Music Theory II project

Um, hi people, I'm new here and I have to do a project for my music theory 2 class, and it is a composition requiring at least 32 bars of music.

What I have here isn't close to being done, so I would appreciate any suggestions/criticisms/comments.

I am an oboist with 8 years of experience, I'm the second oboe in my wind ensemble (the highest band) at my high school; and I'm the percussion section leader in the symphonic band (Yes, I take two band classes, I started playing percussion in marching band in the Pit, so it sort of just carried on).

also:

I'm not exactly good at composing or anything, I always see myself making a melody but then starting over again because I don't know what to do for bass lines and descant/harmony. I've asked my teacher for help, but when he explains it, it just confuses me more. :(

untitled.sib

untitled.mid

You have to compose a 32 bar piece for full orchestra? In highschool??? Shiza that's pretty crazy

Your melody is a little stagnant in that slow tempo.

Some issues with what you did: You essentially just duplicated the melody in all the voices. This is definitely not good practice in general. (specially when the implied harmony is just one chord) Beethoven's 5th starts out like this but its a very dramatic effect and only lasts for 4 bars in fast tempo.

By duplicating the voice like that you don't really give a good harmonic progression. Theres really very little harmonic motion going on in your piece.

About form. Basically you create a phrase of music and then add to it by repeating it, varying it, breaking it up, expanding on it etc. Repetition is a very strong technique and is used extensively by all the great composers. Usually though the repetition is not exact and modified in some unessential way.

What you can do is compose a phrase then try to write a consequent phrase after it. Normally this this is 4 bars of some melody that ends on a half cadence(the dominant) and then another 4 bars that ends on the tonic. The 2nd phrase sorta "answers" the first. This is kinda hard to explain but you probably know what I'm talking about. It doesn't necessarily have to follow that layout but it is common.

If you have your 8 bars with two phrases in the call/answer(antecedent/consequent) form then it is called a period. A period is sorta like a sentence. A period is a basic structure for form(the phrase is the fundamental structure). From that you can repeat the period exactly or inexactly, or you can make another contrasting(but similar) period to get a double period.

If letters represent phrases then you can have things like ab aab abb abb' abab' aba'b abac etc... etc.. etc.. (really up to you and the initial idea)

That will get you 16 bars which you can repeat to get 32 bars(again, you can do it exactly or inexactly). Generally that will be called a part or a section(Depending on the size and its relationship to the whole and how you end it).

You can expand the phrases to make them larger such as extensions, codettas, etc...

There is a ton of info by try to use your ears and you should look at some scores of music and try to figure them out. Probably all the music of the greats is 50% repetition if not more(I'm guessing of course). (not only repetition of parts and sections but of ideas(motives, themes, etc...)). So really you don't have to write that much once you have an idea.

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Ok, I went ahead and wrote a little section around your idea. It's simple and not meant to be difficult or extravagant but just to show you a few concepts you can use to expand on an idea.

crap3.mp3

It starts out by sequencing(modified though) the little motive I took out of your score. This gives me 4 bars. The next bars is a repetition of the first bar so it sounds like a repeat of the idea but the last half of the motive is changed to take it into a different direction. Which is sequenced again(modified).

So at around 13 seconds you have two phrases(sorta a period) that are pretty much all derived from the motive. The other voices are just harmonic filler(could have been written better of course). After 13s I just kinda add an extension to the period but in reality I swap the motive to the lower voices). You can think of it as an "episode" as it serves no real thematic purpose but adds a little bit of transition back to what sounds like it will be a repeat(Again, the original motive comes in).

So at 19s it's the same as the the first bar(actually I copied and pasted it. After that I just sorted decided to end it(which sorta doesn't fit well because its kinda contrived).

In any case that is 20 bars and it could be repeated or I could remove the ending and transition it into another theme or just be a little free in form(which actually it is as technically it was composed only with the initial phrase in mind and everything else was sorta "rolled" out of it.

In any case the point is to show that its not hard to create 32 bars(ok, I only did 20 but...). Its hard to create 32 good bars but thats a different story ;) If you try and keep in mind the phrases and motives you are using it shouldn't be to hard. Remember that phrases are all about cadences(points of repose(no matter how slight)) and that has to do with rhythm, melody, and harmony. If any of those are weak then you won't have good cadences and then you won't have good phrases. If your phrases are not good then your form won't work(unless it is intentional).

Also, I would suggest you start with less a string quartet or even trio rather than a full orchestra. You can always add to a quartet if you needed.

If you need help on the form then a basic structure is

||a b|a b':||

a,b,b' are phrases(' means modified. :|| means repeat hole section)

that is 32 bars if each phrase is 4 bars so its basically 16 bars and repeated to give 32. But in effect all you have to do is compose 2 phrases which is 8 bars. You can even get it down smaller if you use motives as your basis and use them to construct the phrases in ingenious was.

Because you repeat the section you might actually want to try

||a b|a' c:|| instead so it doesn't get too repetitive. (c could be b' too)

again, it's totally up to you.

Hope this helps...

Jon

Yes, thank you very much!!! Your sample mp3 was amazing when I heard it. What program do you use? My initial tempo was intended to be slow, it was supposed to be an inspirational song, but now I think a faster tempo better suits it, not nearly as fast as your sample though. Yes I think starting out with less instruments and building to more is an effect I wasn't utilizing.

Do you have any suggestions of scores that I could look at?

I used East West Symphonic Library but for some reason the only articulations that sound decent are the martellato. The sustained versions have some articulation problems that I guess you have to go in an manually mess with to make them sound good. The martellato articulations sound good right out of the box without messing with them(even though you can't get sustained notes). That is another reason I sped it up too. (Still trying to figure out how to effectively use the sample libraries)

I'm not saying it sounds bad slow but it requires that you supply the interest somewhere else because the melody seems to keep hitting its head on the same note. This can be fixed several ways. You can play around with it and see what you can come up with. You also might try modifying one note or adding a note and see how it changes it. One note in the right spot can make a huge difference. It could also be used in an inner voice to good effect.

In any case I think any score would help. You might start with the smaller menuet's since they have a pretty straight forward form. What will probably help is try and get the score and music to some simple but enjoyable pieces and then follow the score while listening to the music. Jot down cadences when you hear them and new sections. Look at the score and see how repetition is used(that is the key because that is what holds the piece together and is what gives it structure). Although I think in smaller pieces it might be more difficult to see these because they are not used as extensively because the piece is small.

If your used to sight reading and can follow along with a score then any of the smaller sonatas by Hadyn or Mozart would be ok too. Although I think you should know about the sonata-allegro form and if not you should read up on it. (essentially its theme based and generally occurs in a specific way)

Take Beethoven's 1st Sonata. The first movement uses repetition without end. Just about every bar or two is repeated in some way... usually modified or broken up though.

Just in case you didn't know. A sonata is a collection of movements. Usually it has a Sonata-Allegro piece, a menuet and trio, and something else or two(Another S-A or Rondo or sometimes something different). So you can get the minuet and trio along with a Sonata-Allegro. All these pretty much have standardized forms and the only thing is to see and hear them and then try to mimic them in writing your own piece.