Lesson with Mark

So I think you use Finale, right? I myself always compose on paper. Occasionally I will copy one of my compositions into a MIDI editor to make a virtual "performance" of a piece, editing articulations and tempi to make a realistic MP3 using soundfonts or other samples. I often sightread my compositions as I finish them, but I rarely have time to learn to play them properly.

That said, I have Finale Notepad and if it's OK with you I will post examples in Finale.



What instruments do you play? On detail that I forgot to mention is that I have absolutely no knowledge of orchestration. Most of my writing is either for solo keyboard or for chamber groups of a few equal instruments and continuo. I think that the keyboard would be an ideal instrument for us to work with, especially with simple harmonizations and imitative counterpoint. Of course if you are more comfortable with another instrument, feel free to write for duets or trios or quartets or whatever. In baroque music a figured bass part is almost mandatory in such ensembles. Figured bass usually was given to harpsichord and cello, but organ, bassoon or dulcian, lute, theorbo, etc... were fairly common as well.



So, just to get a general picture of your knowledge of baroque melody and harmony and craftsmanship, I would like for you to write a simple 5-8 bar accompanied melody. The melody itself should be clear and singable and aria-like, though perhaps lightly ornamented. The accompaniment should be fairly chordal but not too blocky. You could write for keyboard or for solo instrument and keyboard. If you write for solo instrument and keyboard, however, I would prefer if you could write out the chords instead of using figured symbols.

Feel free to use chromaticism, but only if appropriate. I just want to see how you handle harmony and melody in general. I plan on also doing all the exercises I assign to you myself.

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So I plan to teach a few lessons with exercises on chromaticism in the Baroque period, and we could simultaneously work on a short piece to practice the concepts, like a keyboard suite or some sort of fugue or other imitative counterpoint. Does this sound like a good idea?

I also primarily compose on paper, and notate in Fnale only once I'm finished. I have Finale 06, and Notepad 07, so that'll be fine for examples and exercises.

My primary instrument is Classical Guitar, but about a year ago I started learning Piano as a composition aid, thus far I can play a few of Bach's inventions, and am working through the Fugue in F major from book one of the WTC, so I should be able to play most things I write without too much difficulty.

Kayboard sounds good, as it's something I'm happy with writing for and playing, and as you mentioned is ideal for harmonizations and counterpoint.

I shall start on this first exercise tonight, and should have something finished and uploaded by this time tomorrow, I think I'll go for Flute and Continuo

Originally Posted by echurchill

So I plan to teach a few lessons with exercises on chromaticism in the Baroque period, and we could simultaneously work on a short piece to practice the concepts, like a keyboard suite or some sort of fugue or other imitative counterpoint. Does this sound like a good idea?

That sounds like an excellent idea

Here's my first exercise, for Flute and Harpsichord.

The harmony's fairly simple, almost to the point of being boring, but I didn't want to do anything too adventurous incase I bodged it up.

I thought I'd upload these, as they're a considerably better representation of my abilities than my poor attempt at that first exercise

The first is part of an invention, with the exposition, first episode, and first middle entry in the dominant.

The second is a canonic chorale prelude in four parts for organ and any solo instrument, with the out voices being Tallis's canon.

Here is my tiny aria, for harpsichord or organ. (Only after writing this did I realize the first two bars of the melody blatantly plagiarize Dowland's Lachrymae Pavane.) I post the Finale fine here just as a score; if you want to hear it, please listen to this tiny MP3 I prepared (on organ):

Aria Example - eSnips, share anything

Of course Finale plays it back and it sounds terrible. Likewise, I think your tiny melody sounds totally lifeless in MIDI form , but I think that in actual performance it would be much more attractive. Your harmony is mostly fine, but actually I wanted you to focus more on melody. Perhaps in trying to write proper harmony you made your melody a bit too simple. As we work on these lessons, whether writing counterpoint or homophony, I think melody will be a most crucial aspect to focus on. (Even though we will be studying harmony, chromatic harmony necessarily implies chromatic melody.)

When writing music, do you generally begin with a harmony or a melody? As I slowly grow and learn as a composer, I have recently begun approaching compositions from a variety of perspectives like harmony, melody, rhythm and counterpoint before putting anything together. Thus I am sure that none of those aspects are deficient because of my hard work in another.





All that said, your melody is nice. Its curve moves down and then up again, the reverse of the most common arrangement, but that isn't necessarily an issue. I do hope that you are paying attention to the shapes of your melodies; if that's something you are unfamiliar with or interested in reviewing, I can briefly discuss. (One minor issue, I would have not used that ornament on the penultimate note. Ornaments can usually go wherever you want, but they are much more common on rhythmically strong notes. And the turn only became common in the classical period, although by Bach's time it was already showing up. I personally would have placed a medium-length trill on the note before that.)

Your harmony is not quite so stunning however. The harmonies themselves don't venture past the tonic and dominant! I have seen you do much better before; I think if it's not too much trouble you should reharmonize it using more varied chords. Also the A in the bass in measure five could be seen as an unaccented appoggiatura or as the root of a 7th chord, in which case the 7th is not resolving properly.

And one last note about the continuo itself. I understand many classical musicians might not know too many details about the performance of continuo, so don't worry too much about this, but know that the continuo's upper line should never rise above the solo instrument. Also the continuo should never double a leading tone or 7th in the solo melody. Both of these rules keep the continuo from drawing attention away from the instruments. "Illegal" parallels between the continuo's upper parts and the soloist are very common since the continuo is usually improvised, but they should never become too consistent. Your main issues are the doubled leading tones and crossings.





So I would like for you to reharmonize your melody with some interesting new chords, keeping in mind these guidelines for the harpsichord. I hope my example helps you; analyze its chords and figure out how it works! I think for both you and me, writing little melodies like this reveals deficiencies that are easier to hide beneath counterpoints, imitations, etc... My ridiculously short melody took a lot of thought and about half an hour to write, and I'm sure yours did too.

I really liked your chorale prelude and invention. Today or tomorrow I will begin the actual lessons , beginning with, I think, a brief summary, with short examples, of the types of baroque chromatic harmonies and their historical uses.

And also, what sounds more interesting for us to apply this to: an invention/sinfonia, or a dance suite movement? I myself lean towards the dance suite movement idea... of course a gigue could combine both ideas.... but the decision is up to you!

Here's my revised version.

I've altered the melody aswell somewhat, keeping the same basic pitches though. The harmony is still simple, all diatonic, etc, but using more than just tonic and dominant this time

I think a dance movement (maybe a three voice Minuet or Bourree for keyboard of something?) sounds like a good idea Maybe later we could try something more complex, but for now I think the simpler the form the more we can focus on the harmony

I really like how that turned out. I've noticed that you "filled in" some of the long note values, a good choice. I would still object (even despite my very modal ears) to the iii chord you use, but it's a minor issue and really depends on what exactly you want .

I think a Bouree or Minuet sounds like a great idea. Though I myself would rather write one of the standard movements... well, if I write a Courante and you write a Minuet, we would be working in similar rhythmic modes, though at different tempos. These dance movements are excellent practice because they can and should involve a little bit of everything: some counterpoint, some homophony; some light two voice imitation, some dense chordal parts, etc... as well as plenty of solid melodies. A great way to practice chromatic harmonies.

I'm happy with any of the dance forms, they were just the first two that jumped to mind as they're the only ones I've ever attempted writing in before - If you'd like to do a Courante then I'm more than happy to do likewise

I shall have a look at a few Courante's by Bach and others so I've got a bit of a better idea of what sort of melody I'll be wanting, as it will doubtless take me a long time to come up with some decent melodic ideas

After examining the French Suites (Bach) in detail, with scores and listening through a few times, I found I'm really enjoying the Sarabandes - more so than any of the other dances - so could we do a Sarabande please?