The Schoenberg Method of composing music never gained any real popularity.  When I’ve played this style for my students, their responses are filled with words like scary, sad, weird, and crazy.  Maybe it’s because they are so young that they didn’t have my reaction when I first heard this kind of music, one summer during college. That summer I met a director and musician named Carlo Altomare, who introduced me to this method, also known as the twelve-tone technique. Action Painting – Naoki Iwakawa – Carlo Altomare – Excavation 1C – Theaterlab The twelve-tone technique is also known as the Schoenberg method because it was developed by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).  Schoenberg was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.

Hold Me Loosely She-Patch

[audio:http://thespiritscience.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/HoldMeLooselyShePatch.mp3|titles=Hold Me Loosely She-Patch]

When my director first played one of his compositions for me using this method, I didn’t feel sad or scared like my students felt. I felt moved, inspired, and awakened to something new.  I had always thought that there was only one way to go about writing music. It is generally understood that to make a cohesive piece of music, you stick to playing in a key. A key is the central tone or harmonic center in a musical composition. When a song ends, it usually resolves to that central tone to give the listener a satisfying feeling.

Hearing this music gave me a whole new perspective, not just on writing music but on life as well.  It may be because I have an innate desire to live in full expression that this type of music resonates with me so well.  I’ve had many different jobs – not wanting to be constricted to any one title in my life.  I’ve been: a pizza delivery girl, an executive assistant for the CEO of a corporation, a sales-girl, and most recently, I’ve worked at a sex toy shop, music school, and as a fairy putting on tea parties for children. I have learned that I take jobs to learn something from them – I was intimidated by office jobs, so I got a job at a company.  When I learned I could be an executive assistant with ease, it was time for me to move on. When I felt like I had some hang-ups about sex, I took a job at a sex-toy store.  I put myself around people who had such open minds about sex that I learned a great deal from simply being in that environment.  Looking at my résumé, someone may think that I’m a chaotic person and a little bit discombobulated, but I now like to think that I’m going about my life as if it were a Schoenberg composition.

Each one of us encompasses every personality trait, but we choose to access some more than others.  To truly understand ourselves, we have to learn a little lesson from Schoenberg.  I found that I can use this method to help write music.   Sometimes I sit at my piano and play get lost in all the twelve tones. I lose all sense of music theory and just wildly strike notes on the piano until I strike a chord that strikes a chord within me. I then use that chord to inspire a new song.  A great deal of the music that grabs me is played in a minor key, a “sad” key. But no matter how much dissonance or  how many “sad” chords a song has, music has never depressed me.  Many of my songs have that bit of sadness in it.  I’ve never really been afraid of the dark – it’s just another part of me.  When we are experiencing pain, jealousy or any other kind of “ugly” emotion, putting those feelings into art form transforms them into beauty – and then it all becomes worth while, filling me with purpose and meaning. As I’m writing this, I realize that we also need not be afraid of our light, which is also possible. Playing around with the twelve tone technique requires that you hit some major chords or, “happier” chords as well.

It may be scary, sad, weird and crazy, but it is possible to utilize all parts of ourselves and still be cohesive human beings.

I lose all sense of music theory and just wildly strike notes on the piano until I strike a chord that strikes a chord within me.

To wrap up, I would like to say thank you everyone for reading, contributing, listening and commenting.  Thanks to your responses, we will soon have a music forum for musical discussion and sharing, and my first collaborations are in the works – I’m very excited!!  Here is another melody of ShePatch, “Hold Me Loosely.”

Melodies of ShePatch – Hold Me Loosely

Download and original recording @Melodies of ShePatch – Hold Me Loosely

Love and gratitude.

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