Composing Phrase by Phrase 13

The Same? Yes, but also no.

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! Last week's post took a look at the beginning of a modulatory phrase. The plan is: use the material from the cadential phrase of the first segment, but cadence somewhere else. Said material was altered slightly to give a sense of progression and escalation. Now, let's get into what changes in the next part of the analogous phrase.

mms. 58-70

The beginning of this phrase (from 58-62) recalls measures 26-30. They both start from a sustained A, but where 26-30 starts from the top and goes down, 58-62 starts from the bottom and goes up. Why? First, it's a nice bit of musical symmetry. Second, let's take a quick peek at where this phrase is going.

mms.70-71

We've got the violins playing a sustained third high in their register. While I could repeat the top-down arc and give the violins an ascending line after cutting out for a bit, it felt more natural to me to simply flip the whole scheme upside-down. That means the violins are already going towards the goal when they enter, allowing for a smoother transition. To my ear, that element of "smoothness" provides a necessary contrast to the spiky, herky-jerky rhythms and phrase structures in the first section.

In terms of harmonic progression, 58-70 follows 26-35 almost, but not quite, exactly. We go from an A chord to an E-flat chord. We have a tricky bit to pull off, though. In 26-35, the goal is a return to D. The progression as a whole was A, E-flat, B-flat, A, D. In order to land on B-flat in 58-70, I need to insert something between the E-flat and B-flat chords. Here's what I came up with.

mms. 61-70

I use the E-flat chord again, ascending this time. The first violin then begins its noodly bit and is joined by the second violin in thirds at measure 65. I worked backwards from measure 70 to figure out what the violin's goal was. To make the transition into the second theme as smooth as possible, I wanted the first violin to reach its high F early, sustaining without a break from the end of the phrase into the beginning of the next one. I spotted an opportunity for the second violin to play an E-flat against that sustained F to give the flavor of an F7 chord, one that flows naturally into B-flat. The goal established, it was simply a matter of working out the line that would connect point 1 to point 2.

Similarly, I knew I wanted the viola and cello to arrive at the second theme in octaves. Simple solution: have them begin their noodly bit in octaves instead of thirds. The viola and cello enter a measure before the violins begin their high, sustained tones. This gives a better connection to draw the ear towards a new foreground. We hear something new just as the old begins to fade out.

What else is there to say...? Not a lot, really. The noodly bits make use of a motive that has already shown up a couple of times to act as foreshadowing for a piece of the second theme. It made its first appearance as part of a viola melody in measure 45.

For the cadence, the phrase is extended using only part of the motive played in ascending sequence. The brief moment where all four instruments are playing at the same time uses a harmonization method heard earlier in the composition at measure 12, inverted chords played in parallel in a technique resembling the Medieval fauxbourdon. In this instance, though, the distance between the violins and the viola/cello pairing is extremely wide, creating a sense of two distinct layers rather than one harmonized whole. This voicing was deliberately chosen so as to firmly establish the viola/cello as a distinct element for a secure arrival at their melody.

Alright, I think that covers it for today. Some of the upcoing phrases are much beefier, so if you liked what you read, follow along on your RSS feed of choice! If you really liked what you see, join my Patreon for recordings of the excerpts shown in this blog as well as for compositions not found elsewhere. Either way, thanks for stopping in!