The point here is that it can be useful to start a composition by choosing the

mood you want the piece of music to convey and matching it up with a

rhythm that is appropriate. When you’re starting from the rhythm up — a

very common way to compose music — choosing the best tempo for the job

is half the work.

You want your composition to tell a story. And, just as a story contains pas-

sages of contentment, change, tension, crisis, and resolution, for example, so

the mood needs to change at some point within the music. You can change

and vary the tempo (mood) to fit that mood change. You can use rhythm to

create contrast, conflict, development, resolution, and other story-building

components.

Speed Bumps and Rhythmic Phrases..........................................................

A composition traveling along at a set meter and tempo can get boring or

even exhausting after awhile. That’s another reason why it’s a good idea to

break up the rhythmic landscape with a few bumps along the way — to keep

things interesting or keep your listener awake.

Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” offers a familiar example of varying the rhythmic

landscape in order to throw things off a little bit (Figure 4-3).

At the end of the twelfth measure, after a section of mostly straight quarter

notes, he surprises the listener by putting a strong accent — unexpectedly —

on beat four. Beat four is usually a weak pulse, but the German genius makes

it strong by starting a phrase there, and then makes it even stronger by tying

the note over into beat oneof the following measure. Beat one is usually

expected to be a strong beat. The result almost feels like you were walking

&

#

4

4

1

œ œ œ œ

2

œ œ œ œ

3

œ œ œ œ

4

œ.

j

œ ̇

5

œ œ œ œ

&

6

œ œ œ œ

7

œ œ œ œ

8

œ.

j

œœ Œ

9

œ œ œ œ

10

œ œœœ œ

&

11

œ œœœ œ

12

œ œœ œ

13

œ œ œ œ

14

œ œ œ œ

15

œ œ œ œ

16

œ.

j

œ ̇

Ode to Joy

Figure 4-3:
Beethoven’s
“Ode to
Joy” clips
along
regularly
until you get
to the end of
the twelfth
measure.

Chapter 4: Rhythm and Mood 33