tonality all at once, near the very end. This alerts us that the climax is on its
way (it also puts the orchestra in a range where there is some additional
dynamic power to be tapped into). It is totally unexpected and somewhat dis-
concerting, but he had to launch an ending somehow.You’re okay when you can use an unexpected wake-up chord change as pow-
erfully as Ravel, but in the meantime be careful not to loosen your hold on
the listener with too many chord changes if you’ve got a good groove on.You can have more than one musical idea going on at the same moment in
the same piece. Three or more are perhaps too many, because confusion
ensues and the listener doesn’t know where to turn. You always want to
retain a sense of focus, even when your music gets chaotic.You could have your chords change in one rhythmic pattern and have the
melody move in another pattern. Mixing it up like that would convey two dif-
ferent rhythmic statements. You might think of it as keeping the non-chord
tones and the chord structure and throwing out some of the structural chord
tones in your piece.Figure 10-30 shows an example with a tiny bit of polishing.From what we have discussed in this chapter so far, it should be easy enough
to reverse these processes if you had a melody to start with and were looking
for the right chords to go along with it. You have to decide which notes in
your melody are structural, as we discuss in Chapter 8. Then you can deter-
mine the key of your piece and where you feel you need to accentuate your
melody with chords. The challenge here is to be aware of the many harmonic
possibilities available to you for harmonizing your melody.&
&
?
b
b
b
4
4
4
4
4
4
‰
j
œœœœ‰j
œ̇ ̇ ̇ ̇
FBḃ ̇
œ.
Jœœ ‰œj
̇ ̇
̇̇ ̇
̇C Dmœ.
j
œ# ̇œŒ ̇
̇ ̇ ̇ ̇ ̇
Bb Ċ ̇
œ ̇.
̇ ̇ Ó
DṁÓ
̇ ̇
̇ ̇
̇ ̇ ̇Bb Cw
œ ̇ Œ
̇ ̇..
Œ
Ḟ.
Œ
Figure 10-30:
Melody and
harmony,
together in
perfect...
well,
harmony.
Chapter 10: Composing with Chords 121