Magpie
Magpie forms the conceptual foundation for much of the work I am proposing in this application. It is a sprawling, long-form composition that efforts to tell an epic fantasy narrative within the format of a single song, unconstrained by genre, sound palette, or traditional formal structures. More importantly, it serves as a test case for a compositional approach centered on modular form, energy-driven development, and narrative progression over time. My goal was to create a piece that immerses the listener in a world as it unfolds—closer to the experience of getting lost in a book or binging a fantasy TV show.
The piece is currently unfinished due to its scale and can be understood as Part I of a larger whole, with further mix and arrangement refinements still in progress. While Magpie could be compared to concept records and long-form musical dramas, it functions primarily as an experiment in songwriting and form: a work that resists traditional closure while maintaining momentum, and that treats genre and soundscape as compositional materials for narrative development and cinematic scene change.
In composing Magpie, I developed a compositional system that I intend to extend across future works. Other pieces in this portfolio were written using the same underlying logic, but Magpie serves as the system’s initial conceptual grounding and proof through practice. The system, as it currently stands, is presented below in three parts: a high-level description, a diagram, and a concise set of guiding rules.
I have also included the lyrics to Magpie, as they are essential to the narrative development, emotional pacing, and formal contour of the piece.
System Development
The Magpie compositional system creates long-form pieces as linear sequences of modular musical cells rather than relying on traditional song sections. Each cell functions as a self-contained unit built from a small amount of repeating harmonic material, allowing harmony to feel consistent across the piece but not decisive in determining form. Rather than developing harmonically, cells are shaped through changes in texture, arrangement density, energy accumulation, and genre behavior.
Pieces move forward directionally, progressing from one cell to the next, without returning and aided by transitions. Within each cell, energy accumulates over time through rhythmic, melodic, and textural buildup, until the cell reaches a point of saturation and breaks forward, typically avoiding harmonic resolution unless the piece demands it. Structural change is clear at these moments, while sonic elements such as decay, echoes, or residual texture are allowed to carry across boundaries, helping to smooth progression between cells.
As a general harmonic approach, cells often begin on the IV or vi rather than the tonic, establishing tonal stability while avoiding strong pulls toward resolution. Overall form emerges from the contrast and relationship between successive cells, shaped by both musical and narrative considerations. Narrative meaning develops alongside the music, and the emotional or symbolic role of each cell helps guide what follows. Rather than relying on fixed plans, works created within this system prioritize exploration and intuition-driven decisions to help define transitions and cell composition.
Condensed Rule Set
Core Structure
Compose pieces as linear sequences of self-contained cells, not traditional song sections.
Time moves forward irreversibly; cells do not return in their original form.
Cell length is intuition-driven and may expand or contract freely.
Harmony
Each cell uses a limited, repeating harmonic set.
Harmonic material is cell-specific and functions as an environment, not a driver of form.
Cells often begin on IV or vi to establish stability without pulling toward resolution.
Development & Energy
Change occurs through texture, density, rhythm, melody, and genre behavior, not harmonic development.
Energy generally accumulates within each cell.
Cells break forward at saturation, often before harmonic resolution.
Transitions
Transitions mark clear structural breaks.
Hard cuts are an effective default for contrast.
Sonic residue (decay, echoes, texture) may carry across boundaries.
Longer transitions are functional, not formal sections.
Narrative & Process
Narrative may develop alongside the music, or the music itself may function narratively.
Avoid defining the next cell too early; let it emerge from the current one.
Genre change is optional but useful when harmonic material is static.
Ending
A piece may end instead of transitioning when continuation no longer feels meaningful.
Lyrics
I found a bottle in a pile of bones and popped it open
It held a big ol’ scroll that just kept on un-a-rollling
Til it rolled off where I’d seen quite not
To the corners of my dreams and
All the places I forgot
I read the words on the big ol’ scroll
But didn’t know them
They looked dark like blood
I had to find someone and show em
So I started winding up the scroll
And man it took a year to roll
I was singing like a magpie
And tunneling like a mole
I had to go to where the dragons go
It started snowing
There was fire all along that road
Where I was going
But I hiked and hiked
Til my feet did stop
Til my lungs did fail
And my body did drop
But I made it on up that road
And started showing
All the people that very scroll
That kept unrolling
But the scroll just kept on going
And my head felt like exploding
So I said fuck it and I cut it
But then it’s demons started showing
The scroll started sensing
Its other half had gone missing
I could feeling start to tense up
(It got tense so tense!)
Then it started to wrap around me
Closed my eyes up then it bound me
Heard the townsfolk shout like
There was fire in their hair
But by the time my legs were kicking
The whole town had gone a missing
All was silent save the sound
Of the scroll a laying twitching
Like a scratch that ain’t for itching
I hooked the scroll like I was fishing
Picked it up right where it lay
And continued on my mission
I found the forest mouth
And traced its cliffs of green
I scaled the crystal peaks
Rode their surrounding seas
I found the pine tree king
Oh how he loved to sing
His deep voice spreading
Out across the verdant sea
For years I trekked
Looking for secrets kept
Trying to find a soul who knew the scroll
But no wizard witch nor hiding hole
Time crept like an ice cube left
And I grew tired of the asking
I wanted peace and sun to bask in
Found a whole in the hill top
Deep inside the trees
Met a pretty little wood elf
Got down on my knee
I remember every blessed thing
And I remember hearing the sound of wings
The night they took you away from me
Broke me in a hundred ways
The night they took you away from me
I became death
Certain and absolute
They came in like lightning
They came in full force
Took the roof off the house
And stole you in the course of it
Before I opened my eyes you were gone
I was surrounded by men
And bedeviled by haunts
I could hear you screaming
From up above where the Crow Queen flew
I’m sorry love
What else could I do
There was gnashing of teeth
And breaking of bones
I was one against fifty
A will cast in stone
I became devil
And I became night
I became vengeance
The passing of light
I could hear their hearts pounding
Like big Dwarven drums
And I sought them out and
I silenced the thrum
I moved through their bodies
Like water through snow
My blade leaking blood
And my head leaking smoke
Well I left the next morning
Grabbed the scroll and my sword
It would be my last journey
I arrived at the city gates
Stone giants on either side
I asked what to make of your fate
Gate guard told me come inside
I was taken through town on neat stone roads
Past merchants and homes and watchful souls
They brought me to an elder in a dark black cloak
In a house up the hill back away from folk
He told me of a girl lost long ago
Offered by her village to the forest’s hold
And how that little girl did preen and grow
Later only seen as great clouds of crows
And when the crowing crows swooped down so low
Villages were razed leaving only smoke
Aho aho aho
He said son you’re gonna wait
Til the rising sun done come
And be off and up and running
When the cock cries once
You got to make your way
Past Giant's Mouth and keep making
Til you find yourself in forests south
There’s a tall wind going
where you’re blowing
There’s a tall wind blowing
where I’m going
I never wanted anything
As much as I wanted you
Back in my arms
I was obsessive at best
Trying to come to your rescue
It’s the type of thing that breaks you
If you fail when it tests you
I’d already taken too long
But I’m still writing the song
I’d already taken too long
But I’m still writing the song
I’d already taken too long
But I’m still writing the song
I’d already taken too long
But I’m still writing the song
I was quick like light as I moved from the city
How my horse did fly just
Running towards an ending
Birds lined the trees my whole way
Black feathers like a light rain
A well lit path of corvidae
We went down through the valleys
And up through the peaks
I cast a spell to keep us moving
As the days became weeks and then
Soon after I started hearing things
There was a voice in the back of my mind
Just saying open me
Open Me!
I couldn’t take it for long though
The voice made it hard so
My bag developed a soft glow
I took the clasp off the scroll
And I just let it roll
There is a pressure in my head
Its getting so big
I swore I wouldn’t but it’s different
Baby you went
I don’t know how to fight
A kingdom with just two hands
(I’ll track you by blood scent
And bay in our private tongue)
The scroll was different
I was different
I was desperate
I couldn’t read it
I just spoke it
Voice a low pitch
My vision swirled
Like an algae bloom unfocused
(I can hear your heart sounds
Beating like a giant drum)
I was like light inside a bottle
That got broken
I split refracted 80 ways
I was awoken
New power coursing through me
Each breath an explosion
(You shine like a beacon
Through layers of shielded earth)
When I came to
There was a crater formed around me
The scroll was gone
I had its words all up and down me
My head felt strange
But I could feel its power pounding
(There’s no way to stop this
I’m rabid for you my love)
Ain’t no way ain’t no way
That didn’t happen just now
By the gods did I just say?
All those words? Was that me?
I can remember things that I’ve never seen
It’s like I’ve lived a life of dreams
And they all were me
There was an old oak tree
Barely holding it leaves
Then a hot hot wind
Did away with its skin
And to its a left a smoking crater
Where I lay enroute to save her
So it went
And it went on I lay there
Reeling til the light of early dawn
Then got the feeling if I'm alive
Then well I might as well go on
And I had power running through me
I was sizzling with song
I named the witch
And said
You can't hide you can't run
Oh no I think you lost this one
Oh no I think you lost this one
Oh no I think you lost this one
You can't hide you can't run
Oh no I think you lost this one
Oh no I think you lost this one
Oh no I think you lost this one...