Spacetime
Owen Y.L.
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“Spacetime,” a completely self-written and produced song, explores the feeling of being separated from a loved one and wrestling with both physical and emotional space. The entire song revolves around a central piano arpeggio motif, which I felt perfectly reflected the lyric “I fall head over heels” in both a metaphorical and physical sense—the lack of gravity in space. For this piece, I wanted to experiment with an orchestral accompaniment, to make it sound like a soundtrack from a sci-fi-romance movie. It was a challenge to translate the ebbs and flows of the song—originally written solely on piano—to a grandiose orchestral setting. Instruments I used included piano, guitar, strings, horns, harp, flute, and orchestral percussion. The melody in the chorus of this song is one of my favorites I have ever written. The long, flowing phrases and sustained notes complement the motifs of weightlessness. I repeated the melody motif throughout the chorus but with slight variation. I was also heavily influenced by musical theatre while writing this song, particularly in the bridge. The idea for this piece first arose two years ago, but I only finished it this summer. I then recorded and produced the song using the software Logic Pro X.
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For me, creativity is the freedom to dream in infinitely vivid colors and to place your own artistic expression above the expectations of others. Songwriting does that for me: It is just as much a personal diary for my deepest secrets as it is a form of art to share.
