Composing Phrase by Phrase 11

Something Almost, but not Quite, Entirely Different

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase, the composing blog where I compose... phrase by phrase? Yes. Just as it says on the tin. Last week, I went over the second statement of the main theme. The phrase follows measures 1-8 pretty closely, with a few alterations harmonically and texturally. So, the next eight bars should resemble 9-16, right? You would think so, wouldn't you? But no! I have a different plan in mind.

Let me rephrase that. I did plan on doing a modified version of 9-16. But then I saw an opportunity for something different. Near the end of the previous article, I pointed out a little motivic thing in the viola. This thing:

viola motive

And I thought to myself, "That's kind of cute. Can I use that for material?" The answer was, yes, of course I can. You can use anything, as long as you can convince the ear it's ok. So here's what I came up with in the next phrase.

mms. 45-50

Let's break down the actual melody, given over to the viola (composers: please don't forget that violists, despite all evidence to the contrary, are capable of playing music (violists, thank you for your infinite patience with viola jokes)). It starts with the lead-in established in the first theme's restatement. The next bar resembles the motive already played by the viola as the phrase interjection found in measure 2, among others.

phrase interjection and melody comparison

The next bar is a foreshadowing of the upcoming second section. I'll return to this when we get there. For now, I'll note this is one of the advantages of working out big sections in advance, as opposed to literally composing one phrase at a time (this blog's name notwithstanding). By knowing what's coming as a composer, you can leverage "future" material earlier in the composition to help prime the listener's ear for its eventual arrival, and to help create cohesion across the work.

It's easy for musical foreshadowing to become heavy-handed and obvious. I think it works in this instance because it's a very short motivic fragment and it's buried in a larger melody that gives it a different context than it has when it returns. Incidentally, recontextualization is a development technique I haven't seen discussed a lot. I'll have to return to this topic, sometime.

Moving on. The melody lead-in returns and then the whole melody is played again in sequence. A musical sequence is a compositional technique in which the composer takes a motive and repeats it at different pitch degrees. It's a bit like musical tesselation. Here's an example from Antonio Vivaldi's Cello Sonata in E Minor.

Vivaldi sequence example

There are several different types of sequences, the details of which are beyond the scope of this article. For now, I'll simply point out the sequence in the viola melody. The first statement starts on E, the second repeats the three bars again starting on D.

Viola melody in sequence

One thing about the melody I'd like to point out is the new phrase grouping. We've had lots of eight bar phrases in 4+4 structures. This melody is a six-bar phrase in a 3+3 structure. I wish I could say I planned it this way, but in honesty that's just how it worked out this time. I think as composers, we should be open to the most natural expression of a musical line without trying to force it into "logical" parameters. On the other side, once a musical expression has been worked out, it's also on the composer to figure out how to balance things on the other sides of it.

So that's the melody. What's the rest of the ensemble doing? The cello is providing much of the harmonic context with a kind of walking bassline. The violins provide a light accompaniment to the viola melody, providing a little harmonic color and rhythm. Harmonically, the violins are mostly in thirds/sixths. The first violin occasionally adds a little push here and there for momentum in the middle of the phrase.

violin phrase nudges

Rhythmically, the violins are mostly on the big metrical beats: 1 and 4 in the 5/8 bar, 1 and 2 in the 2/4 bar. The 6/8 measure uses the violin in hemiola. This is a rhythmic technique in which a group which has been divided into twos is instead divided into threes, or vice versa. In this instance, the measure is 6/8, which is typically divided into two groups of three. The viola and cello follow that pattern. The violins instead divide the measure into three groups of two. This creates the following interlocking pattern.

hemiola rhythm

The cello additionally adds some accents on weaker beats of the measure for additional rhythmic spice.

The very last measure has the violins launching upwards. Towards what? Towards the phrase that I'll introduce next week! That's all for today. I hope you found the post informing and useful. If you liked what you read, consider following the blog on your RSS feed. If you really liked it, then consider joining my Patreon, where I post the audio for the phrases in this blog as well as other compositions that don't make their way here.

Either way, thanks for reading!