I'm a fan of a cappella choral singing. I love the sound of voices in harmony. But every now and then, I hear an a cappella arrangement that I do not like at all.
I recently had an epiphany about this dislike for some a cappella songs, especially a few I've heard in church. I was listening to a Christian radio station (a rarity for me, as I prefer classical) and I heard a song I knew. It was a song I have always hated to sing in church--a truly obnoxious a cappella arrangement. To my surprise, I discovered that in its original version, with instruments and a different vocal sound, it's quite a good song.
So why was it bad, when transposed into an a cappella arrangement? Because when many church musical arrangers change an instrumental, poppy song into an a cappella piece in 4-part harmony, they ALWAYS put the melody into the soprano line.
This sounds really, really awful when the original song featured a melody in a lower key, sung with the radically different vocal quality of an alto or a baritone. The warmth and subtlety of the original alto or baritone melody disappears into a shrieky, high, repetitive soprano line in the new a cappella version. (And I'm one of those shrieky sopranos, so I know whereof I shriek.)
Writing can also involve acts of transposing. In the third draft of my current work in progress, one of my major tasks (other than complete rewriting) has been taking certain characters out of scenes and substituting other characters in their "roles." For example, in one scene, a character held another character at gunpoint to keep him from doing something foolish in a moment of desperation. I had to change out the characters in that scene, so male character A holding the gun became male character B holding the gun, even though the third character (on the wrong end of the gun) did not change.
Wow, was that an eye-opener! Had I used character A's lines and behavior, it would have been a travesty--like writing a baritone line into a soprano melody. Voice matters, in writing or in singing--one voice is not just as good as another for any given line.
Instead, I had to envision how character B would perform the same function in a completely different way. Even my husband had a comment on the transposition when he read the scene, having read both characters in the part. He said: "I envisioned what character B would look like when he did that, and I think you should make this small change."
Transposing is not common--it's rare for writers to need to substitute one character for another in a scene. Have you ever had to transpose one character for another in the same basic scene? Or, have you realized that you've written a moment that was completely out of character for one of your fictional people? Did you notice it yourself or did someone else have to point it out?
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11 comments:
Funny, your questions - considering my editor recently had to point out a few of these instances.
My favorite a capella singer is Andy Bernard. Okay, kidding. Do you watch The Office?
I have to admit...The fact that you had to make a transposition on your 3rd draft makes me feel so much better right now. I'm working on my first draft and keep thinking about scenes that are already written..."I should probably switch that character around." "There's no motivation in that scene." I guess that's why we have a first draft, and a second, and a third... :)
I have never transposed a character, though I have taken two characters and integrated them into one-- I have a tendency to write too many characters, apparently unnecessarily.
At any rate, this post provided a fresh way to think about layering in a story, and I certainly appreciated that.
Thank you.
Yes, I've switched out characters in a scene a time or two. It's tough, but like so many other parts of writing, it's part of what we do to produce the best work.
Heard some beautiful music Sunday, a soprano-alto duet by sisters, with the melody in the rich alto line. Sometimes "but we've always done it that way" doesn't work as well as "let's try it this way."
I did something like this in reverse once. I was worrying about having too many characters in a story, so I decided to cut one out and split everything he did between two others. But the more I thought about it, I realized that his actions just didn't ring true for those characters because they had totally different personalities and motivations. I ended up putting him back in.
I like your musical analogy. It's amazing how just changing the key of a song can make it sound completely different. Last night I was playing "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" on a C harmonica, so the only key it would work in was a bright G major. It just sounded too cheerful for that particular song.
I'm one of the shrieky sopranos too. :) Supposed to be going to a choir event later this month, and I'm terribly out of practice...
I have! You probably remember how populated my first novel was. In the third draft, "transposing" happened often. People who hadn't met each other in my first draft fell in love by the third! I also had two characters dancing in an audition, but in order to fix a particular plot problem (which you pointed out ;)) I had to change one of the dancers. The original dancer ended up watching the other two. (Sounds familiar? ;)) It was a little weird, but I think it benefitted the plot. I also had to turn my leading man into a tango dancer from being a mere observer in previous drafts. Great post!
Your music analogy reminded me of an American Idol moment. Did you ever hear David Cook's version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_aiawC-9aM
Love the music analogy, Rosslyn. And I had to switch a character just a few days ago, then rewrite the scene so the new character spoke in the correct "voice". It was worth the extra work; a 13 year old girl does NOT sound like her older aunt! ;)
I hope you're doing well. Take care!
Katie - It's so easy to do! My crit partner just helped me out with a couple of other minor things too--casualties of writing at top speed.
Sarah - The lesson I've learned from this novel: never, ever try to revise and publish the first novel you ever wrote. :-)
Suze - I wrote too many characters too. Realism doesn't always work, to my chagrin.
Richard - You're bringing back memories. My sister and I used to sing duets.
Elisabeth - I didn't discover that thing about the emotional properties of certain keys until quite late in life. It's such a wonderful part of music.
Lorena - I think between you, me, and another friend, we should win some kind of award for most drafts of first novel. Hope you're having fun!
Gwen - I'm so glad to hear this happens to others too. It's so easy to feel that you are the only writer who ever had to do major transplant surgery--until you talk to your friends. :-)
I've never had to transpose a character, but now I think I know what I will try when a scene is not working like it should. This could be a big help.
On a sort of a tangent note, have you ever read CS Lewis' essay on Transposition? It is AMAZING!!! has nothing to do with writing; but everything to do with faith...
Wow, nice analogies. I know nothing about music (the world is better off that I don't raise my voice in song) and I've never transposed characters, partly because I don't write fiction (another talent you have that I don't). What you said makes perfect sense.
How goes the book promotion?
Many blessings,
Saloma
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