Music Composition DUMmIES

In general, the overall length of a piece is dependent on the ability to keep

the listener’s interest throughout. Compositions involving relatively simple

ideas should be short in length — you can’t just repeat a theme or motif over

and over and over and expect your listener to stay awake. Compositions with

many complex ideas should naturally be longer and more developed so that

the listener is satisfied that the piece is complete.

Exercises .......................................................................................................

1. Come up with a simple statement such as I love you, Life is a mystery,
   or This job sucks. Write a melody to go along with it.


2. Develop your idea from Exercise 1.
   For example: If you had written This job sucks, you might write some-
   thing like, The printer didn’t work all week. Give a little detail to your
   original statement and then a little more. Put this new idea to music.


3. Write something that contrasts or departs slightly from your original
   theme, such as I hope we still have email.

142 Part III: Harmony and Structure

Making your music “breathe”

The beginning, middle, and end of a piece of

music should all be looked at as its sections,

and those sections should be viewed as being

composed of musical phrases.

Phrases are complete musical thoughts that

also have a beginning, a middle, and an end to

them, and this is what gives music shape.

Phrases are usually short, often two to eight

measures long, and generally end in a cadence.

Cadencesprovide a sort of musical pause

within the piece of music, giving the sense that

the music is breathing as tension is increased

and decreased between points of cadence —

there’s a lot more on building musical phrases

in Chapter 7.

When listening to music, if you have a hard time

telling where one phrase or period begins and

another ends, don’t despair. Music that contains

only very clear phrases often sounds square,

simple, and, frankly, boring. Therefore, com-

posers are always finding ways to obscure the

beginnings and endings of phrases so that one

phrase blends smoothly into the next and car-

ries the listener easily along with it. Very often,

one part of the music (for example, the melody)

will come to the end of the phrase while another

part of the music (for example, the accompani-

ment) has already started the next one. That is

one way to “blur” phrases. Cadences can be

considered to be any method for completing a

musical thought and coming to a moment of rest

before moving onto another musical thought.