Nothing but the Night

Composition and Performance of a Musical Monologue

Tobias Fischer 6a

Matura Paper

Kantonsschule Rychenberg

December 5, 2018

Supervisors:

Jürg Rüthi, Andreas Wahlbrink

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 General Overview ............................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Motivation .......................................................................................................................................... 1

2 Novel and Adaption ................................................................................................................................. 1

2.1 Plot Summary .................................................................................................................................... 1

2.2 Adaption .............................................................................................................................................. 2

3 Band............................................................................................................................................................... 2

3.1 Rhythm Section................................................................................................................................. 2

3.2 Horns .................................................................................................................................................... 2

3.3 Singer .................................................................................................................................................... 3

4 Composition ............................................................................................................................................... 3

4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 3

4.2 Style and Influences ........................................................................................................................ 3

4.3 Composition ....................................................................................................................................... 3

4.3.1 Large Pieces ............................................................................................................................... 3

4.3.2 Short Pieces ............................................................................................................................... 6

4.4 Methods ............................................................................................................................................... 7

4.4.1 Example ....................................................................................................................................... 7

5 Performance ............................................................................................................................................ 10

5.1 Rehearsals ....................................................................................................................................... 10

5.2 Venue ................................................................................................................................................. 10

5.3 Concert .............................................................................................................................................. 10

6 Closing Word ........................................................................................................................................... 11

6.1 Reflection ......................................................................................................................................... 11

6.2 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 12

7 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 13

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1 Introduction

1.1 General Overview

As my Matura project, I adapted John Williams’ story “Nothing but the Night” for a jazz band

and a singer. The singer tells the story speaking or singing, from his point of view. Sometimes

the band is accompanying the singer; other times it is just the singer speaking. The work as a

whole consists of six large pieces and six smaller pieces, which serve as background music or

create the right mood for a section.

1.2 Motivation

As a guitar and piano player and as a jazz enthusiast, I have wanted to compose for a jazz

ensemble for quite some time. I have been a part of various jazz ensembles myself and

always enjoyed the music that we played. I saw the Matura project as a great opportunity to

finally compose and arrange for a jazz ensemble, rehearse, and perform the composition in

the end.

2 Novel and Adaption

The story I adapted is taken from the 1948 novel “Nothing but the Night” by the writer John

Williams. I bought the book in February 2018 in a bookstore, without knowing that I would

use it for my Matura project.

2.1 Plot Summary The story is set in San Francisco in the first half of the 20th century. It covers one day in the

life of protagonist Arthur Maxley. In the morning, the hung-over protagonist wakes up to

find a letter from his father, whom he has not been in touch with for a few years and who is

out of town for most of the time. He has dinner with his father that evening. During the

dinner, a young girl, who seems to be in a relationship with Arthur’s father, approaches their

table. Arthur is disappointed and asks his father, how he could see such a girl after all that

happened with his mother. At that point, the reader does not know what Arthur is talking

about. Arthur leaves his father and goes inside a bar, where he meets a girl, Claire, who is

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alone as well. That night, a famous dancer (but Arthur had never heard of her) performs at

the club. During the performance, Arthur falls into a trance-like state and all of a sudden, he

remembers again the terrible thing, which happened in his childhood: his mother shot his

father, who survived, and then herself after a bad argument. After the end of the dance and

Arthur’s trance, he and Claire decide to go to her place. At her place, as they start to get

closer, Arthur has a second mental breakdown. He ends up hitting Claire in the face. One of

her neighbors is woken by the noise and comes inside her apartment to check on her. He

grabs Arthur, drags him outside of the building and beats him up.

2.2 Adaption For my adaption, I omitted some less important parts of the novel. Before finding his father’s

letter, Arthur has breakfast at a small café and takes a walk in the park. At midday, he has

lunch with a friend. Including these events would have made the work too long and since

they do not add much to the plot, I decided to omit them. I also changed the ending. I did

not want to end it on a dramatic note, so I ended it when Arthur and Claire decide to leave

the bar. It is an open ending, which is also confirmed musically.

3 Band

3.1 Rhythm Section

The rhythm section is made up of drums, double bass, and piano. Without horns, this would

be a classic piano jazz trio (there are some pieces in this setting). Drums and bass provide a

rhythmic foundation while the pianist can play chords or melodies.

3.2 Horns Besides the rhythm section, there are four horn players in the band: a trumpet and an alto,

tenor, and baritone saxophone. I chose four horn players for various reasons. One, it is nice

to build four-voice chords with four horns. And two, four is also large enough to give the

sound a big band feeling, rather than a jazz combo sound. Last, it was also a practical

decision; it was easier to find four horn players for my project than it would have been if I

wanted to include more musicians.

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3.3 Singer The singer tells the story from Arthur’s point of view; he portrays Arthur. He sometimes

speaks without any music in the background, other times he sings, while being accompanied

by the band. In some instances, he talks (instead of singing) above the music of the band.

4 Composition

4.1 Overview

The work consists of six large pieces, with the entire band playing and six other short pieces,

which serve as background music while the singer is telling parts of the story, or to create a

feeling for the character’s emotions while he does not speak or sing. These short pieces are

all instrumental and also instrumentated differently, e.g. some are rhythm section only,

others do include single horns.

4.2 Style and Influences

The overall style of the compositions is jazz. I listened to 1940s and 1950s jazz1 to get a

feeling for the music of the time the story is set in. Swing and Bebop were popular during

this time and Latin jazz was coming up. Besides that, I have also listened to more recent jazz

music2. Three of my six large pieces are medium or fast swing pieces, two are ballads, and

one is a Latin jazz piece.

4.3 Composition

4.3.1 Large Pieces

No. 2, Nightmare The story begins with the protagonist having a traumatic nightmare and then waking up. This

piece opens the work after the mood is set by a short overture-like instrumental piece. The

1 Charles Mingus, „Mingus Ah Um“, Columbia, 1959, was an important influence of mine. 2 Gordon Goodwin’s Little Phat Band, „An Elusive Man“, Music of Content, 2016, is also a record that I frequently listened to.

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instrumental beginning piece transitions directly into this piece; there is no break in-

between. For the first half of the composition, it is the goal to make the listener feel

uncomfortable, the way someone feels while having a nightmare. In order to create that

feeling, dissonant harmonies and quickly repeated melodic motifs are used. After the

uneasiness builds up, the piece changes to a medium swing rhythm. Towards the end, it

changes to simpler harmony rhythms, as the protagonist is slowly waking up. The ending

should relieve the listener, the way one is relieved after waking up from a nightmare.

No. 5, Father’s Letter

In the morning of the day that is covered in the book, Arthur receives a letter from his

father1. For the adaption, the words and some of the content have been changed, but the

message stayed the same. In the piece, Arthur recites the letter in his father’s voice. This

composition is a fast swing piece and rather straightforward, like the father’s style of life.

The bottom line of the letter is the father, who has not seen Arthur in three years, asking

him to have dinner with him, so the piece ends on the dominant chord and the singer asking

the line “Will you have dinner with me?”. Ending on the dominant chord leaves the audience

hanging and wondering for Arthur’s response.

No. 9, Claire

After leaving his father at the hotel where Arthur and him had dinner at, Arthur enters a

place where a ball is going on. He gets a table and his eyes lock with those of a stunning

woman, Claire. They instantly feel a bond between them, Claire approaches him, and they

spend the rest of the evening together. This song is a slow jazz ballad, but in the solo section

it goes into double time feeling ad lib. of the bandleader. In this piece, Arthur describes

being with Claire and how they have a good time. This piece should evoke love, carefreeness

and a feeling of intimacy. The piece is in AABA form, which is typical for jazz standards.

1 See “Nothing but the Night”, p. 22, line 9 – p. 23, line 8

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No. 11, Volita

Arthur is sitting at the table with Claire, as the dancer “Volita” comes up on the stage of the

place they are at. She is a Latin American dancer with temperament and she dances

ecstatically. This piece in a Latin jazz style is about that performance. The piece focuses on

the atmosphere and the feeling created by the dancer. The main focus is on the horn section

rather than the singer.

No. 12, Mommy shot Daddy

During Volita’s performance, Arthur drifts off in his thoughts and the traumatic experience,

which has been inside him for many years, comes back up. First, he thinks of his mother

positively, only to remember that it was her who destroyed the family. She shot his father in

the chest and put the gun to her own head afterwards. The piece begins soothingly with the

mother theme while Arthur dwells in nice memories of his mother, but then it modulates to

the parallel minor key and a darker, march like theme is introduced as he remembers the

tragic experience. This part of the piece is the climax of the whole story and the work.

No. 13, Let’s get out of here

This is the final piece of the work. After Volita finishes her performance, Arthur, who is

visibly exhausted but relieved after reliving the trauma, decides to leave the place with

Claire. The story would here go on to another twist, which I cut in my adaption. My adaption

ends with them walking into the night happily but tired. The song is a rather slow medium

swing piece and has a nostalgic feeling to it. It evokes the feeling of tired relief, like when

one finally gets home after a long day. The piece has a slightly open ending, since in the

original version of the story there is another twist. To achieve this, two themes of No. 2,

Nightmare, are reintroduced, but in a different key and the overall ending still sounds rather

happy. I wanted to keep the possibility of the listener thinking that the story could have

another bad twist (as in the original) after Arthur and Claire leave the place.

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4.3.2 Short Pieces

No. 1, Spacy Music (before the Nightmare)

This short piece sets the mood for the nightmare, which follows. It also introduces two of

the main themes to the listener: the father and the mother theme. The audience does not

know yet what the musical themes stand for. Although introduced, they are not fully

revealed.

No. 3, Park

A little happy piece was planned for the part where Arthur takes a walk outside, but it was

later cut. As the band and myself were already used to the numbers of all pieces, I decided

not to change the numbers and to just omit number three.

No. 4, Father’s Theme

Before Arthur goes through his mail in the morning, the tenor saxophone and the rhythm

section play the father theme, in order to foreshadow his father’s return.

No. 6, Tension building Music before the phone call

Right before Arthur calls his father, the full band plays an arpeggiated diminished chord at a

piano (which crescendos into a forte in the last measure). It is then cut off abruptly, which

leaves the listener suspended.

No. 7, Dinner Jazz

The rhythm section plays some quiet music while Arthur tells the listener about the dinner

with his father at his hotel. This little piece is cool1 and has a modal feeling to it, which at

first matches the father’s attitude, but then later on contrasts with it, as the father’s mood

changes. The music continues until Arthur is about to leave the hotel.

1 Cool jazz, jazz style of the 1950s

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No. 8, Leaving the Hotel

As he walks out of the hotel, the rhythm section plays the mother theme in a quiet and

nostalgic way.

No. 10, Latin background

Shortly before the dancer, Volita, is announced at the venue, drums and bass start to play

the chorus of No. 11, Volita, and then the entire band transitions into it.

4.4 Methods

For some of the pieces I came up with the melody first, for others with a chord progression. I

used both piano and guitar to write the pieces on. For example, “Father’s Letter” was

written using piano only, while “Volita” was composed on guitar. After writing the lead

sheets, melody, and chords, I recorded the melody and the rhythm section parts using Logic

Pro X1 on the computer. Then, I filled in the horn parts, which were written either on piano

or directly on the computer. Using computer software was very convenient, as I was able to

listen to the pieces right away, as they were being written and arranged. When the

arrangement was finished in Logic Pro, I wrote it out in sheet music using the online

software Noteflight2.

4.4.1 Example To illustrate the compositional process, I will use the father theme, which is most

prominently heard in No. 4, Father’s Letter.

1 Apple Inc., Logic Pro X, Version 10.4.1., 2018 2 www.noteflight.com

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4.4.1.1 The Theme

Figure 1

I first came up with the melody. I knew that I wanted the piece to be in C minor, so I

improvised in said key until I had some ideas that I liked. I ended up with a melody, very

similar to the one in figure 1 (slight changes were made when harmonizing the melody).

4.4.1.2 Harmonizing the Theme

Figure 2

After I knew what the melody was going to sound like, I harmonized the theme in a basic

way. I only used four different chords: the tonic (i), the supertonic (ii), the subdominant (iv),

and the dominant seven chord (V7). The first four measures are two ii-V7-i progressions,

which is a very common progression in jazz music. Measures 5 and 6 are the tonic and

subdominant, also a very common chord movement. The last two measures are once more a

ii-V-i progression. Harmonically the whole theme makes sense and is quite straightforward.

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4.4.1.3 Adding Extensions and Syncopation

Figure 3

As next step, I added extensions to the basic triadic chords. Extensions are notes other than

the root, third, and fifth and add “color” to the chord. They are omnipresent in jazz. Often in

jazz, the exact chord voicings are not written out, but the player adds them ad libitum. They

are written out for illustration purposes in figure 3.

Syncopating the accompaniment is also important in jazz. In measure three, every note is on

the beat. In measure four, the G7#5 chord is already played on the 2+ instead of beat three,

when it is expected. Syncopation adds change and makes an accompaniment more

interesting.

4.4.1.4 Arranging for the entire band Now that I had a “jazzy” piano part, I could arrange the melody for the band. For the horns I

used the same idea and principles as for the piano accompaniment. The bass player walks a

bass line and the drummer plays standard jazz rhythms, unless something else is indicated

(e.g. hits and rhythms the entire band plays). Sometimes, the horns do not just accompany,

but are featured in horn soli1. Single players also improvise solos in some of the

arrangements.

1 Harmonized melody, played by the entire or just parts of the horn section

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5 Performance

5.1 Rehearsals

I started rehearsing with the band in the end of October. There were some separate

rehearsals with the singer only, so that I could work with him together on some pieces. In

the first rehearsals, I did not play a lot (of piano) myself; I mainly focused on listening and

guiding the band to be sure they played the music the right way. Luckily I was allowed to

rehearse in one of the school’s music classrooms, which was very convenient.

5.2 Venue

For the first performance on November 30, 2018, I chose the music classroom M3 at

Kantonsschule Rychenberg. For the first concert, there were not a great number of people

invited, as there will be a second concert at a larger venue around February. The M3 seemed

convenient for the first performance; we did not have to move a lot of equipment and it

could fit the right amount of people.

5.3 Concert

The performance on November 30, 2018, was only about music, as it was my goal to

compose and rehearse music with the band and the singer. Although a monologue

traditionally includes theatre elements and acting, I had decided to only focus on the music

itself. I wanted the performance to be part of the Matura project, because I wanted to round

up the entire project with a concert and I did not want to only hand in a score. Also, the

performance as part of the project kept me motivated to write music that would also sound

good when played live. I am pleased with the outcome of the concert itself. It was very

rewarding to hear the music being performed for a small audience of mostly friends and

family. There are a few things that I might change for a future performance. For example, I

find the repetitive part in No. 2, Nightmare, too long. I would also change the horn parts in

No. 13, Let’s get out of here, and make it more interesting. Some more rehearsal time would

have also contributed to an even better concert. But given the circumstances, I do think that

the performance went well.

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6 Closing Word

6.1 Reflection

All in all, I am quite happy with the outcome of the project. I had the opportunity to learn a

lot about composing and arranging for this type of band, which was one of my goals. I also

found it interesting to adapt the story of the novel for my band. I was able to learn a lot

about rehearsing a band. I realized how important it is to know exactly what to rehearse

when and to always be focused during rehearsal. I also found it helpful to take notes after a

rehearsal with things I needed to work and focus on the following rehearsal.

There are some things I would do differently now. I would optimize time management; some

things took me longer than I thought they would. It would have been good to have more

rehearsals, but this was not possible due to some compositions that were not finished yet

and the very tight schedules of the members of my band.

I sometimes also had trouble with the online notation tool Noteflight; it is not very efficient

and quite limited in some ways. I probably will not write another project of this size using

Noteflight. With Logic Pro X I am very happy and I did not have any problems with it at all.

As mentioned above, I am pleased with the outcome of the project and I am sure I will do

something similar again in the future.

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6.2 Acknowledgements

A project like this is not possible without a lot of help. Many thanks to the following people,

who were in my band:

Maurice Schnieper (vocals)

Marco Ciampi (trumpet)

Andrea Raguso (alto sax)

Olivia Illi (tenor sax)

Gabriela Libort (bari sax)

Daniel Strebel (bass)

Luca Antonelli (drums)

They spent their free time rehearsing with me and also practiced the music at home, which I

am very grateful for; I could not have asked them for more.

I would also like to thank Jürg Rüthi, my supervisor, who guided me during the entire

process and recommended me some music, which I enjoyed listening to and that helped me

with my project.

I also owe thanks to Kantonsschule Rychenberg for letting me use their facilities for the

rehearsals as well as the performance.

Last but not least, I also want to thank my family and friends, who always encouraged me

and supported me wherever they could.

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7 Bibliography

Levin, Mark, “The Jazz Theory Book”, Petaluma, Sher Music Company, 1995.

Schneider, Enjott, “Komponieren für Film und Fernsehen”, Mainz, Schott, 2005.

Williams, John, “Nothing but the Night”, London, Vintage Classics, 2018.