Write the Music

Most music we hear is dynamic. That means, it progresses from one stage to other(s) stage(s). In this music melodic material ascends or decends. If a melodic material holds a static position at a given time, it will eventually ascend or descend. These simple statements make possible some interesting compositional techniques. Let's take a glance, for instance, at the first 5 measures of Beethoven's moonlight sonata.
The first measure seems to be static. The right hand repeats 4 groups of three eight notes, and the left hand plays an octave. The 3 eight note group the right hand repeats has an ascending direction.
Repetition of this pattern creates the need of something happening to it, resolving it. Since the pattern is an ascending pattern, its natural resolution would be like this:
Beethoven uses the need of something to happen as a tool to create tension. Instead of having the right hand ascend, is the left hand which descends at bar 2.


Left hand has descend to B, seventh of the chord. Since the seventh is at the bass, there is an harmonic need for the left hand to keep descending. Meanwhile, the right hand has kept repeating the 3 note pattern, raising the need of an ascending resolution. A conflict has been created: left hand claims for a descending resolution, while the right hand claims for an ascending one. Both hands follow these need at the first half of bar 3. The bass goes to A and the lower note of the right hand pattern goes from G sharp to A. At the second half of bar 3 we have a D mayor chord, a neapolitan chord. This chord creates the need of resolving D, which is played by the right hand, with a descending movement. But the right hand has just started its ascending movement, which was needed because of the 3 note pattern! The next bar shows a dominant seventh chord, which's upper note is the seventh. This note calls again for a descending resolution. The melodic material of the right hand has claimed for an ascending resolution since the beginning of the piece, and at the time it starts ascending the harmony of the piece forces the right hand to descend. And that is what happens at bars 4 and 5. At the second beat of bar 5 the right hand material takes again its original position, as if it prepared itself for a new ascension attempt. The development of this conflict will shape this movement, and even the hole sonata.

You can download the score of this music from sheetmusicarchive.net. You can download a midi file of this and every beethoven sonanta following this link. If this subject is of your interest I recommend you download the score and play it at the piano.

The design created by the interaction of multiple voices or instruments is called "musical texture". The classical clasification of musical texture goes like this:

1. Monophonic: The texture produced by one single instrument or voice performing a single melodic line or multiple instruments performing a single melodic line.
2. Poliphonic: The texture produced by two or more instruments or voices performing independent melodic lines.
3. Homophonic: The texture produced by two or more instruments or voices, one of which would perform the main melodic line and the other or other would provide subsidary acompaniment.
4. Mixed: the texture produced by the mixture of the kinds mencioned above.

While analyzing classical music I have found useful to subdivide this categories. I have searched the books I have at hand and the Internet for a standard subdivision of this groups, but have not found any, so I had to come with my own. My subdivision goes like this:

1. Monophonic textures
a) Unison/octave texture: produced by one single instrument or voice performing a single melodic line or multiple instruments performing a single melodic line in unison or octaves.

b) paralel motion texture: produced by two or more instruments or voices in parallel motion.

2. Poliphonic textures

a) Contrapuntistic texture: produced by two or more instruments or voices performing independent melodic lines.

b) Motivic texture: produced by two or more instruments or voices performing independent melodic lines which, however, are disposed in such a way that musical space is given in order to allow a imitation of a motive to be heard from voice to voice.

c) "Liquid" poliphonic texture: produced by one or more instruments or voices performing a melodic desing or desings that imply two or more independent voices per instrument or voice.

3. Homophonic textures
a) Melodic line + acompaniment: produced by two or more instruments or voices, one of which would perform the main melodic line and the other or other would provide subsidary acompaniment.

b) Choral texture: produced by two or more instruments or voices which perform independent melodic lines, which are however very similar in rhythmic structure.

c) "Liquid" (arpegiated) homophonic texture: produced by one or more instruments performing a melodic desing or desings that imply a choral texture. In other words, an arpegiated choral texture.

4. Mixed textures: no subdivision here.

I'm quite sure this subdivision is no innovation at all. I think this may be standard knodledge among composers and theorist, and many of the names or definitions I have provided may be wrong. If you know of any information which can improve this article, please drop me a line.

In colonial times, when Perú was under the administration of the Spanish Kingdom, food vendors would walk down the streets of Lima, the main city, singing aloud a song that represented the good they sold. Each product had their own characteristc song. This custom has survived until today and it is still posible to hear some of these songs, called "pregones", in Lima. So did Enrique Iturriaga back in the 50's, when walking after dawn across the foggy streets of our city, and he decided to write a piece which depicted that atmosphere. He composed "Pregón y Danza" for piano in 1952, which is now firmly stablished in Perú's piano repertory. The title relates to the composition's two movements: the first one based on a peruvian ¨Pregón", and the second, a dance.

Pregón

Form: Ternary



An harmonic reduction of the introduction will ilustrate the some of the techniques used in this piece (measures 1 - 10, including the first chord of the A section):



The composition uses what Stravinsky called "antitonalily". This means that tonal elements are present, but their tonal implications have been weakened by the composer. The tonal center of the piece is A. It's tonic chord is an A mayor-minor chord. Most chords have six notes, and can be interpreted as triads and added 9ths, 11ths and 13ths. Funcional chords are present (like V/III, which appears at the begginig and the end of the introduction), but they do not progress by fiths, so they do not resolve their implied harmonic funtion. Cadential movements of the bass by fiths are avoided, and replaced by minor thirds or tritones (like in this example).

The first two bars of the introduction present two contrasting elements: a three-octave unison in the middle-high register and a five-note dense chord in the low register. This elements are used to introduce a contrast of light and dark sonorities, which will be useful to depict the atmosphere of foggy and dark streets present in section A. At bar 10 a quarter-note dark ostinato is introduced in the left hand, while the remainings of light sounds disapear in the right hand. A "pregón" melody is introduced in bar 12. This pregón will be used as an ostinato too. The pregon is reapeated 6 times, raising its register. Both ostinatos (left hand and right hand) lead to a climax on bar 24. The hole A section is constructed over an A mayor-minor chord, and 11ths and 13ths are added as the tension caused by the ostinatos raises. Subsidary melodic lines do also increase their activity toward the climax, increasing poliphonic complexity.




B section starts at bar 27. Two measures are left for respiration. A toccata-like sixteenth-note figuration starts at bar 29 in the left hand, while the pregon melody is used in cannon in the right hand. At bar 33 the sixteenth-notes are replaced by eight-note triplets, and later, at bar 35, by eigth-notes. The cannon fades away at bar 33. Since bar 33 tension has been disolved rather than acumulated, in oposition to what happened in section A.

The final section brings back the quarter note ostinato, but the Pregón, which does return too, is not used as an ostinato. The hole section is supported by a D harmony (the third omited in the first 4 bars), but only the 9th has been added. The atmosphere is clearer, yet still ethereal. Again, tension is disolved rather than acumulated, preparing the listener to the next movement.

Danza

Form: Ternary



Peru has a rich popular tradition. The second movement of "Pregón y Danza" gives us a sistesis of popular dances from Perú's andes and coast. The movement opens with a furious dance writen in 5/4 meter. This meter can be found often in music from the andes, such as huayno. The harmonies reinforce the section's tonal centre, but there is also a clear presence of its mayor-minor dominant chord at bars 56 and 60, which will become the tonic chord as the piece reaches back its original centre. The following section's tonal centre is A. This new section explodes some of the rythmic energy acumulated in the previous stage. A development section follows, which elaborates material of the first section. In this section a tipical feature of "marinera" (a dance from the coast of Perú) is introduced: a mix of 3/4 paterns and 6/8 paterns. It can be observed at bars 78 and 84.




A climax is prepared in this section, but aborted at bar 86.

The next section (bar 87) preserves the 3/4 + 6/8 mix, but its charachter is softer. It does also call for a climax toward 102, but the tension is disolved in the transition that follows. The transtition does also prepare the 6/8 meter of the following section by introducing a 2/4 meter on bars 110 - 112.

Section B (bar 113) opens with a quotation of another peruvian dance: a "triste arequipeño". The mixture of 3/4 and 6/8 continues. At bar 113 the right hand plays 6/8 and the left 3/4. They swith to the oposite in the following bar, and so on until bar 124. There the conclusive section of B starts, and the climax of the movement is reach at bar 128.



The repeat of section A stars at bar 134. Some structural changes have been made to retain the listeners attention. The development section has been placed before the second section, and the third section has been supressed. The second section, which tonic center is A, contains now a quote from the movement's climax, giving us a sintesis of the A and the B sections. The materials of this section extends into the concluding section that starts at bar 160, written over an A pedal. This pedal over the dominant note could make us think of returning back to the tonic, but the music fades away instead, not resolving the pedal, and thus returning to the piece's original tonal centre.

Witold Lutoslawski defined his chain form with this words:

"[The Chain Form] consists of two structurally independent strands. Sections within each strand begin and end at different times."

I will use figures 29-31 of Lutoslawski´s Chain 2 for solo violin and orchestra to ilustrate this:



The violin part is one of the strands Lutoslawski talks about. The other strand is the orchestra part. In this example, both strands are in binary form. The first section of the violin part is written in green notes, and the second in blue notes. The first section of the orchestra part is written in black notes, and the second in red ones. As you can see, they begin and end at different times. The end of a section and the begining of a new one is defined by a change of the materials used. Look at the violin strand. The materials used to build the first section melodies are interval-classes 2 and 7. At figure 31 the materials used in the violin strand change. Now the violin plays chords built with interval-classes 1 and 6. Notice that the change of section happens not only because of the change of intervalic materials, but also because of the change of compositional materials (single-note melodies in figures 29 and 30, chords in figure 31). Notice also that both strands do not share compositional material. This feature is used to achive structural independency.

At some points of the composition the violin and the orchestra strands will end a section together (at figure 15, for instance). Those points divide mayor structural sections. The chain form does not imply both strands should never meet.

This form may give some "modern" air to your music. It can also be mixed with classical forms such as pasacaglia, rondó and even sonata form. Explore it and have fun!

Since I finished my composition studies at Peru's National Conservatory I've felt the constant need to widen my knowledge reading more and more music written by The Masters. Here are the steps I use to extract the most from their scores:

1. Notate every chord. Writing down every chord's roman numerals and inversions makes you read every note of the score, which gives you a deeper knowledge of the piece. If you're reading contemporary classical music, use set theory to notate the chords.

2. Divide the piece in sections. Write signs for the principal sections of the music according to its form (sonata, rondó, minuet, etc). If you're dealing with contemporary classical music, look for places where the music "breaths" or changes the materials it is working on. Devide large sections into smaller ones, until you have sectiones of max. 8 measures.

3. Work on the first smaller section you got. Focus on melodic issues. Write down 3 things you find remarkable about how the melodic lines of this music were written. Avoid general statements. Instead, focus on particularities of the music. One you`ve finished, apply the same procedure on rhythmic issues. Then, do the same on harmonic issues. When finished, move on to the next section, and so on until you've done the hole piece (or movement).

4. Try to answer this questions: what was the composer trying to express? What musical means did he use to achieve it? It might be useful to imagine the music as a theather piece, or a movie.

If you're performing an orchestral analysis, you can add instrumental and orchestral issues to stept 3. If you have little experience and want to study contemporary classical music, I strongy recommend you to study beethoven's piano sonatas first. Once you've studied them all, you'll be ready to analyze anything!

This method helped me a great deal! Hope this helps someone else too. If so, please let me know!

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