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!