A Formula for Writing the 8-bar Composition

If you are really stuck on the composition question (grade five music theory), you might like to know that there is a kind of “formula” you can use in order to generate a composition. The formula provides you with a functioning melody – you will still need to add in phrasing, dynamics, tempo and other instrument-specific directions, and you might want to make minor tweaks to the rhythm.

This is not a “cheat” – you need to understand about keys, chords, scales and cadences to get this to work. But then, you need to know all that stuff anyway! Here’s how it works:

Part One – Preparation

1) Decide on the key. (Accidentals = minor, but sometimes it’s minor although no accidentals appear. Check the first note and what chord the first notes seem to be part of.)

2) Check how many bars you’ve been given. In most cases, you get exactly 2 bars (including the anacrusis where appropriate). But sometimes you might get one or two beats more, or less. Check, it’s important.

3) Understand that our composition will consist of two phrases, which are exactly the same length – i.e. 4 bars each.

Part Two – Rules

1) Never write a melodic interval which is augmented or diminished. (There are special rules which apply to these dissonant intervals, so it’s best to just avoid them.) Choose another note – always write a semitone step where you can. For example, don’t write E-Bb (diminished), instead write E-F (semitone).

2) Always end phrase 1 on a long note, which is part of the dominant chord.

3) Always end phrase 2 on a long note which is the tonic of the piece.

4) Try to make the leading note lead upwards to the tonic. In some cases the dominant is ok too.

5) Always sharpen the leading note in a minor key, when the following note is the tonic.

6) In minor keys, use the melodic minor scale. Therefore, the notes will be sharpened on the way up, and flattened on the way down.

7) Always write part of a scale which arrives at the tonic, for the last 4-6 notes of the piece.

Part 3 – Composition

We’ll use an example from the 2006 exam to work through. Here’s the opening:

1) You have half of phrase 1 already. We start at the second half of phrase 1 (we’ll call the two halves 1a and 1b). Start 1b one scale note higher than phrase 1a, and continue for 1 bar, always one scale note higher. The rhythm will be the same. [If the melody sounds odd, try putting it down one scale step instead.

2) Bar 4 is the end of phrase 1, and should be an imperfect cadence. Continue writing the melody from bar 2 one scale note higher, until half way through bar 4, then write a long note which is part of the dominant chord. This piece is in F, so the dominant chord is C.

We chose C, as the dotted crotchet. G would have been a bad choice, as the note before is G, and E makes a weaker sounding cadence.

3) Start bar 5 on the same note as the first note of the piece, then invert  (turn upside down) the melody. So if the melody goes down in bar 1, put it up in bar 5, and vice versa. Remember to avoid augmented or diminished intervals – choose the next nearest note instead, or make a leading note go to the tonic. If the melody moves by step, simply move by step in the opposite direction to bar 1. If the melody moves in 3rds/4ths/5ths or 6ths however, you will find that the notes make a chord. In this case, make the chord move in the opposite direction. For example, C-D-E would become C-B-A (melody), but C-E-G would become C-G-E or C-A-F (downwards chords).

Here, the first beat is a melodic inversion, and the second beat is an inverted chord. We could have written F-C-A instead of F-D-Bb, as an alternative.

4) Continue the inverted melody/chords in bars 6 and 7.

Here, in bar 7, we changed the first note. The original melody has a leap of a 5th, but that would give us a melodic interval of Bb-(low) E, which is a diminished 5th. We substituted the note A, which is a semitone distance from Bb so always a good choice.

5) Bar 8 should be a perfect cadence. Make bar 8 part of a scale, starting on the next note up or down from the end of bar 7. (E.g. bar 7 ends on D, bar 8 starts on C). Make the scale last for 1/2 the bar – make the notes as small as necessary so that you have enough! The second half of bar 8 should be the tonic note – nothing else. Alternatively, the last bar can contain nothing but the tonic, and the scale can be in bar 7.

 

DISCLAIMER: this method doesn’t guarantee that your melody will be fabulous! You must always sing through what you have written (in your head, in the exam room…) In particular, your rhythm might need a few tweaks to make it more interesting. Our 2nd half has almost exactly the same rhythm as the first half, but it would be better to make one or two small changes. You might also consider including a melodic “peak”, which will mean the melody moves up to its highest note, somewhere around bar 7.

 

In my next post, I’ll work through the other three composition questions from the 2006 grade V paper.

Here are the steps in summary:

Bar 3 = bar 1 up a  note

Bar 4 = bar 2 up a note, plus imperfect cadence

Bars 5-7 = bars 1-3 inverted

Bars 7-8 = scale and tonic.