The Building Blocks of Melodic Form

How Are Melodies Constructed?

• Melody - A logical progression of pitches and rhythms. A linear succession of notes that form a recognizable unit, which is used to separate a melody from random pitches.

  • The melody is the most important part of a composition.

  • Melodies don’t always begin on the downbeat.

  • A good melody must have movement.

  • The best melodies are contoured and contained or limited in range usually within an octave.

  • Longer melodies use repetitions, have a distinct form and are built from simple motifs and short melodic phrases.

• Anacrusis (Pick-up notes) - When the melody begins before the first full measure. It’s an incomplete measure that combines with the final measure of the phrase to equal the meter

• Conjunct - When the melody uses stepwise motion.

• Disjunct - When the melody uses skipwise motion.

How to Choose What Notes to Use for a Melody?

• When creating a melody, the harmonic structure or chord progressions presents your “menu” of note choices for the melody.

• Creating contrapuntal motion between the bass and the soprano impacts your choice of melody notes.

• There are four scale tones that helps define the tonality and mode of a melody:

  • Tonic - It’s the tonal center of the composition.

  • Mediant - Defines its harmonic nature whether it’s major or minor

  • Dominant - Fifth grade of the scale

  • Seventh degree - It positions the melody to return to the tonic.

• The purpose is for your melody to move from unstable to stable, especially at the end of a phrase.

Melodic Structure

• Melodies are constructed in phrases.

• Phrases - Single coherent musical thoughts that move toward a goal, the cadence.

• Sub-phrase - A melodic unit smaller than a phrase and doesn’t end with a cadence.

• Often, phrases occur in pairs.

• Period - When the first phrase of a pair ends with a weaker cadence and the second with a stronger harmonic conclusion forming an antecedent-consequent relationship.

  • The most common antecedent phrase ending is a half cadence followed by the consequent phrase ending with a perfect authentic cadence.

  • Parallel period - When two phrases making up the period begin identically, or the second phrase is a variation of the first.

  

  • Contrasting period - When the two phrases are different from each other.

  • Repeated parallel period - Two phrases that form a parallel period repeated exactly.

  • When two phrases both end with a strong cadence, there is no antecedent-consequent relationship. There are just two phrases.

• When phrases are analyzed, they’re labeled with lowercase alphabet letters.

  • Phrases that are similar but not identical receive the same letter with the prime mark or with numbers.

  • Phrases that are the same receive the same letter.

• Phrase expansion - Expanding phrases beyond normal phrase lengths by adding material to the beginning, middle, or end.

  • Introduction (Prefix) - Material added to the beginning.

Repetition

• The use of repetition is the most critical aspect of musical structure.

• Literal repetition - Exact repetition in the same voice.

• Imitation - In multiple-voice compositions, when the melody repeated in the second part imitates the one in the first.

Repetition Through Motif

• Melodic motif - Short group of notes repeated throughout the melody to establish its identity and provide thematic unity.

  • It defines the melody and characterizes and unifies the composition.

  • It can be melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic.

• Leitmotif - A motif thematically associated with a person, place, or idea.

• Musical theme - A complete melodic phrase anywhere from two to eight measures.

  • Main musical idea that defines the composition, reinforces it through repetition and serves as the basis for expanding and elaborating the melody, often through variation.

Repetition Through Variation

• Motivic transformation - Changing or transforming the original motif by using these compositional devices:

  • Fragmentation - When a portion of a motif or a larger musical idea is used, often repeated, and/or varied.

  

  • Melodic sequence - A form of variation that refers to repeating the original motif starting on a different pitch.

  • Melodic inversion (Inversion) - The imitation of the melody performed upside down from the original melody.

    • It moves in the opposite direction by the same diatonic interval.

    • Mirror inversion - If the inverted intervals are exact.

  • Retrograde - When the melody is played backwards.

    • Retrograde inversion - It plays the pitches of the original motif backwards and inverted.

• Ex. → Variations of a melody

  

  • Modulation - The process of changing from one key or tonal center to another.

  

  • Ornamentation (Embellishment) - The technique of adding or decorating the melody with non-chord tones such as passing tones, neighboring tones, and suspensions.

  • Octave displacement - Moving one or more notes of the melody to a different octave.

  • Mode mixture - Involves combining chords from the parallel major or minor mode to increase harmonic resources.

• Rhythmic transformation - Changes the motif or theme’s rhythm in order to vary it from previous statements of the motif.

  • Augmentation - A form of rhythmic variation where the pitches remain the same but the rhythms are equally lengthened (note values are made longer).

  • Diminution - The opposite of augmentation, note values are made shorter.

  • Rhythmic displacement - Keeps the original rhythmic structure intact but moves it to a different place in the measure.

Non-Chord Tones

• Non-chord tones (Non-harmonic tones) - Notes that don’t belong and create a temporary dissonance against the members of the chord.

  • NCT’s may occur in any voice but are more common in the melody.

  • They have three parts:

    • Preparation - The first chord tone.

    • NCT - The dissonant tone.

    • Resolution - The chord tone it leads or resolves to.

• Passing tones (PT) - Melodic embellishments that fill in between the preparation and the resolution by stepwise motion.

  • Accented passing tone - Occurs when the passing tone that is not part of the chord occurs on the beat.

• Chromatic passing tone - A non-diatonic note (requiring an accidental) connecting two chord tones, one whole step apart.

• Neighbor tones (NT) - Non-chord tones that decorate a line by moving from one pitch to another one-step above (upper neighbor) or below lower neighbor) and then returning to the original pitch.

  • Chromatic neighbor - When the neighboring tone is an accidental a half-step above to below the chord tone (but not the leading tone in minor).

  • Incomplete neighbor - Non-harmonic tone approached by skip or leap in one direction and resolved by stepwise motion in the opposite direction. It occurs in a weak rhythmic position.

• Appoggiatura - A specific kind of incomplete neighbor that leaves the preparation by leaping up and then resolves down by step. This is an accented non-chord tone because it occurs on the beat.

• Escape tone - Another form of incomplete neighbor that leaves the chord tone by step then resolves in the opposite direction by leap.

• Suspension - Occurs when a note in the preparation chord is held over (suspended), creating a momentary accented dissonance (on the beat) that is resolved downward by step to the resolution.

  • Most common types of suspension

    • 9-8

    • 7-6

    • 4-3

  • Rearticulated suspension - When the suspended note is not tied to its preparation.

  • Retardation - Suspended note that resolves upward.

  • Anticipation tone - It leaves early from the preparation chord by step to become a part of the resolution chord.