Melody Writing
The irreducible minimum of the creative process in music is melodic invention. All of the other skills taught to music students – harmony , counterpoint, orchestration, and so on – suppose the pre-existence of some melodic germ as a starting point; we harmonize a melody, or we write counterpoint to a melody, or we orchestrate it.
It is important to discuss how melodies are organized structurally – that is, the aspects of form – and for the student to construct some melodies of his own.
Melody may be defined as pitches presented in some orderly arrangement in time; that is, melody, in the general sense, includes the concepts both of pitch and of rhythm as applied to a single line or voice.
The principles of melodic form are best shown by a study of vocal melodies. The history of Western music shows that for several centuries it was concerned almost exclusively with melodies for the human voice. Even after the baroque period, which saw the rise in importance of instrumental music, the bel canto vocal melody still remained as an ideal. The idiomatic writing for instruments added such things as arpeggios, scale passages, and extended ranges, but the formal, structural principles for the most part remained unchanged.
Vocal melodies, despite the stylistic varieties of different periods, have three common characteristics, which reflect the limitations of the human voice: they have a limited compass, or range; the motion is more conjunct than disjunct (more steps than skips); and they are constructed in short sections. Also, as vocal melodies, they utilize a text, the words and ideas of which are also form determining. These forms are often called strophic forms, since they are made in sections like the strophes, or lines, of a poem.
Small Strophic Forms – It is apparent that the names given to small forms and segments of music are somewhat analogous to the terms used for sentence construction.
A. Motive (motif, figure)- the smallest melodic germ , made of a few tones and rhythms
B. Phrase member – A part of a phrase made up of motives
C. Phrase – A complete (but not necessarily finished) musical idea, ending with a cadence (regularly four, or sometimes two measures long)
D. Period – Two related phrases, ending with a strong cadence; analogous to a sentence (regularly eight measures)
E. Double period – Two related periods (regularly sixteen measures)
F. Phrase group – Three or more related phrases
The clearest illustrations of these small forms come from folk songs, children’s songs, hymns, and so on. For example, the traditional “Yankee Doodle” is a period, which is made up of two similar phrases, each of which can be divided into phrase members.
The Brahms Waltz in A flat is an example of the period form from instrumental literature.
Two related periods, each of which is made of two related phrases, make a double period.Notice that in the English folk song “Greensleeves” the two phrases that make up each period begin alike, but cadence differently.
There is not complete agreement on all of these terms – some theorists use the term sentence instead of period, and period in lieu of a double period – but the general idea is clear: larger sections can be divided and subdivided until one discovers the germ motives out of which the music is made. Conversely, we may begin with the small motives and arrive at phrases, periods, or double periods.
It would be a mistake to imply that this additive construction in harmonic or homophonic music stops with the double period or phrase group; periods, double periods, and so on, may become parts or sections of longer works.