Chris Sligh's Song "Vessel"
by Don Chapman
Back when Chris Sligh was working on his
debut album he talked uber-producer Brown
Bannister into using me to orchestrate some
of the songs (which is a miracle in itself
- producers don't do that sort of thing.)
Read about the experience at my blog.
Chris decided fairly late
to use a song he
had written many years
ago in college: the
ballad "Vessel."
He wanted it to
be simple - just an acoustic
guitar and a
string quartet.
I hadn't thought about
string quartets since
college and Googled the
term for a refresher
course. Famous composers
of the past often
wrote string quartets as
a sort of exercise
of their compositional
abilities. Since you
only have 4 instruments
to work with, as
well as limited harmonic
color, you had better
write some good lines to
make a string quartet
piece interesting.
Chris played some pads over the track to
give me an idea of what he wanted and I started
working. I really slaved away on this thing,
trying to make each instrument move independently
and interestingly, almost like a Bach fugue.
There are several ways
to listen to music.
The most natural is to
simply enjoy it and
let it wash over you. Another
way is to listen
to the arrangement... the
keyboards... the
drums... the guitars...
the strings... and
pick out what each part
is doing.
Try that with "Vessel" - and notice
how the strings weave in and out, creating
a unified whole out of independent lines.
The above video is of Chris performing the
song live on TV, and you can download the
MP3 or his entire CD below from the Amazon
links.
|
free music
