Making Musical Decisions

The composer must decide what he or she wants to say and the best musical means to express it. Among the most fundamental decisions are those concerning musical elements like form, melody, timbre, and rhythm.

Composers often begin writing by choosing a work’s form. Form gives shape and direction but it does not control the feeling or message the musical work expresses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM

Melodies may vary in length and style. Some music is based on a minor scale.

Minor scale is a sequence of eight pitches built on the pattern of one whole step, one half step, two whole steps, one half step, and two whole steps.

Composers achieve variety by changing familiar melodies from major to minor. Composer Gustav Mahler used this technique in his Symphony No. 1 in D Minor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV5G5gk0CIk

A symphony is an extended work for orchestra with several contrasting movements.

Mahler became known for his expressive melodies. Duke Ellington was celebrated for the same innovations in the field of jazz. *Listen for octave displacement in “I Got It Bad…”

Tibetan Dance – by Bright Sheng, blends Chinese traditional sounds with American music

Pipa – traditional Chinese lute

Felt time – an aspect of music that controls the listener’s sense of how much time has passed

Composers, arrangers, and performers have always delighted in extending a musical idea through subtle or obvious changes. When they do this within a single composition.

Theme and variations is a musical form in which a melodic idea is stated then varied in a succession of statements.

Melodies can be ornamented, tempos altered, harmonies changed, texture transformed, rhythms revamped. Some composers will play their themes backwards or upside-down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSe7WM9JP8Q

Harmony is vertical blocks of different tones that simultaneously. Chords are built by adding a third or fifth above any tone.

John Lewis – “One Diamond” – starts with Bach then transforms to jazz

Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” was influenced by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Conductor – the director of an orchestra, choir, or other performing group

1. select the music2. rehearse the musicians3. maintain the beat4. make decisions re: tempo, dynamics, and phrasing

5. give visual cues

Rubato – the free treatment of tempo within a musical phrase

Marin Alsop – “Barrier Breaker Award” for women in conducting