04-08-2019, 05:47 AM
Nice work!
I think the main thing I'd like to see more of is a more 'singable' melody.
Most melodic figures in this piece careen back and forth between fast and slow, sometimes long passages of nothing but quarter notes with little sixteenth note or eighth note patterns or runs. I think perhaps you are a piano player or write using mouse entry where it is easy to fall into the pattern of just using the same note length for all of a rhythmic division than to switch to another note value. Similarly, while sticking to chord tones for most of a measure is a good and easy way to write melodies, introducing non-chord tones (here's a handy cheat sheet: http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/musi...2/112l.htm) can help turn a simple 'cantus firmus'-like melody into something more interesting.
Similarly, counterpoint doesn't always mean to wait for one part to end their bit before allowing another part to play something. Sometimes doubling a part up/down a third or sixth can create some beautiful but simple harmony. Part of good counterpoint is learning to make the piece not sound robotic, but flowing, as if the parts are having a conversation... and in a natural conversation, people do talk over each other, 'jump in' all the sudden, etc. Another thing which can contribute to this is a clear harmonic progression backed by dynamic motion. Having clear cadential points through the piece and cadential movement, as the voices build tension going into the dominant chord and release upon reaching the tonic (or not!), both builds listener interest and provides a piece with a natural movement.
I guess my point is, people don't talk in a monotone- we don't speak rhythms in simple 'ta-ta-ta-ta', but with direction. When I say "I am going to the store", every word in that sentence is leading towards 'store'. Maybe start with the most basic building block of music: rhythm. Take a sentence, and notate the rhythm. For example, 'I am going to the store' sounds something like this:
The 'tenuto' symbol represents an emphasized bit of text (like in poetry), while the resolution (or weak beat) is shown by the u-shaped symbol. The crescendo and diminuendo markings show approximately how someone would phrase this sentence.
With that info in mind, we can begin giving it a harmonic context:
Poof! We have a melody, and adding harmony or chords is not difficult.
Form suggests, for example, we can now take this figure and play it a second time, perhaps with a different cadential figure (e.g. re-ti-do instead of fa-fa-mi, as shown). After that (following the typical 'short-short-long' idea), we can introduce a new melody, thus completing our 'A section'.
From there, we have a subject we can play with and tweak... what if we play it in retrograde or invert it? Create a cannon with it? Make a diminution or variation? All possibilities.
My point is, it's not very hard to come up with a good, 'singable' (and most importantly of all... memorable!) theme, nor is there really any reasonable excuse not to. Furthermore, many composers will act like their first priority is to express themselves, but every single successful composer in history writes parts that are memorable and enjoyable for the musicians to play. Consider your performers- do they want to play simple melodies of lots of quarter notes interrupted by a few rapid passages? What is the purpose of what you write? Is what you write going to make the musicians happy or bored or overwhelmed? After all, there is a big difference between a piece which is 'complex' and a piece which is 'challenging'.
In all cases, the theory plays second chair to the larger form and function- a computer can write theoretically perfect counterpoint and a probability tree can make up reasonable chord progressions. What the composer adds boils down to taking those basic elements of chords and scales and making something beautiful (or terrifying) out of them, with the most important function being creating a melody.
With that in mind, also consider how you transition between sections. Right now it sort of stops and starts, or suddenly jumps into a new key area. The circle of fifths is your friend- remember the ii-V-I or IV-V-I progression and it can lead you anywhere via secondary dominants. Pivot chords, shared chords between multiple key areas, can also be useful for creating smooth transitions.
This little site is one of my favorite resources for 'big picture' theory, including modulation and harmonic structure. It's a little dense due to being translated quite literally from French into English, but is well worth the slog-
http://bw.musique.umontreal.ca/nm/index-en.html
I think the main thing I'd like to see more of is a more 'singable' melody.
Most melodic figures in this piece careen back and forth between fast and slow, sometimes long passages of nothing but quarter notes with little sixteenth note or eighth note patterns or runs. I think perhaps you are a piano player or write using mouse entry where it is easy to fall into the pattern of just using the same note length for all of a rhythmic division than to switch to another note value. Similarly, while sticking to chord tones for most of a measure is a good and easy way to write melodies, introducing non-chord tones (here's a handy cheat sheet: http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/musi...2/112l.htm) can help turn a simple 'cantus firmus'-like melody into something more interesting.
Similarly, counterpoint doesn't always mean to wait for one part to end their bit before allowing another part to play something. Sometimes doubling a part up/down a third or sixth can create some beautiful but simple harmony. Part of good counterpoint is learning to make the piece not sound robotic, but flowing, as if the parts are having a conversation... and in a natural conversation, people do talk over each other, 'jump in' all the sudden, etc. Another thing which can contribute to this is a clear harmonic progression backed by dynamic motion. Having clear cadential points through the piece and cadential movement, as the voices build tension going into the dominant chord and release upon reaching the tonic (or not!), both builds listener interest and provides a piece with a natural movement.
I guess my point is, people don't talk in a monotone- we don't speak rhythms in simple 'ta-ta-ta-ta', but with direction. When I say "I am going to the store", every word in that sentence is leading towards 'store'. Maybe start with the most basic building block of music: rhythm. Take a sentence, and notate the rhythm. For example, 'I am going to the store' sounds something like this:
The 'tenuto' symbol represents an emphasized bit of text (like in poetry), while the resolution (or weak beat) is shown by the u-shaped symbol. The crescendo and diminuendo markings show approximately how someone would phrase this sentence.
With that info in mind, we can begin giving it a harmonic context:
Poof! We have a melody, and adding harmony or chords is not difficult.
Form suggests, for example, we can now take this figure and play it a second time, perhaps with a different cadential figure (e.g. re-ti-do instead of fa-fa-mi, as shown). After that (following the typical 'short-short-long' idea), we can introduce a new melody, thus completing our 'A section'.
From there, we have a subject we can play with and tweak... what if we play it in retrograde or invert it? Create a cannon with it? Make a diminution or variation? All possibilities.
My point is, it's not very hard to come up with a good, 'singable' (and most importantly of all... memorable!) theme, nor is there really any reasonable excuse not to. Furthermore, many composers will act like their first priority is to express themselves, but every single successful composer in history writes parts that are memorable and enjoyable for the musicians to play. Consider your performers- do they want to play simple melodies of lots of quarter notes interrupted by a few rapid passages? What is the purpose of what you write? Is what you write going to make the musicians happy or bored or overwhelmed? After all, there is a big difference between a piece which is 'complex' and a piece which is 'challenging'.
In all cases, the theory plays second chair to the larger form and function- a computer can write theoretically perfect counterpoint and a probability tree can make up reasonable chord progressions. What the composer adds boils down to taking those basic elements of chords and scales and making something beautiful (or terrifying) out of them, with the most important function being creating a melody.
With that in mind, also consider how you transition between sections. Right now it sort of stops and starts, or suddenly jumps into a new key area. The circle of fifths is your friend- remember the ii-V-I or IV-V-I progression and it can lead you anywhere via secondary dominants. Pivot chords, shared chords between multiple key areas, can also be useful for creating smooth transitions.
This little site is one of my favorite resources for 'big picture' theory, including modulation and harmonic structure. It's a little dense due to being translated quite literally from French into English, but is well worth the slog-
http://bw.musique.umontreal.ca/nm/index-en.html
Sample library developer, composer, and amateur organologist at Versilian Studios.
