A storm of fire erupts setting the area ablaze, as a platoon of warriors charges onto the battlefield. A conductor waves the baton cueing the orchestra for a triumphant finale. These are events that are mapped out from hours of preparation, but the only change is the hat being worn. Music has been a part of my life since I was a child, but when it comes to composition, it is only in recent years that I’ve made it my main musical outlet. Four years ago was the start of something that has become integral in my life. That statement is true for two creative works, composing music and Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). The two came into my life around the same time, but it took a while to realize that they are not so different from each other. The process in which I compose work and create a scene in a campaign is almost indistinguishable.
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game where players verbalize their actions and roll dice to see if they’re successful. In other words, a group of friends sit and traverse an imaginary world with the characters they created. The one in charge of setting the story and crafting the world is the Dungeon Master. That’s the role I chose to take early on when introduced into this game. To boil it down the DM, or dungeon master needs to create the world, a country, a city, and the people. Of course, there are many more details to each one of those, but that is the macro view on world-building.
As I gained more knowledge and this new game became integrated into my everyday life, I realized, it is the same thing as writing a new piece of music. The piece itself is the world, sections became countries, phrases formed cities, and every individual note was a person. With this newfound discovery, my compositions turned from what emotion (if any) was I trying to convey to what story I am trying to tell. What world do I want to transport my audience to? This evolved in both my compositional writing and storytelling in D&D. The long forms and phrases in the music were just journeys to travel. Where the actions taken by characters led to the transformation of events.
When I think of music, I see it as a reflection of life. Be it a moment in a coffee shop, or some deep philosophical view on what it means to live. To map out and try to convey that into an abstract form like music can take any shape. These are all moments that a composer decides to add to their song.
These moments can be seen as pins on a storyboard or rehearsal markings on sheet music. The events that make the story and characters forge a melody without realizing it. The only difference might be choosing between sitting at a piano or at a table with some dice.
by Kyle Morrow, Jan 13, 2021
Posted via Pitch & Tonic