orchestral repertoire, most notable by Liszt, Berlioz and Mozart, but it is also used in many film soundtracks, for example, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Exorcist (Vox, 2019). All of these instances of the Dies Irae associate it with death, or even evil in general, although it was originally about judgment day. In track 9 however, it starts with a single death (the death of Able) and ends with judgment day, making this hymn perfect for the track. Initially, I intended on downloading the MIDI of many of the famous Dies Irae uses and creating a cohesive MIDI collage out of them, however, as my knowledge of music theory developed, I built up the confidence to create a totally original variation of the Dies Irae that didn't draw from the famous uses but instead encompassed my own harmonic pallet. 

Reference List:

Tournoy, G. (1974) Journal of Neo-Latin Studies. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Vox (2019, September 19). Why this creepy melody is in so many movies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-3-bVRYRnSM

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25th March - Track 2 ‘Eve’s Watry Image’

This track introduces Eve who is described as pure, innocent, and beautiful. To convey this harmonically the pentatonic scale was used as it contains only 5 of the 7 notes of the Ionian (major) scale, omitting the dissonant 4th and 7th (Day-O'Connell, 2007) (Persichetti, 1978). The lack of these dissonant intervals creates a purer sonority, however as Persichetti (1978) points out, the lack of harmonic movement that results from pentatonicism in both the melody and harmony is unfavourable for more than brief periods. Consequently, the harmony, played on the electric piano, not only uses the 2 dissonant notes of the heptatonic major scale, but also uses the minor sixth and changes chords frequently to compensate for the simplicity of the melody. 

Eve is also vein and falls in love with her 'watry image' (her reflection in the water). The subject matters of Debussy's piano music covers feminine beauty in the track 'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair' (1910) and frequently evokes water, for example in the track 'Reflections on the Water' (1905). In addition to this, pentatonicism is one of the most significant aspects of Debussy's harmonic practise (Day-O'Connell, 2009) and consequently, his influence was consciously and unconsciously present in this track. The initial version of Eve's theme was an interpolation of the pentatonic descent in 'Arabesque' (Debussy, 1891) and the use of the plagal cadence, which was also a significant part of Debussy's harmonic language (Day-O'Connell, 2009) can be heard at the end of every 4 bars.

Reference List:

Day-O'Connell, J. (2007). Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century. Ney York: University of Rochester Press

Day-O'Connell, J. (2009). Debussy, Pentatonicism, and the Tonal Tradition. Music Theory Spectrum, 31, 225-261. https://doi.org/10.1525/mts.2009.31.2.225 

Debussy, C. (1891). Two Arabesques for the Piano. Paris: Alfred Music Publishing

Debussy, C. (1905). Images: Book I. Paris: Jacques Durand.

Debussy, C. (1910). Preludes: Book I. Paris: Jacques Durand.

Persichetti, V. (1978). Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. London: Faber

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18th March - The Creation of the Universe Revisited

This week was spent developing track 4 (Eve's Dream) and Track 6 (The Creation of Everything), both of which have already been discussed in this diary. 

One of the objectives for this project was to incorporate relevant pre-existing compositions into these tracks and due to the large conceptual scope covered by track 6, there were many opportunities to do this. The text describes the creation of the "Crystallin Ocean" on the third day which lead to the incorporation of Debussy's 'The Sea' as heard here: https://soundcloud.com/user-686980969/la-mer-and-universe-sea/s-CYTkobhK534 

On the 5th day, birds are created but rather than using the same technique of physical modelling to convey birds that was used in tracks 4, the 'Aviary' movement of Saint-Saëns's 'The Carnival of the Animals' (1886) was used as I felt that the ethereal, ancient nature of track 6 lent itself more to metaphorical rather than a literal evocations 

https://soundcloud.com/user-686980969/the-carnival-of-the-animals-aviary-and-universal-birds/s-fs1fI4fzsKm 

Reference List:

Debussy, C. (1905) The Sea. Paris: Durand.

Saint-Saëns, C. (1886) The Carnival of the Animals. Paris: Durand.

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7th March - Bird Song Synthesis in Track 4

Track 4 is based on Eve's dream in which Satan lures her into eating from the tree of knowledge. The obvious approach to this track would be to use Eve's flute or Satan's synth to lead it, however, the two preceding tracks on the album heavily featured Eve's flute, meaning a third consecutive use might be monotonous. Also, the proceeding track is the grand introduction to Satan and therefore, heavily featuring him in this track would reduce the impact of this introduction. In the dream, there is also a "night-warbling Bird, that now awake, Tunes sweetest his love-labor’d song" (Milton, 1667) and consequently, I decided this track would be lead by bird song. To get a greater understanding of how to synthesise bird song, a variety of bird songs (Bird Kind, 2019) were downloaded and analysed using Izotope's insight spectrogram. It quickly became clear that bird song is fundamentally sine-waves, the frequency of which is modulated in a variety of ways. 4 bird songs were recreated and can be heard here https://soundcloud.com/grokebristol/bird-song-synthesis/s-YJWSG and the spectrograms can be compared here https://imgur.com/gallery/OjMFY6V . When analysing all the songs and recreating these 4, the following notes were taken about reoccurring features of some of these songs:

- Lots of frequency modulation

- Many 'notes' of a song start with a brief, upwards or downwards pitch attack

- The intervals between the notes are relatively large, for example, 4ths and 6ths

- Consecutive intervallic leaps tend not to be in the same direction 

- There are often pitch bends after the note has ended

- Often notes are stuttered

- Lots of repeating patterns in the frequency modulation

A melody was then composed using the Phrygian mode, which was chosen because of its sinister sound resulting from the sharp dissonance of the minor 2nd (Persichetti, 1978), and modified with the aforementioned observations in mind. The original and adapted bird song can be heard here. https://soundcloud.com/grokebristol/satans-bird-song-before-and-after/s-9fHlT 

Reference List:

Bird Kind (2019, January 2). The World's Most Beautiful Bird Songs - Part One [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/q15dT8h-ORU 

Milton, J. (1667). Paradise Lost. London: S. Simmons.

Persichetti, V. (1978). Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. London: Faber

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4th March - Track 1 & 3 - Adam

This week was spent developing the melodic lines for two tracks involving Adam (track 1 and 3). These were initially composed for Viola, however, after researching the traits of various string instruments, it was decided that a Cello would be more appropriate to convey Adam's character. Compared to the Viola, the Cello has both a lower and wider range (C2-C6 rather than C3-E6) (Berlioz, 2002), which allows it to fully span the male Tenor, Bariton and Bass ranges and it also has a fuller sound with more body (Black & Gerou, 2005). The lower range would also allow it to better juxtapose Eve's instrumentation of the concert flute, which has a range (C4-C7) (Black & Gerou, 2005). Initially, these parts were intended to be played by musicians on Fiverr, however, being able to easily communicate and exchange ideas with the musicians would be valuable, as they will have a far greater understanding of the capabilities of their instrument than me, therefore, a real flautist and cellist will be contacted to collaborate on this project.

Reference List:

Berlioz, H. (2002). Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: A Translation and Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Black, D. & Gerou T. (2005). Essential Dictionary of Orchestration: The Most Practical and Comprehensive Resource for Composers, Arrangers and Orchestrators. Los Angeles: Alfred Music.

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24th Feb - Track 6 - The Creation of the Universe and Stravinsky

This week, track 6, which is based around the creation of Earth and the universe, as told to Adam by Michael, was developed.

One of the keywords identified in the text this track is based on is 'Ancient'. One possible direction that could have been taken for the creation of this track would be to draw from the earliest notated music, Hurrian Hymn 6 (Dumbrill, 2005). However, although this piece of music uses a slightly different tuning system to contemporary western music, creating a soundtrack to the ancient universe required a greater sense of unfamiliarity. 

Another composer who sought new musical techniques to depict ancient phenomena was Stravinsky, who depicted tribal rituals from the bronze age in his 'Dance of the Adolescents' movement of 'The Rite of Spring' (Stravinsky, 1912) (Greenberg, 1999). Interestingly, the association between 'The Rite of Spring' and the ancient universe was also noticed by Disney, who used this piece, including the aforementioned dance movement, as the soundtrack to the creation of the universe in their 1939 film Fantasia. 

The novelty of the harmony used in this composition proved too extreme to apply to electronic dance music, however, the asymmetrical rhythms that dominate this piece and gave it its excitement inspired some of the techniques used for the composition of track 6. 

During the beginning of this piece, which represents chaos, the seemingly random, asymmetrical accentuation present in Stravinsky's Dance of the Adolescents, is applied to the chord stabs, adding a sense of unfamiliarity and drive. 

Also, during the climax of the piece, the 4/4 drum rhythm is layered with a previously made drum loop that loops every 5 beats and which starts half a beat late, making the kick form this loop appear between the first two 4/4 kicks. The combination of the double kicks, the offset loop and the combination of time signatures distinguishes the rhythm of this piece from contemporary dance tracks and provides the aforementioned desired 'unfamiliar' effect.

Edit:

The original asymmetrical intro was replaced by a chaotic version of Satan’s lead from track five, which gets progressively chaotic as he descends into chaos. This makes the chaos less arbitrary as it is linked to the previous track. This new chaos passage was also removed from the start of track six and added to the end of track five as it is fairly harsh which does not fit the softness of the rest of the track. 

Reference List:

Dumbrill, R. J. (2005). The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East. Indiana: Trafford Publishing.

Greenberg, R. (1998). How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. Retrieved from https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/how-to-listen-to-and-understand-great-music-3rd-edition.html  

Stravinsky, I. (1912) The Rite of Spring. London: Boosey & Hawkes.

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14th Feb - Release Plan, Track 5′s Sacred Montage

After a phone call with the label owners last Friday, the current plan for the release of the EP involves releasing 2 tracks from the album every two weeks starting approximately on the 8th of May. The fortnightly release plan was successful for the previous EP and releasing just before the deadline means that one release can be partially documented while still allowing for as much time to work on the tracks as possible. 

As for the album's production, progress was made on track 5. The start of this track depicts the begetting of the son of god in heaven, as described to Adam by Michael. Rather than composing my own plainchant, as initially intended, I felt my skills and access to resources would lend themselves better to making a montage of pre-existing sacred music compositions. After much research into medieval and renaissance composers, recordings of 8 different compositions by Palestrina, Hildegard von Bingen, Leonin and Perotin, were included in this intro, all of which pertain in some way to praising god, the birth of the Son of God or creation. For example, the composition that forms the Majority of this section is O Quam by hindergard, which is about the creation of man (Campbell, 2014). An organ, combined with a heavily modified piano, a synth and a choir, was added to provide the harmony in this section. 

Reference List:

Campbell, N.M. (2014). O quam mirabilis est. Retrieved February 14 2020, retrieved from http://www.hildegard-society.org/2014/07/o-quam-mirabilis-est-antiphon.html

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7th Feb - Current Progress

Objectives:

1) Create a 10 track album that conveys the story of Paradise Lost.

2) Incorporate at least 5 pre-existing compositions into the album, the subject matter of which relates to the subject matter of the track it is incorporated into

3) Develop knowledge of music theory and the compositional techniques used in European piano and orchestral music

4) In each track, utilise at least one unconventional production/compositional technique that distinguishes the track in the album and possibly in the broader electronic music scene it falls into

Progress: 

According to the production outline detailed in the proposal, the following four tasks should have been completed:

1) Finish reading the book - This has been completed

2) Fully brief collaborators - Several producers I contacted expressed interest in collaborating on this project, however, since the proposal, the extent to which this album depicts details from the story has significantly increased. This means that a collaborator would either have to have an in depth knowledge of the story, which would be very creatively restrictive or their ideas would have to be severely edited in order to fit the story. This, in combination with the lack of royalties and exposure they would receive, as detailed in the proposal, would mean that the collaborators would be unlikely to benefit from the process. Also, the effort required for the briefing and editing, would make it a mutually non-beneficial experience.

3) Work with pianist Hal Sutherland - Since this goal was set, a compositional aesthetic for this album has emerged which is very influenced by medieval music and late-romanticism. Therefore, as a jazz pianist, Hal will not be appropriate for this album.

4) Finished idea creation - Tracks on this album are produced approximately in 3 stages: The first is idea creation, in which the main musical idea of the track is established, the second is idea expansion, in which this basic idea is expanded temporally so that the whole structure of the track is established and finally production, in which the basic outline is transformed into a high quality track. 9/10 tracks have passed idea creation, 5/10 have passed idea expansion and none have passed production.