Going slow
Slow-tempo pieces, by their very nature, could become uninteresting without extra ornamentation. I am particularly interested in how traditional church music, such as hymns and carols, which mostly have relatively slow tempos, employ rich chord progressions, sometimes changing chord on every beat and/or note of the melody. I tried composing like this and came up with the following …
There are 28 chord changes in each 8-bar verse of this piece. The tempo is 70 bpm (Adagio), just perfect for a lullaby for which the very idea is to slow things down.
Recorded using Session Guitarist – Picked Acoustic from Native Instruments
This mournful piece in A minor was written as a song but the melody is realised here by alto sax. The tempo is a slow 78 bpm.
Instruments on Where Will They Go?:
Acoustic Guitar: Ample Guitar Martin from Ample Sounds
Alto sax and mute trumpet: Session Horns Pro from Native Instruments
Pads: Arkhis from Native Instruments
Electric guitar: Session Guitarist Electric Sunburst from Native Instruments
You can download the notation for both pieces below. This includes guitar and piano arrangements for Clermont Lullaby (with tablature for the guitar), as well as a full score for one verse of Where Will They Go? that incorporates all six parts.