Quote:
Originally Posted by marsbars
Well, I'd like to develop all of those things. Wrote some more yesterday and came up with a little bassoon ostinato. I was thinking maybe I could develop this part while modulating back to the B -> E harmony while hinting at the beginning motive. Maybe I should just stick with the motive and develop it more and bring in the bassoon part later.
Prepare for a barrage of questions:
A question about pitch ranges: obviously the bassoon is going to stay at the bottom most of the time; what about the oboe and clarinet? Am I free to have them "cross" at any time? or should I swap voices only after a cadence? I also have a part where the upper voices play in unison briefly then break apart - valid?
Let's say we have a "suspended" chord, like a tonic chord with an altered third, and before we resolve the dissonance we move to another harmony like a IV chord or something. Where should that voice move to?
In all the textbooks I've read, a 7th chord usually resolves with the bass moving up a fourth. So what if we decided to go V7 IV or V7 VI, does the earth asplode?
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Well! Naturally, we're not working with any specific "style" in mind at least that I can see, so you're free to do whatever you think is cooler. However, I totally would recommend a couple of things to consider regarding your questions:
The ranges for the bassoon are usually hard to describe, since you can also take the Bassoon quite high (Stravinsky's Rite of spring's beginning is played on bassoon.) But you have to know how to approach those notes (prepare them, use step motion, etc. Don't just jump to a high C, for example.)
You can quite literally cross voices with the clarinet and the bassoon for all intents and purposes. It's worth noting though that, again, the ranges if they're too extreme have to be done carefully. As for the Oboe and the Clarinet, it depends what you're doing with the instruments. If you're having a voice serve as accompaniment, crossing voices with it would render that pointless. Though, you can also bypass that with dynamics (the crossing voice is highlighted by a louder dynamic, the accompaniment voices being softer.)
You can also play unisons pretty neatly in the Oboe and the Clarinet, remember that both instruments don't sound alike and that sort of doubling just has a different sort of quality than if you had two of the same instruments do a unison.
Well, with chord sequences and harmony, keep in mind that you can literally grab any note from a chord as the basis or leading note to the next, specially if you're going to modulate and want to work in some chromatics. In terms of resolving a V7 chord, by the norm the 7th always moves to 3rd of the tonic (I), but if you want to spice things up, you can have that as a chromatic to all sorts of things.
Also, you don't NEED to resolve any suspensions, specially not in any traditional way. The 4th suspension goes to 3 and that the 9th to 8 is very text-bookish. Remember also that you're free to do parallel 5ths and 8ths anytime you feel like it. It depends on what kind of effect you want to get. Work with that in mind.
In other words, try to let the harmony choices if using a system be tools, not guidelines.
There's nothing wrong with doing V7 -> VI, or any such variations. It really depends on you wanting that or not. Try stuff out, see how you like it.
As for the form, maybe you can work a little more rhythmic contrasts in there somewhere for a contrast section? Or something like a variation of the beginning. Remember also there's absolutely nothing wrong with using any sort of different composition techniques mid-piece, like 12 tone, clusters, and all these things. It's only a matter of wanting to or not.
One of the things you should be aware of though, is not to bring new things in all the time. A typical error is unconsciously stuffing a piece full of material that gets discarded just as quickly as it shows up. You have so far a lot of stuff with the bits you showed, you can with that write the entire piece if you wanted. Don't think that contrast and such require always bringing new material.
By material I mean motives, rhythmics, harmonies, and so on. If you do introduce something new, try to work with it and don't let it become just a passing afterthought.
But! But but but, by all means, if your intention is otherwise, there's nothing wrong with that either. It must be conscious however, and not because you couldn't otherwise, that's all I'm saying.