Composing Phrase by Phrase 21

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Na na na na na na na na

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! Believe it or not, we're nearing the end of this composition. Just a few phrases left to go. Last week, I finished the transition back to D major from B-flat major, which brings us to a return of the primary theme. I've already posted the planned arrive a while back and I've not seen much reason to change what I had come up with. I'll post it here again as a refresher.

mms. 163-185

Moving on! At the moment, the cadence appears to be setting us up for another cadence in D major. But the piece isn't done yet! We can't have that. Here's the next phrase.

mms. 186-193

That rug? It's been pulled. It's not a huge rug pull. It is a deceptive cadence, nonetheless. A classical deceptive cadence would give us a B minor chord, but it's been a long time since that was a requirement. Instead, we get a B major chord. The cello part takes up the bass. Following it along, we get B to E, the F to B-flat. It's not quite a circle of fifths. Has a similar feel to it, though.

mms. 186-189, cello

The viola tracks along the cello with chord fills. It's line follows an ascending scale that has something of an octatonic flavor to it (F#, G, A, B-flat). It also pops up from time to time to form another line traing a chromatic scale (D-sharp, E, F, F-sharp).

mms. 186-189, viola

Taken with the cello part, this creates an interesting situation where the viola is not following a clear ly patterned role in the chord voicings. It starts as the fifth of the chord (B major), the the third (E minor) and the third again (F major) then the octave (B-flat major). To help add another layer of spice, the viola also hangs onto the tone from the previous measure to create a little bit of dissonance against the cello. Since the line resolves from a more dissonant interval to a more consonant one, this would be called a retardation.

mms. 186-189, viola retardations

The violins play the melodic element. They alternate a two-measure fragment in a call and response set up.

mms. 186-189, violins

The fragment is a little bit gnarly to describe in words. It starts with the second violin playing an arpeggio up the B-major chord of the bar. It then overshoots the target note, B, before returning to it. The line the does a little curlicue kind of thing down to its next target, E. From here, the line sort of repeats itself. The arpeggio is replaced with a bigger leap, which then tracks down a scale again towards its final destination, F.

mms. 186-187, violin 2

The first violin sits out a little bit. It has a short line leading it from the background into the foreground. It then follows the same plan, with different chords. The first is actually a D minor chord in first inversion (the chord's third in the bass) followed by a... F-sharp major chord in first inversion? I think? It's a touch ambiguous. You could also read it as an augmented B-flat major chord. Actually, now I write it out, that's probably the better analysis.

mms. 188-189, violin 1

Hopping back over to the cello, the bass of the next four measures alternates between an F-sharp and a C, forming a tritone progression. It finishes with a chromatic scale that's displaced by big leaps of ninths and sevenths. This leads the ear into the next chunk of the composition. We'll get to that next week.

mms. 190-193, cello

The viola continues its ascent against this repeated bass. This time, its line follows a whole-tone scale, rather than an octatonic one. The implied counterpoint part of the line ascends in parallel right up to the end where it launches back down a series of leaps of a fifth before coming right back up the other direction with an arpeggio plus scale lead in.

mms. 190-193, viola

The two violins continue their call and response, although it is compressed down to a one measure fragment being passed back and forth. Their melodic fragments follow the same line as before: arpeggio overshooting its target, stepping back, then a little wrinkle that leads back to its final goal. At measure 193, the violins join together with the rest of the ensemble for their push into the next section.

mms. 190-193, violins

There's not much to say about this rhythmically. Everybody's pretty much chugging away at eighth-notes. There's a few hemiolas here and there brought about by changing the placement of slurs in the melodic fragment and by displaced octaves in the bass. It's otherwise fairly straightforward. One thing I will bring up is the use of slurs to create metric emphasis. Without them, the passage would quickly grow rhythmically stale.

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Composing Phrase by Phrase 19

Ascending the Roller Coaster

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! The past couple of weeks have been spent going over the modulatory transition back to D major from B-flat major. We're getting pretty close to the end of the transition, too. Just a couple more phrases and then we're there. To refresh a little bit, last week started a big shift in tone and texture. The viola and cello took the second theme's rhythm into a new melodic arc, while the first and second violins began a harmonized "skittering" melody based on a motif from the second theme. This week will continue that development. Tally ho!

mms. 141-154

Let's start with the simpler half of the equation. The viola and cello continue the altered rhythmic motif and begin a slow ascent towards out target pitch, A. Harmonically, the first four bars are drawn from the octatonic scale, a type of scale that pops up a lot in late 19th-century and early 20th century music. Like the whole tone scale, octatonic scales have a certain sense of ambiguity to them. That ambiguity helps this phrase continue to function as a pivot from B-flat to D major. The phrase segment ends with an ascending push to A.

mms. 141-146, viola/cello

The violins remain in a harmonized line together for the next few measures. At m.141, they cadence their previous line while the viola and cello continue onwards, maintaining forward momentum. The next four measures are in two-bar segments. Measure 142 begins with a scale that continues its line from the cadential note in 141. It then ends with an arpeggio that, like the monorail or the escalator to nowhere, just sort of ends abruptly. Measure 143 is a the second measure of the segment. It's a repetition of the second and third beats from 142, but moved up a step. The line tries one more ascent and falls off the cliff again. Like Wile E. Coyote.

violins m. 142-143

Measures 144-145 take the segment up a step in the sequence. It is otherwise exactly the same as 142-143.

violins, mms. 142-145

Measure 146 ends the first part of the phrase. The violins separate from each other, with the first violin beginning a compression of the previous two-measure segment. This allows the line to fit within a single bar, plus a beat. The effect now is a big "upbeat" measure into 147.

violin 1, mms. 145-147

The arrival at 147 marks another textural change. The cello settles on a pedal point A (simply put, it is sustained while other instruments do things). The viola begins a new melody based on the previous rhythmic motif, plus a little extra. It begins an apparent sequential repetition at m. 150, but peels off in a slightly different way. The 2/4 measure at 152 marks a rhythmic shift that will help build up to a climactic moment.

viola/cello, mms. 147-152

Meanwhile, the violins continue their skittering motif, this time in a call and response style texture. The entrances of each overlap with each other somewhat, giving the sense of two instruments kind of stepping on each other's toes to get a word in edgewise.

violins, mms. 146-149

The lines are presented in sequence. When looked at as a whole, the sequence simply follows a scale. The scale is divided between the two violins, though, so each individual instrument has its line transposed up a third, instead. This would be a really cool texture to experiment with in something like a wind quintet, where the difference in timbres (between, say, a flute and clarinet) could add an additional layer of interest. With just violins, the effect is slightly stereophonic, to the extent it can be with the players sitting right next to each other.

violins, scale sequence mms. 146-149

At 150, the violins join back together in harmony again, the scale fragment moving up and stepping back in a kind of musical stutter. Rhythmically, taking the rests out of the motif entrances gives a sense of compression. This metrical compression has been going on since the beginning of the phrase. 142-145 present the idea with rests; 146-149 take the same idea, but overlap entrances between the two instruments, compressing the idea a bit; finally, 150-152 compresses the motif into a single measure without any rests to catch one's breath. All in all, a fairly common approach to building intensity, although with somewhat uncommon musical elements

violins, metrical compression, mms. 142-152

The phrase ends with one last build up. The move from triplet eighth-notes to triplet quarter-notes gives a sense of slowing, a change which is reinforced by a slight ritardando leading to the top of the musical moment. The cello grounds the whole thing with octave leaps up a scale; the viola plays leaps of sixths in counterpoint to the violins, who are more or less playing a scale straight to the top. The violins and viola are in rhythmic hemiola against the cello, just for a bit of extra rhythmic texture.

quartet, mms. 152-154

What's it all leading to? Well, youll have to wait and find out next week! I hope you found this post interesting and/or informative. If you did, consider following along on an RSS feed of your choice. If you really did, you can help support a starving artist by joining my Patreon! Either way, thanks for reading and I hope you come back for more!

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Composing Phrase by Phrase 17

Finishing the Modulation

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! We've been chugging along through a movement for string quartet, something like a scherzo, except it's not quite following the classical scherzo format. Last week's post went over more of the modulatory phrase that's going to bring us from G major to B-flat major. Today, I'll bring us the rest of the way. The phrase in full looks like this.

mms. 115-130

The segment begins with a continuation of the half-step motive I've been using throughout the work. Instead of going up a half-step and stepping back to the starting note, though, I use the rising half-step as the next rung of a ladder leading upwards. This rising scale starts with just violin 1 playing the motive and violin 2 playing a simple, sustained accompaniment.

mms.115-116

In the next three measures, violin 1 continues the ascending scale, this time without the brief rests separating the statements. This phrase extension is joined by the viola, which adds a little bit more color and weight to the accompaniment. A few simple changes to the rhythm help ease into the phrase's approach towards the top of the scale - a sustained measure, followed by two beats of 6/8, followed by a hemiola of 6/8 in violin 1 against 3/4 in violin 2 and viola.

mms. 117-119

There's a shift when the three instruments reach the top of their scale. Violin 2 and viola break from their sustained accompaniments and join violin 1 in a harmonized descending scale. Excepting some contrary motion in the viola, the three instruments use the fauxbourdon harmonization I've used before in the work. This texture has come up a few times already, which might be a potential weakness of the composition. I think since the work will end up being quite short, it's probably fine, and repeating textures can also add a sense of cohesiveness to the whole. Now, if my next composition has a bunch of fauxbourdon, as well, well... I'll have to think more carefully about expanding my textural palette.

Aside done. The cello also joins in. The plan is to have all four instruments playing the return of the second major theme. I'd rather that didn't feel like a total surprise, so this seemed like a good place begin the cello's entrance. The cello's goal is a sustained B-flat and F. To get there, the bass line starts right at the bottom of the instrument's register and moves up a scale in contrary motion against the fauxbourdon harmonization.

mms. 120-121

Harmonically, a few things are happening. There is a general allusion to a ii-V-I progression, a very common pattern of chords that is used all over the place. The fact that everything is moving in scalar motion somewhat disguises this otherwise common progression. In addition, the cellist only provides the bass note for the ii chord (C minor7, marked in red). While the V chord (F major, marked in blue) does appear, it is only briefly in upper trio of instruments. The cello doesn't even provide an F in the bass. This blurring of elements used for an otherwise common progression helps keep the phrase's cadence from feeling too stale.

mms. 120-121, important harmonies

At this point, the modulation back into B-flat major is complete. Hooray! It was quite a detour to get there. Of course, there are more direct routes one could have taken, but I have ADHD, so I'm not sure I can do anything without a discursion here in there (see paragraph 4 above, as well as this parenthetical). Once B-flat major is fully settled, the second major theme makes its return. Where previously it was played by the viola and the cello in octaves, it is now played by the viola and violin 1. Violin 2 adds a little bit of harmony through a lightly contrapuntal line. Cello supports everything with a droned B-flat and F. In addition, viola and cello provide the fills in between phrases.

mms. 122-130

In contrast to the fairly disguised harmonies that brought us into the section, the harmony here is fairly plainly stated: B-flat to F, B-flat7 to E-flat to F. In this case, I wanted the plainly stated harmonies to help signal a return to stability in the composition. It won't stay stable long! But that's for next time.

This is as good a place as any to wrap up for the week. I hope you found this little read informative. Maybe even enjoyable? If so, consider following the blog on an RSS feed of your choice. If you really enjoyed it, you can follow along at my Patreon where I provide video samples of the composition in progress, as well as other compositions I write that don't make it into the blog. Either way, thanks for reading!

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Composing Phrase by Phrase 20

Down the Roller Coaster

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! The last couple of weeks have been exploring the transition from the second section in B-flat major back to the first section's material in D major. This week will be the last part of that transition. Hooray! Let's take a peek and see what we're working with.

mms. 155-162

That's a lotta notes! To recap a little bit, the measures 153-154 built up to a big high point of tension. Measure 155 is where the rubber band snaps and all that tension starts to spill out. Like a roller coaster! You approach the top of the hill, the pace slows up in antici --- PAtion, and then BAM! You're off to the races.

We'll start with the cello and the viola because they're the simpler parts of all this. In measures 155-156, the two instruments trade off the "cadence motive" that's been used off and on across the whole composition in a variety of ways. The chord is an augmented B-flat chord, although the B-flat is mostly dropped in measure 156. The instrument not playing the cadence motive punctuates the section with accented pizzicati.

mms. 155-156, cello and viola

The cello and viola then join up in octaves for measures 157-158. The line circles the target note A, first above it on a B-flat, then under it on a G-sharp. Harmonically, all of this is drawn from a whole-tone scale. Like the octatonic scale used in the previous phrase, the whole-tone scale has high ambiguity. Even with B-flats in the phrase, the connection to B-flat as a "tonic" has been pretty well obliterated at this point. There's still a sense of direction because of the previous arrival on an A in 150. This phrase extension helps give extra weight to that A when it comes back in measure 159.

mms. 157-158

Alright. Now the violins. There's lots of noodles here! But who doesn't like noodles? Before we get to the noodly contents, it will be a good idea to look at how all these have been strung together. The start and end tone of each string forms an octave. The octaves trace out a B-flat augmented triad over the course of the whole phrase. The exception is the very last one which is a G#.

mms. 155-158, violins

The noodles themselves are mostly drawn from adjacent whole-tone scales. The first one in measure 155, for example, uses B-flat, A-flat, and G-flat followed by a little hop to E-flat, D-flat, and everybody's favorite flat, C-flat. Not all of the noodles follow this outline. In 156, the line uses whole-tones (D, C, B-flat) followed by G-flat, F, and E-flat. This change is both for variety and to allow the line to fill the octave while keeping the motivic "hop" in the middle. For the most part, the noodles are made pretty much the same way.

mms. 155-157, noodly contents

There's a slight change in the first violin's line in measure 158 which helps prep the shift at 159. The chord at the end of 158 is mostly an E7. This is used as a secondary dominant to help set up the A as a dominant to bring us back home to D.

Next! The cello in 159-160 holds down the fort on a pedal tone, A. In 161-162, the bass line then descends a scale towards its target, D.

The violins and viola, for the most part, simply harmonize each with other up a chromatic scale. There's a couple wrinkles here and there so that it's not a perfectly straight line. The harmonization is our good ol' fauxbordon.

mms. 159-162, violins and viola

Rhythmically, the violins chug along on eighth-notes. The cello repeats the cadence motive in 3/4 (blue), a hemiola against the rest of the ensemble in 6/8 (yellow). The viola hops out of the chromatic scale for a moment to reinforce the harmonic progression with chords and to make the hemiola more obviously intentional. Lastly, the cello helps bring the line home with one last rhythmic slow-up, changing to triplet quarter-notes for two beats (green).

mms. 159-162, quartet rhythm

And that's it! Honestly, not as much to talk about as it might first appear.

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Composing Phrase by Phrase 18

The Return Begins

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! I've been composing phrase by phrase for a while now and I've got two sections knocked out. A theme in D major; a second theme in B-flat major; a digression into G major and back to B-flat; and now? Now what? Classical form dictates a return to D major. Seems sensible enough to me, let's do that!

But how, though? Since this composition is roughly tonal, meaning it has a set hierarchy of chords and they are used within harmonic progressions, and I want to get back to D major, that means I should be aiming for an A major chord (see tonal music theory 101 for more details). I would also like the return to D major to be a big climactic moment, so I need a dynamic build up. I also need to connect back not only harmonically but rhythmically, too. We've been in this nice, broad melody but our target is a lively, motoric rhythm.

With all that in mind, here's what I came up with to begin the transition back to D major.

mms. 129-141

Is there a lot going on? Well, yes... but also, no. We begin with the cadence to the previous phrase. Instead of hitting the B-flat chord and stopping, the viola and cello charge in octaves down a B-flat minor scale to the lowest point on their register, those phat open C strings.

mms. 129-130

When they get there, they play a newish melody. The actual melodic arc hasn't really been heard before. The rhythm, however, is the same as the rhythm used for the antecedent of the second theme's phrase.

mms. 122-123 and mms. 131-132 comparison

Where the second theme played out over gentle leaps across its melodic arc, this rendition is held close to the point of origin. The resulting compression aids the dynamic build up that I would like to achieve. For one, it gives more head room for the material to ascend, or even just move around in general. For another, the contrast in melodic arc coinciding with a contrast in harmonic material creates a sudden point of suspense which needs resolution.

The viola and cello play the altered antecedent and then lands on a longish sustained tone. When they get there, the violins play a skittering melody, harmonizing with each other as the triplets descend towards their goal.

mms. 133-135

The skittering bit is tough for lay ears to parse on first listen. That's fine. The aim is more for a spattering of color, a textural effect more than a motivic or harmonic one. That said, it's not random. The whole line can be divided into three chunks. I'll look only at violin 1 for clarity. The line starts off with a rhythmically compressed version of the consequent arc from the second theme's phrase. This technique where the composer takes an established rhythmic element and compresses it is called diminution (in certain circles).

m. 72 and m. 133 comparison

The second bit of skitter is straightforward enough - it's the same melodic arc in sequence.

mms. 133-134 sequence

The last chunk of the line is a sequence of descending thirds followed by one final arpeggio that takes the line to its final goal. Altogether, the parts of the line can be divided like this:

mms. 133-134 parts

What is violin 2 doing during this, you ask? Simple! It's harmonizing with violin 1, following basically the same line. All of this is being played over the sustained low C in the viola and cello.

mms. 133-134

Now, while the skittering line itself is, uh, "simple" I suppose you could say, the harmony is doing some squirrely things. Violin 1 is pulling its pitches from the whole-tone scale: C, D, E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp. Violin 2 harmonizes in thirds, but pulls its line from a (music nerd alert) B-flat Myxolydian Flat6 scale. That's a bit of a mouthful. You can think of it as a confluence of a major scale and its parallel minor. In this case: B-flat, C, D, E-flat, F, G-flat, A-flat.

This combination of incongruous harmonic elements more or less obliterates a clear sense of harmonic center. The whole-tone scale (which had been used before for similar reasons) is already harmonically ambiguous. Putting a completely different scale type underneath it doesn't really clarify things, especially at the speed the instruments are playing.

What happens next? Good news! It's the same thing! Well, it's a sequential repetition. And there's a bit of a harmonic shift in the skittering scale, but otherwise, it's all the same. The viola and cello begin their line again and move their sustained tone up a half-step. The two violins follow suit.

mms. 136-140

And that's about it for this next chunk. We've got a bit before the transition back to D major is complete, but that's a problem for future me. Now me is done. So, thanks for reading! I hope you learned something for your own compositional practice. If you enjoyed what you read and want more, consider subscribing to an RSS feed of your choice. If you really liked it, you can support me by joining my Patreon for access to other scores and projects, as well as score videos of blog examples.

Either way, thanks for reading!

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Composing Phrase by Phrase 16

Prepping the Modulation

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! I've been working through a string quartet movement. Last week, I went over an extension of the second main section of the composition. The phrase geared up for a change from G major back into B-flat major. Today, I'll go over the next step in the modulation. Here's the phrase we'll be looking at:

mms. 102-115

The first big thing is the return of the "interruption phrase," the rhythmically and harmonically jarring measures which first arrived way back in the second phrase of the composition. This has been used previously as part of a consequent to an antecedent-consequent phrase pair, one which provided both a contrast and a means of preparing a cadential phrase. It was also used to help modulate the end of the first section from D major to B-flat major and it is being used in a similar fashion here.

There's a recurring motif that happens during these interruption moments, a minor second. Previous interruption phrases alternated between harmonically static rhythms and this motif, as such:

mms. 17-21

The interruption moment from mms. 102-106 condenses the alternation. I simply placed the minor second motif in the cello, alternating with big octave leaps.

mms. 102-106

I decided to condense this moment because we've already heard it a couple of times already. Giving a full reiteration of the interruption phrase felt like it would be too much of a muchness. Thinking about it now, I suppose it might also have been possible to give an extension of the interruption phrase, introducing harmonic movement and/or giving the rhythmic element to three instruments while the fourth plays a melody above it. That would be pretty cool, but I don't feel like the form supports that kind of development at the moment.

Speaking of harmony, the chords here are a conglomeration of sevenths. They were built around the vague idea of an F7 chord in first inversion - the cello plays the A, the viola plays the F and the E-flat. There's also a touch of a B-flat major chord sneaking in there between the cello's B-flat and the first violin's D and C-sharp. The second violin makes a mess of it with a G and F-sharp, a hold over from the G-major section prior.

Would an ear actually distinguish these three layered elements? No, I would think not. It simply perceives a sharp, cacophonous sound. However, different types of clusters do have different types of sounds. If I had used another stack of sevenths using pitches unrelated to the two key areas I'm trying to connect (G-major and B-flat major), it would have a similar but tangibly different harmonic feel to it.

All of that mess resolves to an A-major chord. The chord is presented using the cadential rhythmic motif, a dotted-eighth plus sixteenth-note plus eighth-note rhythm over sixteenths into and eighth. The viola sustains its cadential note, playing on while the rest of the instruments abruptly cut off.

While the viola continues on, the minor-second motif makes a return. The cello plays a rhythmic bass on A and the second violin performs the minor-second. Its relation to the sustained and rhythmic A's is a third, alternating between major and minor through the motif. After alternating with the cello in a hocket-like moment, the viola and cello lead into the next part of the phrase with scales playing in contrary motion. Their goal is an E-flat, a tritone away from the A.

mms. 108-110

At the next segment, the second violin picks up the sustained tone and everything repeats in the new harmonic area. The difference is register. The viola plays what the cello played prior while the first violin plays what the second violin played previously. The contrary motion scales also land in a slightly different way, on an A and a C instead of octaves.

mms. 111-115

There's still a little bit more before the modulation back to B-flat is completed, but I think I'll leave that for next week. The main take away here is how the phrase creates a moment of high tension that acts as the pay off for the build-up before it, then suddenly breaks away. Even though it creates space, the fact that the rhythmic and harmonic elements are yet unsettled continues to hold suspense. The listener doesn't quite get a breather at this moment. I'd rather the release of tension happen at the return of the B-flat major melody. This is all a pacing issue - if I release tension too soon, the melody's comeback won't be quite as impactful. In this case, that's because the melody we're repeating is, itself, fairly relaxed compared to the rest of the composition. Letting the tension go slack before its return doesn't give us much else to let go of for dramatic effect.

Alright, I think that's all for today! I hope you learned a thing or two for your own composing. If you enjoyed the post, consider subscribing to an RSS feed of your choice. If you really enjoyed it, maybe join my Patreon! I post score videos for the phrases I write about in the blog as well as other scores and project as they come up. Either way, thanks for reading!

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