To hear some atonal music, we suggest listening to any of Bela Bartok’s string
quartets or Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 4, for starters. These pieces have
some tonal, some bitonal, and some atonal moments in them.Don’t be afraid to try a little atonality mixed in with your tonal compositions
to add a little spice to the mix.Exercises .......................................................................................................
- Come up with a short melodic line and try writing a one-part form
song. Repeat your A part three times and modify each new verse just
a little bit. - Take a different melodic line you’ve composed from an earlier chap-
ter and call it B. Try writing a binary-form composition (ABAB) using
your A verse from the previous exercise and this new B verse. - Find one more melodic line from earlier in the book, or compose a
brand new one, and call it C. Write an arch form composition with
your A, B, and C verses (ABCBA). - Write a short, 8-bar blues song following the chord progression chart
above. Now, expand that 8 bars into 12 bars.
How about 16? Give it a title and see if you can come up with some lyrics. - Make something atonal.
See if you can write atonal variations of well-known melodies such as
“Old McDonald,” “Yankee Doodle,” or “Silent Night.” - Use chords atonally.
Develop Exercise 1 by adding chords. - Get random.
Try writing random notes based on a rhythmic pattern. Use accidentals. - Use imagery.
Write random notes based on a landscape or city skyline. Use accidentals. - Be comprehensive.
Write a melody using all twelve semitones without repeating any tones. - Branch out.
Write a different melody with the notes in the same series that you used
in exercise 9.
Chapter 13: Musical Forms 159