Key: G Phrygian
Time Signature: 4-4 Swing time on bass drum but straight time on other instruments.

I wrote and recorded "Salient Life" slowly throughout the course of this semester. My goal in writing the song was to break the barriers of classical music and take the musical elements that we learned about to a new place.
The whole song is in the Key of G because the tonic never changes from G (scale degree 1 never changes); however, the chorus is in G Phrygian (G minor with a minor or diminished 2nd scale degree) and is comprised of G Minor 7th chord and an A flat Major 7 chord, while the verse uses all of the same set of notes except for the 3rd scale degree, which is augmented (4 half steps above the tonic). The verse does not utilize full chords, instead it uses the root and third of a triad, and leaves out the fifth (G+B, Ab+C, Bb+D). The verse also utilizes the minor seventh (as a bass note on the 3and) which is played simultaneously with the tonic and major 3rd. This collection of notes creates a G dominant 7 chord, 2nd inversion.
In the studio recording of the song, the hi-hat plays on the 2 and 4 of every measure and the snare plays on the ‘4-e and ah’ (or the last 16th note in the measure). Breaking the traditional patter of 4/4 (which typically has the bass drum on the 1 and 3, and the snare on 2 and 4) and still keeping the song groovy through the drum beat was not an easy task, but after spending a few hours playing 100s of bass drum patterns (on my electronic drum kit), I realized that using swung 16th notes for the bass drum while keeping the hi-hat hits only on the 2 and 4, would create a unique, complex and dance-oriented rhythmic effect.
Phrygian is an interesting mode of music because instead of containing the major second, this mode of music uses a minor second instead. The perceptual effect that this mode is defined by can be described by explaining the physiological phenomenona that create what we perceive as dissonance. As shown in figure 1, a listener’s auditory nerve fires at 98 (F1) times per second when a G2 is played, and 104 (F2) times per second when an Ab is played (one half step apart). When the Ab Major 7 chord is played (in a legato manner), difference tones (which are created by one’s outer hair cells in the cochlea) create unique frequency ratios. Difference tones create energy in the cochlea at the place corresponding to 2F1-F2. In the case of an Ab Major 7 the difference tone that we hear is created by the following interaction of frequencies: 2(98Hz)-104Hz. This difference tone, that creates electrical impulses firing at 92Hz (times per second), causes tension and dissonance in the auditory system. Another interesting aspect about the Phrygian mode is the ratios that are created by the frequency intervals. Figure 2 below shows that the minor second is 1.067 times the tonic (in Hz). This largely contrasts the Perfect fifth, which is 1.5 times the tonic in hertz (vibrations per second). Using the dissonant frequency ratio of the minor 2nd in Phrygian creates a dark ambiance and a unique harmonic element in a song, which is why I chose to write my song in this mode of music.