Worldbuilding Music: How I Designed a Music Genre for an Alien Race
- ethantoavs
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 20 hours ago
"Worldbuilding" is something that has endlessly fascinated me for many years. While worldbuilding can involve in-depth constructs of the politics, cultures, geology, and technology of a fictional world, my fascination lies with a very specific type of worldbuilding: "musical" worldbuilding, which I heavily explored in my recent album, "Folk Songs of the Tadpole Aliens."
What is "Musical Worldbuilding"?
Musical worldbuilding is a process of making musical choices that are informed by the setting of a story, as opposed to the characters or narrative. I view musical worldbuilding as consisting of two main forms:
"Symbolic" worldbuilding involves the use of musical choices to create an abstract feeling that the listener is immersed into a fictional world.
"Literal" worldbuilding involves designing a coherent musical culture for a fictitious society - that is, the music that the characters would be playing or listening to.
My Approach to Musical Worldbuilding
This process of "musical worldbuilding" is built upon a specific mindset to research and listening.
I listen to a vast array of different music styles from across many different cultures, and I document this using an application called Obsidian. Through this, I have amassed a "catalogue" of nearly 1000 musical works, which are all categorized according to genre, emotion, instrument, region, date, composer, and so on. Using this catalogue, I am able to efficiently pull from many different influences, mix and match elements from across these cultures, and use them to create interesting new material.
I also research topics of a musicological nature. I study music history, the relationship between music and society, and how music fits into political circumstances. All of these things influence both the circumstances of composers and the musical choices they make.
For example, 17th century European society was very stagnant, and people generally stayed in the same social class into which they were born - starting and ending in the same place. For various reasons, this also mirrors a prevailing attitude present in the concert music (Baroque era) of the day: the Doctrine of the Affections. One result of this "doctrine" was that pieces tended to start and end in the same place, with the same key and mood. As another example, economies of scale enable the mass production of musical instruments, making it easier to fund and organize large orchestras - which in turn increases the creative possibilities for composers.
The musical choices we make are shaped by the circumstances of our society. I then apply this logic to the fictional societies present in other stories (or even in my own creative writing), and then use that as a framework through which I can make musical decisions.
Folk Songs of the Tadpole Aliens
This process is best exemplified with my recent album, "Folk Songs of the Tadpole Aliens.". For context, this album is inspired by the alien society seen in the movie, "Battle For Terra." The music in this album is intended to be entirely diegetic—that is, the music that the characters in the setting would be listening to and performing. I analyzed the society depicted in the movie and speculated as to how a musical culture might logically arise in such a context. I will provide some examples of this thought process:
The society depicted in the movie is ruled by a totalitarian state. Totalitarian states seek to control everything, and that includes music. If you take that to a cartoonish extreme, a state could theoretically restrict the number of musical notes you are allowed to use. Thus, I got the idea to write using a tuning system of 5 equal divisions of the octave.
The society is preindustrial, so I decided to use acoustic instruments only. But since these are aliens, I figured that I could use processing on the vocals to really emphasize this fact.
In the movie, the characters live in the trunks of giant trees, and they carve their belongings out of the wood of the tree. Thus, I decided that my ensemble should be heavily dominated by "wooden" instruments.
Through a long process of using this kind of logic (which I unfortunately did not document in full), I created this basic musical framework:
Harmony: 5, 7, and 9 equal divisions of the octave (EDO).
Texture: Homophonic & Heterophonic textures.
Instrumentation: An ensemble consisting of Choir, 2 Bouzoukis, 2 Guzhengs, Hammered Dulcimer, 2 Dizis, 2 Zurnas, 2 Oboes, Gadulka section, Viola section, Celli section, Guitarron, Timpani, Daf, Ghatam, Shakers, Gangas, Tingsha Bells, Marimba, Gran Cassa, and Gong. (Click on the links to be directed to a Wikipedia page for each instrument.)
Orchestration/Rhythm: Very active percussion grooves serve as the foundation for everything else.
Sound Design: Processed vocal chops and other vocal effects.
Melody: Adaptations of real-world folk tunes used to enhance the "folksy" feel.
Form: Heavily centered around A-B-A ternary forms.
Once I created this framework and developed a basic sonic 'palette' for the album, I deviated from the initial framework as I felt was necessary. After all, the point of this musicological speculation was to create interesting musical ideas. There is no "Tadpole Alien" culture that I have to be authentic to, so I deviated from the framework whenever I felt it allowed me to achieve something cool or otherwise serve the overall drama of the music.
This piece is written for choir, zurnas, gadulkas, violas, celli, timpani, daf, ghatam, shakers, gran cassa, and gong. It uses a tuning system of 9 equal divisions of the octave (EDO), is centered around a tone set of pitch degrees 1-4-6-7. The piece is heavily modeled after the Chinese Qing Dynasty national anthem.
This piece is written for vocals, bouzoukis, guzhengs, dulcimer, dizis, guitarron, timpani. bells, daf, ghatam, shakers, gran cassa, and gong. It uses a tuning system of 9 EDO. I also make use of digitally processed vocal writing throughout the piece.
This piece is centered around a very complex aleatoric heterophonic choral texture, which is most pronounced during the final minute of the piece.
To create this effect, I used about 20 different vocal and choir patches from 6 different sample libraries. I outlined how long I wanted the effect to be, and I identified the point at which I wanted all parts to reach their climax. I identified the starting notes for each part, and ensured that they were all singing an equal-tempered pentatonic scale.
I then played in each individual part, muting all others so I did not hear anything else aside from what I was actively playing. Aside from the starting notes, the scale, and the climax point, I played completely random lines on each part - with different tempi, registers, dynamics, and voicings. I then made multiple duplicates of each part, with every part having varying levels of delay and reverb.
I also added a percussion section, a subbass drone, and a virtuosic dizi performance (the latter happening towards the end).
Check out the full album at: https://ethantoavs.bandcamp.com/album/folk-songs-of-the-tadpole-aliens
Conclusion
Musical worldbuilding is a tool that allows a composer to employ alternative frameworks to create novel and fresh musical ideas. By taking the perspective of a story's world, one can create a distinct musical "palette" that could not be created through more traditional modes of musical storytelling.
This is all dependent on mindset—being open-minded and willing to compose in a wide variety of styles, and having the willingness to approach things from wildly unusually perspectives. And as a bonus, using musicology as a creative framework even allows one to gain a deeper understanding of how their music fits into, and is a product of, their society's broader circumstances.
About The Author
I am Ethan Toavs, and my music is all about exploring new worlds! I specialize in combining cinematic styles with influences from a variety of cultures, and employing unorthodox methods of composing. I have a master's degree in Contemporary Media & Film Composition from the Eastman School of Music, and a bachelor's degree in Music from Coastal Carolina University. If you are an author, artist, or other creator who wants music that breathes life into the worlds of your characters and stories, then please reach out to me.
Have thoughts on this blog post? Feel free to chat with me about it in my Discord server!