Composing Phrase by Phrase 20

Down the Roller Coaster

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Composing Phrase by Phrase! The last couple of weeks have been exploring the transition from the second section in B-flat major back to the first section's material in D major. This week will be the last part of that transition. Hooray! Let's take a peek and see what we're working with.

mms. 155-162

That's a lotta notes! To recap a little bit, the measures 153-154 built up to a big high point of tension. Measure 155 is where the rubber band snaps and all that tension starts to spill out. Like a roller coaster! You approach the top of the hill, the pace slows up in antici --- PAtion, and then BAM! You're off to the races.

We'll start with the cello and the viola because they're the simpler parts of all this. In measures 155-156, the two instruments trade off the "cadence motive" that's been used off and on across the whole composition in a variety of ways. The chord is an augmented B-flat chord, although the B-flat is mostly dropped in measure 156. The instrument not playing the cadence motive punctuates the section with accented pizzicati.

mms. 155-156, cello and viola

The cello and viola then join up in octaves for measures 157-158. The line circles the target note A, first above it on a B-flat, then under it on a G-sharp. Harmonically, all of this is drawn from a whole-tone scale. Like the octatonic scale used in the previous phrase, the whole-tone scale has high ambiguity. Even with B-flats in the phrase, the connection to B-flat as a "tonic" has been pretty well obliterated at this point. There's still a sense of direction because of the previous arrival on an A in 150. This phrase extension helps give extra weight to that A when it comes back in measure 159.

mms. 157-158

Alright. Now the violins. There's lots of noodles here! But who doesn't like noodles? Before we get to the noodly contents, it will be a good idea to look at how all these have been strung together. The start and end tone of each string forms an octave. The octaves trace out a B-flat augmented triad over the course of the whole phrase. The exception is the very last one which is a G#.

mms. 155-158, violins

The noodles themselves are mostly drawn from adjacent whole-tone scales. The first one in measure 155, for example, uses B-flat, A-flat, and G-flat followed by a little hop to E-flat, D-flat, and everybody's favorite flat, C-flat. Not all of the noodles follow this outline. In 156, the line uses whole-tones (D, C, B-flat) followed by G-flat, F, and E-flat. This change is both for variety and to allow the line to fill the octave while keeping the motivic "hop" in the middle. For the most part, the noodles are made pretty much the same way.

mms. 155-157, noodly contents

There's a slight change in the first violin's line in measure 158 which helps prep the shift at 159. The chord at the end of 158 is mostly an E7. This is used as a secondary dominant to help set up the A as a dominant to bring us back home to D.

Next! The cello in 159-160 holds down the fort on a pedal tone, A. In 161-162, the bass line then descends a scale towards its target, D.

The violins and viola, for the most part, simply harmonize each with other up a chromatic scale. There's a couple wrinkles here and there so that it's not a perfectly straight line. The harmonization is our good ol' fauxbordon.

mms. 159-162, violins and viola

Rhythmically, the violins chug along on eighth-notes. The cello repeats the cadence motive in 3/4 (blue), a hemiola against the rest of the ensemble in 6/8 (yellow). The viola hops out of the chromatic scale for a moment to reinforce the harmonic progression with chords and to make the hemiola more obviously intentional. Lastly, the cello helps bring the line home with one last rhythmic slow-up, changing to triplet quarter-notes for two beats (green).

mms. 159-162, quartet rhythm

And that's it! Honestly, not as much to talk about as it might first appear.