New answers tagged composition
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There's no straight forward answer and there's no formula - otherwise robots will write chart-topping songs for humans based on some algorithm. Some melodies sound so "good" and timeless as if they were from creation. Other melodies are just sweet for a moment but disposable with time like bumblegum. Most modern day music is like that.
As a pointer or ...
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Maybe not all that much in 'songs', except where someone's being consciously experimental. But in the big, wide world of music, it happens.
Sticking to mainstream Western music for the time being...
Anything over 4 beats in a bar generally groups into cells of 2 or 3 though. 'Take Five' is 2+3. Sticking with Brubeck, 'Unsquare Dance' written in 7/4, is ...
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In addition to @dwilli, indian classical music and also the bollywood music have songs that are based on 12 beats(Ektaal),16 beats(teentaal),10 beats(Jhaptaal) etc.
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I’ve already several times cited D. De la Motte’s foreword to his Harmonielehre. Now I’ve found the English translation and I will poste some longer passages and then write a summary. First a link:
https://www.scribd.com/document/325180105/Diether-de-La-Motte-The-Study-of-Harmony
... the later chapters focus on the innovations of specific composers and ...
21
There are a few different reasons that might be given to follow counterpoint "rules."
Stylistic emulation. While this tends to be less valued today by some, for the past few centuries, beginning composers (and teachers of composition) often valued the study of imitating classical composers that they admire. If you want to learn to compose like Palestrina ...
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There are two basic paths leading to the goal of writing "music that works". And they are the same basic parts that lead to being able to cook food that other people can eat without complaining too much about it.
The easy way is to learn a set of "tricks" that work pretty well, and practice them until you can use them successfully without much thought. ...
11
When you say "counterpoint rules" I immediately think "Fux" and species counterpoint.
Species counterpoint is a teaching method. One of the goals is for the student to demonstrate an understanding of the musical elements and the discipline to follow the rules. If you have the understanding and control, writing in the species shouldn't be a problem. After ...
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Like all rules, from the 'rule of thirds' in pictorial composition to the Ten Commandments, they lay down a framework for reliable results in an environment where there are SO many ways to mess up!
Then you start finding the exceptions... :-)
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The answer by "guest" is perhaps a bit extreme, but it does have a bit of a point. Music needs to be composed such that it flows together in time, and I think the view of "thematic" sections vs. "transition" sections tends to create a false sense of prioritization, as if the "theme" sections are primary and the "transitions" just "fill in" between them or ...
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It all starts with connecting the dots. One simple way that you could adopt is by looking at both part A and part B that you are trying to connect; then use any of the common turnarounds - ii-V-I or I-IV-V - to move from the last chord of part A leading to the beginning of part B.
You could also use passing tones, chromatic notes to connect the two parts.
...
-1
You are thinking about this wrong. Music doesn't have "themes", "transitions", etc. It starts at the beginning, and continues till it stops at the end.
You are not alone in making this mistake, though. There are hundreds of textbooks which claim that music is written in different "forms," made from "themes" and other theoretical notions. And there are ...
1
Most of B themes carry within some information about A; if not, even with smooth transition and/or many structural directions taken, they will sound unrelated.
You should "glue" musical stuff the same way you compose them: with meaning.
There must be a "why", at least only in your heart.
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I think I have found my answer here in this video:
Starting from 3:12 in Example 8 Alan Belkin describes how to gradually move to the new key without being obvious by changing one accidental and keeping the other notes and creating a "glue" that holds the modulation together. Other technique is to use "neutral notes" between ...
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In jazz we call them ghost notes, but that is more in the context of improvisation.
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You could call it framework of the tune or reduction to the skeleton.
Maybe your putting the cart before the horse:
The later reduction of the melody is actually the tune and what we've heard before have been variations and embellishments of it.
Edit:
I think I've misunderstood the question, if this is what Dekkadeci shows with the Bingo song.
We call ...
3
I think Pensato and Melodic Expectation may indeed be what you're looking for. Maybe also look into Ghost Notes (although they are more muted notes so they are "actually there").
The idea behind the missing notes, I think, is to - after the melody has been established - engage the brain of the listener even more by having it fill in the blanks and maybe ...
0
I see no problems with keeping a waltz in sonata-allegro form coherent. I've composed tougher and more aberrant sonata-allegros. A ragtime sonata-allegro, compete with properly repeated strains of conventional length...a heavy metal sonata-allegro...a 20th century-style toccata in sonata-allegro form, complete with the increased dissonance typical of 20th-...
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There is nothing unusual happening in the strings, unless you regard staccato as a special technique. String players have a number of different ways of playing staccato but it's normally their choice which one they'll use for a particular phrase.
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If the composer needs to "explain" the only correct way to interpret the music, the basic problem is that something is seriously wrong with the music.
It would be unkind to name the author of the following quotes, so I won't, but they are extracts from a recent question on this site:
... Key is firmly in D major - The hero is accumulating his army …
...
9
If there are multiple valid interpretations of a piece of music, but
the composer of the music states that only one of those
interpretations is what they intended, are other interpretations still
valid?
This concern is known in literary theory as the intentional fallacy, though some people have discussed it in reference to music as well. The "fallacy"...
3
An amorphous question, but interesting.
In the case of harmonic analysis, the more correct interpretation would be the one that more accurately reflects the chord's function. The function is usually made clear by its resolution. Take a fully diminished 7th chord, for example. Heard in isolation, or seen as a set of pitch classes, it is impossible to know ...
3
Modal mixture versus tritone substitution seems to be about harmonic analysis. That is fairly specific compared to meaning of..., significance, interpretation.
I would expect at a minimum that a harmonic analysis should be fulfilled in some way by the music.
For example, if someone labels a chord a tritone substitution, there should be some kind of ...
3
This question is probably too subjective in its nature than what SE is looking for but here are my thoughts:
The music is what the music is and we don't get to decide what is "correct". Theory is a framework used to analyze music and find ways of describing what is happening. In most situations, there is a fairly standard way of interpreting things, which ...
0
Another thing to consider in your orchestration is the timbre, more specifically that it changes as the part goes towards the extremes. Do you really want the sound of a mezzo-soprano trying to hit an A5 just so that you can fill out your chord? Be aware of the blend you can realistically achieve with the part you've written. The more range you include in ...
1
While I wouldn't call it a Rondo That Is Also A Theme And Variations at this point, you can easily write a rondo where every return of the A section is varied. The 4th movement of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor is one such example (heck, the first return of its A section is in E minor instead of B minor, and the movement has aspects of sonata-rondo ...
2
A "theme and variations" is typically just that -- a theme, and then variations on that theme. If you have multiple other sections (B, C, bridge) that have no clear relationship as a variation on that theme, then it wouldn't typically be a theme and variations.
That's not to say that modern "theme and variations" don't take more liberties with the form. ...
1
If it's a pop video, the music keeps a steady tempo (probably), and the video is cut to fit it. But when it's the other way round - you scoring to existing video - it's quite likely you won't be able to find one tempo that puts a beat on each hit.
But musical hits don't have to be on the beat. If you feel the action needs a rock groove behind it for a bit,...
1
Well, it comes down to basic math.
If you have a gap between two events of T seconds, and you want to score so that there are B beats between those two events :
1 beat = T/B seconds
BPM = 60 / (T/B) = 60 B / T
for example : you have 6s between two events and you want 8 beats between them, then
BPM = 60 x 8 / 6 = 80bpm.
But when you have a bunch of ...
0
Yes, that's the textbook range, though I'd be wary of the top few notes. That's not what mezzo-soprano is all about.
Yes, it's an excellent idea to check that the part is singable by you. Not so much for the range (unless YOU'RE also a mezzo soprano!) but for breathing, tricky jumps etc. And make sure it's melodic and rewarding to sing!
You'll need to ...
0
I wonder if you called your piece a scherzo because you were hearing your music in a fast 3/4 or if you chose a fast 3/4 because you wanted to compose a scherzo. :) To me, it does not seem secondary to establish this.
1
Based on your description, even without looking at the music, it seems like you really need two time signatures. Looking at the music, I can also see very clearly that some things work better in 3/4 and others in 2/4. The only way it would seem to work in 3/4 alone would be if you were trying to play with expectations, ie, if you want the standard accents ...
1
Not sure if anyone's still following this, but I'm working on a doctoral degree in piano performance.
Prokofiev identified his own style in the autobiography mentioned above. He talked about it in terms of 5 different aspects/"five lines of composition" that contribute to his sound. I definitely remember 4 of them, and I think I know the fifth. I really ...
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This is a rather opinion based comment (and thus not necessarily appropriate for this board) but I think the 3/4 reads easier. (There are scherzos in 2/4 and 4/4 though.) I would go with whichever time signature you (the composer) thinks represents the basic pulse of the music. There can be short sections with another pulse but don't need signature changes. ...
1
The final sentence of your OP seems to imply that you are considering the flute as the top part and the cello as the bass.
That in itself seems very restrictive. Obviously the piano can play below the cello part even if the cello is in its lowest register, and don't forget that a conservative top range of the cello is A5 (one leger line above the treble ...
3
You used the "classical music" tag and within that style I think you will find an overwhelming tendency to include the third in the keyboard part even when the third is supplied by another instrument.
A rule of thumb I learned a while back is to reserve the use of open fifths or octaves (open meaning no third present) only at cadence points. That is ...
3
In a well-written duet involving a piano and another instrument (at least IMO), the piano part should sound like it has something missing. Don't worry about the ability of the piano part of a trio to stand alone.
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I wouldn't worry about the sound of the piano alone -- what matters is the sound of all three instruments playing together.
Open fifths in the piano, for example, are fine. Mind you, if you wanted the sound of a complete triad, and only one instrument is playing the third, and it's relatively quiet compared to the other instruments, then perhaps you need to ...
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