Music Composition DUMmIES

Any one of those rhythmic patterns could, and does, work for the Purcell

phrase. As does (naturally) the one he actually used (Figure 17-5).

As you can see in Figure 17-5, Purcell managed to stick to the convention of

matching weak and strong accents in his lyrics with the weak and strong

beats of each measure, yet still managed to present his lyrics in a completely

different rhythmic pattern than the more obvious patterns that were avail-

able to him.

Choosing your form ...........................................................................

Once you’ve set the tempo and decided on the delivery of your lyrics, you’ve

begun to lock yourself into your form. If it takes one minute to get through a

verse and chorus, and you’re looking for a three-minute song, your options

have already shrunk further.

You should also consider how much space you’re going to need to tell your

story. Though it’s always a good idea to condense, the AAA... form, or the

one-part song form, gives you the most room to stretch lyrically. But it leaves

no room for a chorus or a catchy hook. A lot of folk music is written in this

form, and it’s a good medium for telling a musical story.

Ternary forms (ABA, AABA, compound AABA, and so on — see Chapter 13 for

more on song forms) can give you plenty of lyric space as well as room to

develop a strong musical foundation, particularly if you use pre-choruses

to present new lyric information each time. One-section and two-section

(ABABAB) forms at fast tempos are easy to write long, complicated lyrical

stories to — however, they can be melodically boring because the melodies

repeat so often.

On the other hand, if you stick to writing spare, condensed lyrics, you have

many musical options available to you. You can either set your lyrics to a fast

tempo — for example, a rock song — or set them against a slow ballad. Either

way will leave plenty of room to accommodate the individual phrasing styles

of different singers. Spare lyrics presented in a slower tempo have more of an

&

?

bb

bb

c

c

‰

DIDO

J

œ

J

œ

J

œn œ.

J

œ

The hand, Bel in da!

w

J

œ bœœ. œœœœbj.

R

œ

adrk ssen

w

œb.

j

œ Œ

shades me,

w

-- - - -

b b 7 b

Figure 17-5:

Purcell’s

own choice

for Dido and

Aeneas.

224 Part IV: Orchestration and Arrangement