Lessons · Musicianship

Writing a piece

Everything, put to use

% Ten lessons of technique; now a piece. It grows from four notes.
% mus-contour's rule is that a leap is a promise (jump up a fifth,
% then walk back down by step) and Head answers Motif with itself a
% third lower, the sequence from melody-motifs. The assert spells out
% what '@~-2' did, so the mark is not a mystery.
 
bpm 75
instrument pluck
key f# min
 
Motif ::= 1 _2 5 _2 4 _2 3 _2
Head  ::= Motif Motif@~-2
 
assert Motif@~-2 == .6 _2 3 _2 2 _2 1 _2
 
Head Head@~-2
 
 
% A phrase is a question and its answer (mus-callresponse). Open ends
% on 7#, the leading tone, hanging over the dominant, a half cadence;
% Close reuses Open's first four notes ('Open[:4]' says so, and the
% assert spells the result out) then walks down to 1. Open's F#5 is
% the piece's one climax, and it is the motif's own fifth taken at the
% top: up from B4, then a step down.
 
Open  ::= 4 _2 6 _2 5 _2 4 _2 '1 _4 7# _4
Close ::= Open[:4] 3 _2 2 _2 1 _4
Ant   ::= Head Open
Con   ::= Head Close
 
assert Close == 4 _2 6 _2 5 _2 4 _2 3 _2 2 _2 1 _4
 
Ant Con
 
 
% Harmonize it: mus-harmonize says the setting is a choice, not a
% fact. Read the four chords as three voices down the page: .1 .1 .1
% ..7#, then .3 .3 .4 .4, then .5 .6 .6 .5. No voice moves more than a
% step and at every change one of them simply stays, which is all
% mus-voiceleading ever asked for. Ant hangs on Dom; Con lands.
 
Ton ::= {.1, .3, .5}
Six ::= {.1, .3, .6}
Sub ::= {.1, .4, .6}
Dom ::= {..7#, .4, .5}
Bed ::= Ton _8 Six _8 Sub _8
 
{Ant, Bed Dom _8}
{Con, Bed Dom _4 Ton _4}
 
 
% Set it. mus-accompaniment's arpeggio wash is Bed's own degrees
% unrolled one note at a time: the harmony did not change, the piece
% just started moving. Hang holds the dominant open; Land resolves it.
% Now mus-nonchord's tension is audible: the climax F#5 arrives over
% Dom as an appoggiatura and steps down onto E#, the chord's third.
 
Wash ::= {.1 .5 .3 .5} _2 {.1 .6 .3 .6} _2 {.1 .6 .4 .6} _2
Hang ::= {..7# .5 .4 .5} _2
Land ::= {..7# .5} _2 {.1 .5} _2
 
{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, Wash Land}
 
 
% A middle section needs new light, not new material, and since every
% line here is degrees, one 'key' command supplies it. Then mus-texture's
% polyphony: Counter is a second real melody, not filler, and against
% Head every simultaneity is a fifth, a sixth or an octave. Sequencing
% the pair bends both lines at once, so one fifth comes back diminished
% each time; by '@~-2' the shape is sitting on the very notes it had in
% F# minor, which is how the piece finds its way home.
 
key a maj
 
Counter ::= .1 _4 .4 _2 .3 _2 .2 _2 .5 _2 .4 _2 .1 _2
Echo    ::= {Head - _16, - _16 {Head}@-12}
 
{Head, Counter}
{Head@~-1, Counter@~-1}
{Head@~-2, Counter@~-2}
Echo
 
 
% The piece entire, and not one line of it is new. Wash alone lays the
% ground and stops on the open dominant; A is the period in block chords
% and then again under the wash; B sequences itself home; A returns with
% the tune doubled at the octave; and the coda states the motif once more
% over Six–Dom–Ton before the tonic is left ringing.
 
key f# min
 
Coda ::= Motif@~-2 5 _2 4 _2 .7# _4 1 _16
 
Wash Hang
{Ant, Bed Dom _8}
{Con, Bed Dom _4 Ton _4}
{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, Wash Land}
key a maj
{Head, Counter}
{Head@~-1, Counter@~-1}
{Head@~-2, Counter@~-2}
Echo
key f# min
{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, {Con}@12, Wash Land}
{Coda, Six _8 Dom _8 Ton _16}

% Ten lessons of technique; now a piece. It grows from four notes.
% mus-contour's rule is that a leap is a promise (jump up a fifth,
% then walk back down by step) and Head answers Motif with itself a
% third lower, the sequence from melody-motifs. The assert spells out
% what '@~-2' did, so the mark is not a mystery.

bpm 75
instrument pluck
key f# min

Motif ::= 1 _2 5 _2 4 _2 3 _2
Head  ::= Motif Motif@~-2

assert Motif@~-2 == .6 _2 3 _2 2 _2 1 _2

Head Head@~-2

% A phrase is a question and its answer (mus-callresponse). Open ends
% on 7#, the leading tone, hanging over the dominant, a half cadence;
% Close reuses Open's first four notes ('Open[:4]' says so, and the
% assert spells the result out) then walks down to 1. Open's F#5 is
% the piece's one climax, and it is the motif's own fifth taken at the
% top: up from B4, then a step down.

Open  ::= 4 _2 6 _2 5 _2 4 _2 '1 _4 7# _4
Close ::= Open[:4] 3 _2 2 _2 1 _4
Ant   ::= Head Open
Con   ::= Head Close

assert Close == 4 _2 6 _2 5 _2 4 _2 3 _2 2 _2 1 _4

Ant Con

% Harmonize it: mus-harmonize says the setting is a choice, not a
% fact. Read the four chords as three voices down the page: .1 .1 .1
% ..7#, then .3 .3 .4 .4, then .5 .6 .6 .5. No voice moves more than a
% step and at every change one of them simply stays, which is all
% mus-voiceleading ever asked for. Ant hangs on Dom; Con lands.

Ton ::= {.1, .3, .5}
Six ::= {.1, .3, .6}
Sub ::= {.1, .4, .6}
Dom ::= {..7#, .4, .5}
Bed ::= Ton _8 Six _8 Sub _8

{Ant, Bed Dom _8}
{Con, Bed Dom _4 Ton _4}

% Set it. mus-accompaniment's arpeggio wash is Bed's own degrees
% unrolled one note at a time: the harmony did not change, the piece
% just started moving. Hang holds the dominant open; Land resolves it.
% Now mus-nonchord's tension is audible: the climax F#5 arrives over
% Dom as an appoggiatura and steps down onto E#, the chord's third.

Wash ::= {.1 .5 .3 .5} _2 {.1 .6 .3 .6} _2 {.1 .6 .4 .6} _2
Hang ::= {..7# .5 .4 .5} _2
Land ::= {..7# .5} _2 {.1 .5} _2

{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, Wash Land}

% A middle section needs new light, not new material, and since every
% line here is degrees, one 'key' command supplies it. Then mus-texture's
% polyphony: Counter is a second real melody, not filler, and against
% Head every simultaneity is a fifth, a sixth or an octave. Sequencing
% the pair bends both lines at once, so one fifth comes back diminished
% each time; by '@~-2' the shape is sitting on the very notes it had in
% F# minor, which is how the piece finds its way home.

key a maj

Counter ::= .1 _4 .4 _2 .3 _2 .2 _2 .5 _2 .4 _2 .1 _2
Echo    ::= {Head - _16, - _16 {Head}@-12}

{Head, Counter}
{Head@~-1, Counter@~-1}
{Head@~-2, Counter@~-2}
Echo

% The piece entire, and not one line of it is new. Wash alone lays the
% ground and stops on the open dominant; A is the period in block chords
% and then again under the wash; B sequences itself home; A returns with
% the tune doubled at the octave; and the coda states the motif once more
% over Six–Dom–Ton before the tonic is left ringing.

key f# min

Coda ::= Motif@~-2 5 _2 4 _2 .7# _4 1 _16

Wash Hang
{Ant, Bed Dom _8}
{Con, Bed Dom _4 Ton _4}
{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, Wash Land}
key a maj
{Head, Counter}
{Head@~-1, Counter@~-1}
{Head@~-2, Counter@~-2}
Echo
key f# min
{Ant, Wash Hang}
{Con, {Con}@12, Wash Land}
{Coda, Six _8 Dom _8 Ton _16}

running…edit it and it re-runs as you type

Writing a piece · Musicianship