Altered Perspectives

Grade 3 - 5:01

Altered Perspectives was inspired by a wire sculpture. This sculpture was in the shape of 2 giraffes when viewed from one angle, but looked like an elephant after walking to a different viewpoint. Altered perspectives attempts to the do the same with a single musical idea. Each section of the song uses the same starting 7 notes, but morphs them through different rhythms, tonalities, and tempos to sound completely unique, creating an “altered perspective” from the one musical idea. The main melody of the song is built upon a 7 beat Aksak rhythmic pattern found in Turkish dance music. The melody melts into a smooth and even ballad (contrasting the odd rhythmic pattern of the dance section). The third section is the chase, where musical ideas build upon a pulsating, hard charging 4/4 version of the melody that layers additional musical ideas on top before returning to the original dance melody to wrap up the song.