composition techniques

hello all,

i have a task for this coming thursday to compose a short piece (only a minute or so) using a compositional technique. i'm thinking and i cant pinpoint a composition technique. am i looking at ideas like serialism, impressionism and minimalism? or more something like ostinati, motifs and the like?

a quick reply would be appreciated seeing as i only have tonight.

thank you :)

It's not always totally clear what qualifies as a technique and what is more a "style". 12-tone composition is clearly a technique, whereas impressionism is a stylistic (and historical) term, but things like Minimalism lie somewhat inbetween, since they have both very typical techniques (repetition, phasing, etc.) but are still as a whole more a style. (But in your case I think it might qualify well as a technique too.)

Serialism (in the extended sense it was used in the 1950s etc.) too is not strictly "one technique", since there are many different ways of how it is done by various composers, but for the sake of simplicity I think it qualifies well enough as a technique.

There are many other 20th century techniques that would certainly qualify as well, such as aleatoric composition (composition with elements of chance), possibly also algorithmic music and spectralism (even if both are very broad terms), "Intuitive music" (in the sense as it was done by Stockhausen), etc.

There are also some older techniques like writing a Fugue, Canon, or something featuring Isorhythm. Maybe even writing a set of variations (even if that's more a "form"). There are also several techniques that are mostly attributed to certain composers such as the developing variation ("entwickelnde Variation") by Brahms/Sch

-Repetition-repeating motifs at the same pitch level

-Addition-Taking original motif and making all intervals wider(could also do subtraction)IE-broaden each interval jump by a major 2nd. Called extension(I can't read my writing here)

-Sequence-Repeating motifs at various pitch levels

-Embellishment-Repeating motif and adding....embellishments

-Inversion-Flip the melody upside down (I usually use third line as anchor, but you can find the general center of your melody, and flip from there

-Juxtaposition-Have more than 1 motif, and add small recognizable parts of a single motif into the center of the other

-Retrograde-Reverse your melody, start at the last note and work your way forward

-Augmentation-Double note values

-Diminution-Cut note values in half

-Fragmentation-Using small recognizable parts of a particular motif over and over, usually in sequence(see above)

-Contraction-contracting final intervals, so the melody seems to converge into 1 note.(often keeping the same rhythm)

-Expansion-Expanding final intervals (usually adds tension) to lead into next segment.

This was a page of notes one day from my Intro to Composition class 2 years ago. I have kept it since, and use it often when I'm at a loss for developing a melody/motif. Also, consider Etudes...I'd consider them compositional techniques, because they are all written to teach a specific playing technique, and thus, the composition of such a piece requires the repetition of the same intervalic jumps or rhythms over and over and over throughout. Good luck. I'm curious as to what you decide on doing.

Hmm, well, that's another part where the term "technique" is used in somewhat differing ways I guess. The things you mentioned there are doubtless all techniques, techniques of motive treatment specifically, but I don't think these are the things usually meant when the assignment is to "write a piece using a technique", since you'd rarely construct an entire piece out of a single one of these techniques. (If the techniques you mentioned were meant, I'd think the assignment would probably have sounded like "write a piece using various techniques of motivic treatment".)

But of course, if you built an entire piece out of, say, starting with a two note motif and doing nothing but embellishing it more and more until you have an entire piece, or starting with a passage and just extend the intervals more and more until the end, this would certainly qualify as "using a technique" to write a piece as well. "Using a technique" is in any case a term that can be interpreted in several ways.

Yes, I know what you mean. I hate such vague assignments. In class, when given, it seems the easiest thing to do. Once you are at home, and start to do it, you hit so many walls. I've sat up at night doing homework, and the entire action was sitting trying to figure out what the assignment that sounded simple in class actually meant.

Truly, I'd never use any one of these in writing a piece, unless I felt up to a challenge. But, several of them combined can certainly help. Beethoven's 5th was written almost strictly adhering to a few techniques, on the same rhythmic and intervalic motif. He doesn't hide that he is using the same idea throughout the entire thing. And even his idea of new material is just a new twist on the very first thing you hear, while it never gets old. Brilliance, I can only hope to achieve.

Oh yeah definitely. In Beethoven's case (and especially pieces like the 5th) one often might indeed say that the techniques of motivic treatment are "the" technique of the piece.

Yes, I know what you mean. I hate such vague assignments. In class, when given, it seems the easiest thing to do. Once you are at home, and start to do it, you hit so many walls. I've sat up at night doing homework, and the entire action was sitting trying to figure out what the assignment that sounded simple in class actually meant.

Truly, I'd never use any one of these in writing a piece, unless I felt up to a challenge. But, several of them combined can certainly help. Beethoven's 5th was written almost strictly adhering to a few techniques, on the same rhythmic and intervalic motif. He doesn't hide that he is using the same idea throughout the entire thing. And even his idea of new material is just a new twist on the very first thing you hear, while it never gets old. Brilliance, I can only hope to achieve.

yeah, i agree with you :toothygrin: