Questions tagged [composition]
For questions about the creation of new music and the techniques used to do so.
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Exposition in Bach's fugue repeats?
Analyzing Bachs first fugue in C major
I can't understand something.
I have colored all the subjects and answers in the picture and wrote their structure in the picture below but it seems that the ...
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6/8 or 2/4 with triplets?
Just a quick question.
Can I use 2/4 with triplets instead of 6/8; will I get the same groove?
I guess the only difference is that in the case of 2/4, my second down beat would be more accented than ...
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How can I identify the key of a piece I'm composing?
When I want to start a new composition, I never know how to determine the key, so I often end up with something that looks like this: No key signature, and lots of accidentals. How do I choose a key?
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Do all musical phrases have a structured form?
I recently submitted a question about a phrase that was neither a sentence nor a period but I still haven't figured out one thing: are all musical phrases either a period or a sentence? If there are ...
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can anyone help me in writing a quartet
hi i've been doing some analyzing and after learning counterpoint and 4 part harmony and studying a little about forms today for the first time i wrote a period to turn in into a ternary or a simple ...
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Why is the contrabass clarinet treated as a "loud" instrument in compositions?
I was playing some contrabass clarinet parts and wondered why there are so many passages where every single bass instrument is playing, minus the contrabass clarinet. The bass clarinet, tuba, and ...
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Is it a thing learning semantics/emotions of melodic/rhythmical intonations or harmonic progressions, not "music theory" per se?
I wonder if there were any deep analyses of this topic. It might be hard to explain what I mean.
Here are my subjective observations with some thoughts:
Starting with the keys: the key placement of a ...
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Is adapting existing melodies a useful way to improve composition skill?
As the saying goes ‘immature talents borrow; mature ones steal’. When I write songs I normally start with chord changes and try to sing something over them, but this often results in uninteresting ...
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How do I make microtonal music less jarring? [closed]
I'm a beginner at composing with microtones. I understand that microtonal music is going to be jarring for most people because it is so different compared to 12-tet music. My current strategy is to ...
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Working on writing a fugue exposition
I am trying to write a fugue exposition in F minor with 3 voices. However, I don't succeed in rewriting the counter-subject in the tonic key. More generally, I was wondering what are the main issues ...
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Is it possible to write a song “pitch first” or “key first”?
I believe there are 3 possible main elements to a song (not minding dynamics, articulation etc):
The Type of Sounds + their order & The Amount of Sounds (Vowels, Consonants & Syllables & ...
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What makes a melody the “main melody” of a song?
A melody cannot exist with just one note, it requires 2 which implies that more change could be the biggest factor in making a melody the center of a composition. I am essentially making the ...
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Why don't musicians get bored of listening to their own song dozens of times over while composing and refining it?
I am not a composer, and I am sorry if the question seems overly daft or obvious. When a composer (I have in mind someone working on a DAW) is composing their own song, why don't they get tired of ...
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Can a Harp Play This Melody?
I feel as though this is likely possible, and just rather difficult, but as someone who hasn't ever played one, I thought it was best to reach out and check! Tried to google it but didn't have much ...
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Help reading music sheet [closed]
Could someone help me explain this music sheet of Frere Jacque?
The is a Violin key, A mole on the A line and some notes. What do I habe to do with them in order to play this the correct way according ...
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How to modulate from A minor to C minor? [duplicate]
I have one bar in a film score to go from A minor to C minor and have no clue how to do it! Plese help
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How to modulate from Am to F#m?
I can't figure out what chords to use to get from Am to F#m. My modulation skills are awful, and I literally have no clue where to start. I can modulate to relative major/minor keys, but can't seem to ...
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What is covered in music GCSE?
I'm picking my GCSE options next month and I am considering music. Does anyone know what is covered in it and also what makes up the final GCSE grade?
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How hard is composing a song like ancient Greek music today?
And by this question I mean a song that sounds like an actual ancient Greek song, with ancient Greek instruments (lyre, kithara, salpinx, etc.) being used.
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What is the difference between background, middle ground, and foreground?
Is the idea of structural levels background, middle ground, and foreground only studied in schenkerian analysis?
I’m still viewing the background as the simplest layer of a song, which to me would be ...
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How to achieve a similar "vibe" to this song? [closed]
I want to write a song similar to "dumb dumb" by mazie. I want to achieve a similar feel of weird, dreamy nostalgia the song has. I know a lot of this feeling comes from dissonance between ...
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How do I add another composition [closed]
For my music class, we had to make a minor melody and a major melody. For the final project, we have to put these together in ABA format, so either major-minor-major or minor-major-minor. In ...
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Is there any benefit in trying to play a song by ear?
I started playing Take Me Out To the Ball Game by ear on the piano and I find that I have been making several mistakes in knowing what note comes next. I don't know the lyrics well but I am familiar ...
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Was Bernstein's interpretation of Mahler's 9th Symphony correct?
During his fifth Norton lecture at Harvard University, Leonard Bernstein famously speculated that Mahler's ninth symphony was symbolically prophesying his own death, the death of tonality (the advent ...
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Will this section be playable by a professional pianist and a professional violinist?
So I am composing a piece for a competition, and it has a strict criteria about the song being playable. I am looking for reviews for a section in my piece for playability.
The piano part , 16th notes ...
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How does swapping parts affect an arrangement
So, thinking about a typical arrangement structure, from what I know, is built from bass parts to effectively soprano ones. So within a group of instruments, let's say trumpets, you could have 4th ...
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How do I define my own style as a composer?
Much has been said about the idea of a musical style. We can group composers of similar places and times together (e.g. the "Classical" style in Vienna), discuss groups of jazz musicians ...
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Why does Schoenberg think of "'semi-contrapuntal treatment' of the accompaniment" as a way of adapting a motive's melody to changes in its harmony?
Schoenberg says that the melody of a motive may be adapted to changes in the harmony "[b]y transposition," "[b]y addition of passing harmonies," or "[b]y 'semi-contrapuntal' ...
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Changing the harmony of a motive ''by additions at the end,'' according to Schoenberg
Schoenberg says that the harmony of a motive may be changed ''[b]y additions at the end'' (Fundamentals of musical composition, page 10). He cites examples 25c-i to illustrate what he means (see ...
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Can I use fast tremolo or triads on the third register?
When I compose music I always tend to avoid writing fast tremolo and chords in the low register as it can get really muddy, but where is the boundary after which I should avoid tremolos and chords?
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How can harmony be implied by melody [duplicate]
I'm just curious about allot of compositional techniques, and one of them is the concept of "implying" harmony because it can be useful for determining later harmonic lines for an already ...
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Why does this melody tend to be in the key of F Major rather than in the key of C Major
When composing, I generally start with C Major to be simple, but very often, I can hear that in the melody another key is suggested.
Here is such an example :
The melody starts by leaping to the VI ...
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How to decide between half-, quarter-, and eighth-notes when transcribing a song
I am trying to transcribe a little song and I am facing a problem: I am realising that there are several ways to write it, 2 ways to be more specific; Here are 2 images (I just wrote the first few ...
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I am unsure of what time signature to use for my piece, as I'm pretty sure it changes mid-way through
Here is my piece so far, as you can see in green, the melody is highlighted. It starts on beat one, but I need a write the repeat in a clearer way so that it starts on beat one the second time it is ...
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Is there a way for one player to have a solo but the rest of the instrument keep playing?
I'm writing a piece where there is like a bass line which is made up of all 5 string section parts (orchestra) that each have a similar rhythm, and that all together makes a cool sound.
I want to add ...
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Composing for Clarinet - how many registers to use
I am starting to compose for clarinet and read that the clarinet has 3 different registers, which, it is said, are not easy to change between. Do composers only use one register or is it easily ...
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Adequate chord progression for an intimate "bolero"-"jazz" song?
I am trying to compose an intimate song to be played by an acoustic guitar (and a piano at most) related to the genre of "bolero" or "jazz", perhaps with traces of "fado"....
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Rationale behind the modulations in Alice Cooper's Poison
I was playing along to Poison and noticed a curious chord progression:
[Verse]
(in Dm)
i VI III VII
Dm Bb F C
Your cruel, device, Your blood, like ...
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Beginner at composing - Harmonising a melody in imitation of Mozart's Klavierstück KV 33B
TL, DR :
I don't know how to harmonize this melody (explained below) and need help deblocking (questions at bottom)
I have been learning violin for a few years now and I wanted to learn how to compose ...
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What is the proper study of composition and arrangement?
I have been composing and arranging on my own for about 10 months now, i am confident that they sound good but i am not sure, how good, how to make them better and if taking the proper course will ...
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Trombone choir and French Horn choir
I’m interested in combining two instrumental groups: a trombone choir and a French horn choir.
There seems to be a lot of compositions for either trombone choir, or for French horn choir, but not for ...
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What is a "Bb Tenor"
I was overlooking Peter Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture, and I came across one of the parts being the 1st and 2nd Tenors. May I add that there are already 1st and 2nd Alto Horns, so what is this ...
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What is the breakdown at the end of shows called?
I have found that towards the end of rock shows the song ends and then there is some amount of random noise produced before the show ends. Usually, it is when the singer says goodnight and goodbye to ...
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Why the terms "GERMAN double fugue", employed twice in Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, and ITALIAN triple fugue (Bach's "St. Anne" p. & fugue)?
In the Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, the composer sets the words, "Der Gerechten Seelen sind im Gottes Hand, und keine Qual ruhret sie an" as a German double fugue, with 2 completely ...
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Why is the solo/featured instrument in so many Baroque-era concerti silent during the slow movement?
Is the reason the soloist is
often silent during a Baroque-era concerto simply to provide a break from all the virtuosity often required within the outer movements? Or is it to allow a string soloist ...
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If there is a double sharp on a note, does that mean the piece has modulated?
I'm currently writing a 32-bar free composition for my music exam coming up soon (I'm allowed to get help and advice on it, so this isn't cheating lol).
It's in F# major and I'd like to modulate to D# ...
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Is there a compositional term for an introductory variation on a larger theme?
I’ve noticed that in some music spaces, specifically entertainment and gaming, composers rely heavily on character or main themes as recurring motifs. One such instance I’ve heard recently involves ...
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Can parallel perfect intervals be hidden by the use of adding more voices?
If you look at this score the arrangement adds one "voice" to the right hand chord when the voice leading gets into some forbidden parallel movement between the bass and tenor "voices&...
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Is it possible to write a phase-shifted pattern that obeys the rules of classical counterpoint?
Is it possible to write a phase-shifted pattern in the style of Minimalist phased looping on Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro that obeys all the classical counterpoint rules? Each note of the pattern will ...
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