160 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
160 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Music Composition
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---
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<status>Status: 🌱 </status>
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<details>
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<summary>Table of contents</summary>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#motivesphrases" class="internal-link">Motives and Phrases</a>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#harmonicfunction" class="internal-link">Harmonic Function</a>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#sentenceperiod" class="internal-link">Sentence and Period</a>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#harmonicrhythmseq" class="internal-link">Harmonic Rhythm and Sequence</a>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#secondarydominants" class="internal-link">Secondary Dominants</a>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</details>
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### Motives and Phrases {#motivesphrases}
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##### Motives
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- "smallest musical idea"
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- usually 2-7 notes[^1]
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- motive is a seed/DNA of things to come
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- motives are developed
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2 parts of a good motive:
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1. distinct interval/shape[^2]
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2. distinct rhythm
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[^1]: rule of thumb - can be more, but difficult to pull off. Same with 1 note, very exceptional cases.
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[^2]: distinct doesn't necessarily mean never heard before - just something that is recognisable in a piece
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#### Phrases
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- "complete expression of that idea[^3]"
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- consists of motives
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- standard phrase is 2 bars long
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3 parts of a good phrase:
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1. motive - no more than 3 motives
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2. peak - the most something; can be lowest/highest, loudest, most disonant, etc[^4]
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3. punctuation - as in writing, simplest is rest or hold a note[^5]. Important to give listener a pause
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[^3]: idea = motive
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[^4]: it needs to stand out and it's best to hit it only once
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[^5]: good idea is to visualise someone singing and needing to take a breath
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### Harmonic Function {#harmonicfunction}
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Each chord in a key has a function.
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For major key
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| Tonic | Subdominant | Dominant |
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| ----- | ----------- | -------- |
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| I | ii | V |
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| iii | IV | vii[^6] |
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| vi | | |
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C Dm Em F G Am Bdim can change to
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Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7(b5)
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in minor key
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Am Bdim C Dm Em F G
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Am7 Bm7(b5)[^7] Cmaj7 Dm Em7[^8] Fmaj7 G7[^8]
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[^6]: very spicy in major, beginner should avoid
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[^7]: dimished here is more useful in minor, as it can be seen as "spicy subdominant chord to v"
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[^8]: can be changed to E/E7 and G#dim/G#dim7 to give more pull into tonic
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### Period and sentence forms {#sentenceperiod}
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#### Period
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- 8 bar phrase
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- **basic idea**[^9] - 2 bars
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- **antecedent** = basic idea + 2bars that end with half cadence[^10] - 4 bars
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- **consequent** - basic idea[^11] + 2 bars that end with authentic cadence - 4 bars
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- period = antecedent + consequent. It's bit like question and answer, or saying basic idea, "not sure where to go", repeat basic idea and lead somewhere satisfying.
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Period is a very balanced form. ABAC is good representation of it.
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#### Sentence
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- also 8 bar form
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- more forward directed than period
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- 4 first bars -> basic idea x2[^11]
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- bars 5&6 -> **continuation** -> there's "more something"[^12]
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- bars 7&8 -> any cadence
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because of open end it is easy to move on, but more difficult to use repetition to extend beyond 8 bars due to repetitive nature of beginning. AABC is good representation of it
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[^9]: pretty harmonically stable
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[^10]: contrasting idea
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[^11]: can be copypaste, can introduce variation, but familiar melody **needs** to be repeated
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[^12]: no matter what more, but more. Bit like with peak. Can be more chords in a bar. Can be idea expressed in 1 bar instead of 2. Can be more notes.
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### Harmonic Rhythm and Sequence {#harmonicrhythmseq}
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#### Harmonic rhythm
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`how many chords per bar` [^13]
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#### Sequence (in melody)
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Take a small pattern and shift in N steps, for example
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`def efg fga`[^14]
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#### Harmonic Sequence
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`tl;dr the same but for chords`
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Examples:
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- chords going down by 3rds: `C Am F Dm`
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- ii V I that goes forever: `Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 Cm7 F7 Bbmaj7 Bbm7 Eb7 Abmaj7...`
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very useful in continuation of sentence form
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[^13]: use similar chord functions to increate chord count
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[^14]: even if we shift diatonically, not exactly by the same amount, so it fits the scale, if overall shape is the same - it still counts as a sequence
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### Secondary Dominants {#secondarydominants}
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`tl;dr borrowing V chords from other keys that tonics are present in our key`
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example:
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1. in key of C we have Dm chord
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2. in key of D we have A(A7) as dominant chord
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3. we can "borrow" that A7 and lead into Dm even in a context of C
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Basically, we can create a "pull" into any chord[^15] and add some extra color (C# in A in example above)
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[^15]: except vii°
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