Patrick Godfrey has gone from creating pieces using a grand piano, a double-manual harpsichord, and a marimba to working with a pile of black boxes, computer equipment, and cables. Although he admits all this gear drives him crazy, it lets him combine improvisation, composition, and musical notation so that everything is at hand and in his control. For Godfrey, the boxes have become his instruments, allowing him to integrate the composing and recording processes.
Godfrey has composed scores for television, film, and animation, including the Academy Award-winning short, Bob's Birthday. With his CD, Strange Rain, Godfrey strove to combine melodic, ambient, trance-like instrumentals and lively, humorous, cartoonish pieces to demonstrate a wide range of musical styles.
"I sometimes use pieces that I created several years ago, such as with the song 'Black Moon'", Godfrey says. "I had created a shifting, irregular rhythm pattern, and I waited until I found the right bell sounds to use with it. I added an electric-bass part that gently shifts across the rhythm. Then I improvised a solo with a trombone sound and a more lyrical melody with an English-horn sound. I filled in the background with some wet, splashy electronic cymbals. I wanted to keep the trance quality of the original pattern intact while adding long, winding melodies that create a deep, constantly changing background. It was a process of adding and subtracting until the whole seemed in balance."
Godfrey creates most of his work on a Macintosh IIci and sequences with MOTU's Digital Performer.
His sound modules include a Roland JV-1080 and JD-990 and a Kurzweil K2000R, but he still uses an old Yamaha KX88 controller for sketching out ideas.
"I use Digital Performer to build up lots of raw material," he says. "I can revisit sequences, find a part I like, then chop it out, and extend it to create a pattern. Any part of any piece can become the seed for a complete composition. For example, 'Spinning' started with an exploration of very fast, repeated note patterns."
However, Godfrey found that the insistent quality of the repeated notes did not give him the feel he wanted. So he cut out the "performed" notes that repeated and used a delay to re-create the pattern with a softer, spacier feeling. "This small segment became the basis for a bed to which I added melodies," he explains. "After that, I went back to the bed, and I added and took out guitars, bass, and other sounds and instruments to help propel the song in its new, softer direction."
For many musicians, making the switch from acoustic instruments to electronic gear can be tough, but the drastic change can open up a wealth of creative possibilities. "Just as it took a great deal of study and practice to become capable of real spontaneity at the piano," says Godfrey, "it took serious labor to organize my MIDI studio to the point that I feel the same sense of connection between playing and composing. Music is the thought behind the sound. Art isn't about tools and technique but about ideas."
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