Nahre Sol, Pianist and Composer: Composing Variations on the iPhone Ringtone “Opening”
Nahre Sol, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg. © Nahre Sol
Do you enjoy watching classical music content on YouTube or Instagram? If the answer is yes, you are probably a fan of Nahre Sol, the Juilliard-trained pianist, composer and content creator. Nahre’s intriguing and entertaining videos about musical style, composition and music theory have earned her over 764K subscribers on YouTube alone. During the 2023/24 season, Nahre became the first Creator in Residence at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the first collaboration of this kind between a major concert hall and a digital content creator. Throughout the season, she brought the magic of the Elbphilharmonie to digital audiences on the Elbphilharmonie’s digital channels and her own platform.
Nahre often explores the styles of different composers in her videos. She invites her audience to pay attention to the elements that define the music of different periods or that contribute to a composer’s unique sound. Nahre brought her Elbphilharmonie residency to a creative close with a very special project: she composed variations on the standard iPhone ringtone “Opening” in the style of iconic classical composers. TWoA talked to Nahre about this project, how she got started as a composer – and about the ringtone on her own phone.
Why do classical composers sound differently? Using your iPhone ringtone project as a starting point, what elements define musical style? How can you learn to distinguish different styles, both in terms of classical music eras and specific composers?
I think there are a lot of things to pay attention to when it comes to style. The first might be to look and hear things on a very zoomed out level, thinking in really descriptive terms: what is it? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What is the texture like? Is there an emotion? Can you think of a word? A lot of styles are attached to more than specific rhythmic ideas, specific melodic harmonic ideas. It's really a combination of things that makes music really have an atmosphere. So I like to think about the big picture first and then start to narrow down details.
When you listen to a composer, start with their time period: they were alive at a time when most of the music written around that time had a certain style, a certain temperament, a certain tempo, certain harmonic structures. You are really bound to your era and what came before that. For example, a composer working in the 1800s didn't have any exposure to Stravinsky or other influences that would make you write in a certain way. So keeping all of that in mind, you start to get to understand the world of a composer and the context.
That is what really interests me. When I take a look at style, why does Mozart sound that way? Why does Chopin sound that way? There is something unique about every composer that, ultimately, you can't really put your finger on completely. But you can try. There's something about every composer’s voice that you'll be able to recognize. In my work, I make these short, fun experiments to write well-known tunes “in the style off.” It's just an attempt to invite people to pay attention, to listen a little closer, to try to understand more.
Let’s use a specific example. Talking about the Baroque variation on the iPhone ringtone, you’ve mentioned that it’s difficult to imagine a baroque composer using exactly those notes. Why?
Every melody has a harmony underneath it. The harmony that I used comes from a ringtone which was composed after the iPhone was invented, which is not too long ago. So it's pulling from harmonies that, to me, sound very pentatonic, they are based on a certain minimalism. There’s a certain characteristic which I don't think you can translate directly to, for example, J.S. Bach’s style. Melody and harmony are intertwined. Bach wasn't really using this pentatonic kind of pedal tone, this ambiguous harmony. He does a lot of really cool stuff that has a lot of room for ambiguity, but not this type of thing.
Which variation did you find the easiest to compose and why?
I think the variations in the style of Ravel and Piazzolla. And oddly enough, those were the variations that the musicians rated the strongest. I think the melody itself fits nicely into the types of rhythms and the texture that Ravel and Piazzolla use. Of course, they're very different, but there's this sort of lightness and this kind of impish quality that you hear sometimes in Ravel. I felt Piazzolla was a very natural fit because I was able to adjust the tune a little bit to make it sound very dance-like. Maybe Ravel was the most enjoyable to write, just because I really adore his music. I always get a kick out of trying to imitate his style. It was kind of easy to do when it comes to the string quartet, because he gave us one string quartet. If a composer gave you one hundred string quartets, you start to think: what is this composer's voice for string quartet? But with Ravel, there's just one string quartet, so I was able to really have a direct reference.
What about the variation written in your own style?
It definitely took the longest because it's a different kind of task. For the other variations, I had a reference in mind. I was trying to copy and imitate a style, there's a lot of research involved with that, but it's rather straightforward. But when it comes to my variation, it's really a lot of searching: what do I like about this theme? How might I want to change it? I think it took at least three times the amount of time it took for all of the other variations. It was also fun, because there's freedom there.
Nahre Sol. © Nahre Sol
When did you start composing? How did you get into it?
I formally started in my college years. I had a music theory professor who started to pay attention to the homework assignments that involved little compositions. He pulled me aside one day after class and said: “You know, there's a composition class for non-majors here. You might want to check that out.” I took his advice and started to take this composition for non-majors class at Juilliard. Shortly after, I graduated and took a year off and decided to spend that time not necessarily focusing on composition, but I studied harmony. I went abroad to Paris and got a little taste of the Nadia Boulanger lineage: I worked with a professor who had worked closely with her. From there, I just continued to compose.
Before my college years, I did have an interest in creating my own little things, but it was never packaged as a “composition.” For me, it was just a little game. Sometimes, I wouldn't even use music notation. I would just kind of jot down my own chart to remember a little chord or a little melody.
For instrumentalists, music theory can feel abstract, and a bit of a chore. Why is it important for instrumentalists to study music theory?
I think it's a bit of a shame that often, music theory is taught in a way that feels heavy, like: “Now comes the really heady part of music.” There's a lot of focus on labels and complicated terms, it becomes very off-putting. In my opinion, I wish that music theory was taught earlier, while learning music, while learning the instrument.
A lot of the interpretation of classical pieces has become tradition. With a lot of standard pieces in the classical music repertoire, they're rooted in things that have everything to do with music theory: why do you want to emphasize that part of the phrase? Why does this section have to be significantly more special? Or why would you want to slow down here? All of these things you feel intuitively. I really think that on some level, you don't need to know the music theory with all the technical terms, but you have to pay attention. I think it's powerful to ask: why? Why is the music going there? Why did the composer feel this is necessary? That's all music theory. Once you start to understand this and to think about it and to listen to music in those terms, you don't have to rely on a teacher to tell you these things, like, what tempo should I play this section? How much louder do I need to get here? How much ritenuto (slowing down) is necessary? You don't have to go about it like you have blindfolds on. I always want to show both the very intellectual side of music theory and the very intuitive side of music theory, because it can be both. If you are in touch with both sides, it will enhance your musicianship. Even if you just listen to music, it will help enhance your experience.
What ringtone do you have on your phone and why did you choose it?
I have a duck quack. I think it's funny. It's kind of silly. Also, the sound is not so piercing. It's more textural. A lot of times when I receive a call, I think it's because I'm part of this newer tech generation with texting and everything, my first impulse is: “AHHH! There's a call coming! I need to take this call!” Having a duck quack just makes it silly and dissolves some of the stress. I don't know why, but sometimes I get stressed when receiving a call.
If you could meet any composer of the past or present, who would it be, and why?
It would be Eric Satie, because he is so quirky and very mysterious. Not even to pick his brains about how he thinks, I just want to meet him and see how he goes about his day, maybe how he composes something. There's just something very mysterious, but also very entertaining, about everything that I've read about Eric Sati, so it would definitely be him.