Anyone, with or without the help of technology, can come up with a succes-
sion of notes. But what makes a goodmelody? And just what do we mean by a
musical framework?For one thing, a musical frameworkis the duration of a particular section of
your composition. Or to be more abstract: A musical framework is the amount
of time during which you are hoping to secure the attention of your listeners.Because music is the sculpting of time, without a framework of some kind,
you don’t have music. Many times when you are composing, the melody itself
creates or even demands a framework to grow around it. Even a lonely, soli-
tary melody has a little rhythm built into it. (The other elements of the musi-
cal framework are the chords and instrumentation that you have chosen,
which we talk about in Part III.)Now, where do you find melodies to go into this framework?Finding Melody in Language .........................................................................
If you are ever in need of inspiration, try slipping a tape recorder in your
pocket and heading out into the street. Go into a cafe or get on the bus, turn
on your tape recorder, and just let the din of the other passengers’ voices
wash over you. You don’t even have to listen to the tape afterwards — often-
times, just being an active listener can be enough to get you started in learn-
ing to pay attention to the music of language.There is so much to get from the way a person talks. Consider the rhythm of
a speaker’s voice — is it clumsy, staccato, languid? What about the quality of
a voice — high-pitched, low-pitched, childish, aggressive? Each person is a
self-playing instrument. Put two or more people together, and you’ve got the
most basic orchestra.Take another look at the example of finding the rhythmic phrase in speech
from Chapter 4 (Figure 5-1).ã4
(^3) ŒŒ ¿
So,
¿ ¿ ¿
wherecan we
¿Œ ¿
get these
¿Œ ¿
rhyth mic
¿ ¿Œ
--phra ses?
Figure 5-1:
Rhythmic
patterns are
found
everywhere
in speech.