---
title: Music Composition
---

<status>Status: 🌱 </status>

<details>
<summary>Table of contents</summary>
	<ul>
		<li><a href="#motivesphrases" class="internal-link">Motives and Phrases</a>
		</li>
		<li><a href="#harmonicfunction" class="internal-link">Harmonic Function</a>
		</li>
		<li><a href="#sentenceperiod" class="internal-link">Sentence and Period</a>
		</li>
		<li><a href="#harmonicrhythmseq" class="internal-link">Harmonic Rhythm and Sequence</a>
		</li>
		<li><a href="#secondarydominants" class="internal-link">Secondary Dominants</a>
		</li>
	</ul>
</details>


### Motives and Phrases {#motivesphrases}

##### Motives

- "smallest musical idea"
- usually 2-7 notes[^1]
- motive is a seed/DNA of things to come
- motives are developed

2 parts of a good motive: 

1. distinct interval/shape[^2]
2. distinct rhythm

[^1]: rule of thumb - can be more, but difficult to pull off. Same with 1 note, very exceptional cases.

[^2]: distinct doesn't necessarily mean never heard before - just something that is recognisable in a piece


#### Phrases

- "complete expression of that idea[^3]"
- consists of motives
- standard phrase is 2 bars long

3 parts of a good phrase:

1. motive - no more than 3 motives
2. peak - the most something; can be lowest/highest, loudest, most disonant, etc[^4]
3. punctuation - as in writing, simplest is rest or hold a note[^5]. Important to give listener a pause

[^3]: idea = motive

[^4]: it needs to stand out and it's best to hit it only once

[^5]: good idea is to visualise someone singing and needing to take a breath


### Harmonic Function {#harmonicfunction}

Each chord in a key has a function. 

For major key

| Tonic | Subdominant | Dominant |
| ----- | ----------- | -------- |
| I     | ii          | V        |
| iii   | IV          | vii[^6]  |
| vi    |             |          |

C Dm Em F G Am Bdim can change to
Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7(b5)

in minor key
Am Bdim C Dm Em F G
Am7 Bm7(b5)[^7] Cmaj7 Dm Em7[^8] Fmaj7 G7[^8]

[^6]: very spicy in major, beginner should avoid

[^7]: dimished here is more useful in minor, as it can be seen as "spicy subdominant chord to v"

[^8]: can be changed to E/E7 and G#dim/G#dim7 to give more pull into tonic

### Period and sentence forms {#sentenceperiod}

#### Period

- 8 bar phrase
- **basic idea**[^9] - 2 bars
- **antecedent** = basic idea + 2bars that end with half cadence[^10] - 4 bars
- **consequent** - basic idea[^11] + 2 bars that end with authentic cadence - 4 bars
- period = antecedent + consequent. It's bit like question and answer, or saying basic idea, "not sure where to go", repeat basic idea and lead somewhere satisfying.

Period is a very balanced form. ABAC is good representation of it.

#### Sentence

- also 8 bar form
- more forward directed than period
- 4 first bars -> basic idea x2[^11]
- bars 5&6 -> **continuation** -> there's "more something"[^12]
- bars 7&8 -> any cadence

because of open end it is easy to move on, but more difficult to use repetition to extend beyond 8 bars due to repetitive nature of beginning. AABC is good representation of it

[^9]: pretty harmonically stable

[^10]: contrasting idea

[^11]: can be copypaste, can introduce variation, but familiar melody **needs** to be repeated

[^12]: no matter what more, but more. Bit like with peak. Can be more chords in a bar. Can be idea expressed in 1 bar instead of 2. Can be more notes.


### Harmonic Rhythm and Sequence {#harmonicrhythmseq}

#### Harmonic rhythm

`how many chords per bar` [^13]

#### Sequence (in melody)

Take a small pattern and shift in N steps, for example

`def efg fga`[^14]

#### Harmonic Sequence

`tl;dr the same but for chords`

Examples:

- chords going down by 3rds: `C Am F Dm`
- ii V I that goes forever: `Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 Cm7 F7 Bbmaj7 Bbm7 Eb7 Abmaj7...`

very useful in continuation of sentence form


[^13]: use similar chord functions to increate chord count

[^14]: even if we shift diatonically, not exactly by the same amount, so it fits the scale, if overall shape is the same - it still counts as a sequence


### Secondary Dominants {#secondarydominants}

`tl;dr borrowing V chords from other keys that tonics are present in our key`

example:

1. in key of C we have Dm chord
2. in key of D we have A(A7) as dominant chord
3. we can "borrow" that A7 and lead into Dm even in a context of C

Basically, we can create a "pull" into any chord[^15] and add some extra color (C# in A in example above)

[^15]: except vii° 
