Creating melodies from pre-established harmony (part II)

NOTE: since this started as a response to another thread, it's a little further along than it should be. I will come back and post a "part I" with slightly more basic material

here is a quick and dirty method to work on melodies from pre-established harmony.

The first thing is, obviously, to have your harmonic framework done. In the example I'm using here, I've created a short harmonic progression in quartal harmony. I start out in 5/4 simply because that's one of my favourite time signatures... besides, it helps to break the monotony when looking for ideas to start with something that is a little off kilter :thumbsup:

So, you've established your basic harmonic framework

(see image 1 below)

you can hear the harmonic progression HERE

Now I look for high points, harmonic repetitions, cadences, etc... points where you know your melody will need to DO something special, or points that will allow you to do something special TO the melody.

(see image 2 below)

Now it's time to start writing out a simple melody. If you outlined the places where we could create repetitions, then part of our work is done already, since we will just repeat part of the phrase we compose.

That being said, blatant repetition can work, but if you're smart about it, the listener won't realize there was a repetition if.... you find similar harmonic passages in your framework that are NOT identitical. For example, in this example here we realize that the opening chords repeat at the 3rd and 4th measures but a perfect 5th away. So this is an ideal place to place an "outline repetition". That is, you don't repeat the same notes, but you repeat the outline of the phrase.

(see image 3 below)

You can achieve the same effect in other places even where there is no actual harmonic repetition or "echo". For example, in this example, we repeat the ending phrase as well during the cadence. This sort of repetition at the end of a long theme helps to bring the listener along to the conclusion, in a way the repetition says "this is the end of the phrase".

Remember that all repetitions will be immediately noticable to the listener, so they must be used judiciously.

You can listen to our first draft of the melody HERE

Now comes the fun part!

Once the basic harmony and melody are established, it's time to bring in the variations. There are all sorts of ways to vary melodies, and they should all be part of the composer's craft.

In this case, I decided that the initial time signature was just not long enough for me to stretch out my melody, so I altered it to 3/2 (basically just adding one quarter note to each measure). This gives me a little more breathing room.

I also start to vary the repetitions! That's right, don't just repeat verbatim. Find little ways to make each repetition of a motif or phrase unique in its own way.

It's important to know where in the theme you are as well. If you are in the initial statement of the theme (the first few measures) then it's probably not a good idea to make your theme too florid. Why? Because you won't have anywhere to GO to when it's time to really vary your thematic material.

So here are the variations on our little theme

(see image 4 below)

Notice that I also incorporated a few variations into the accompaniment. Obviously, this is not going to be our final version of the piece. It needs work for the orchestration to really take off. However, that doesn't stop us from seeing where the accompaniment can take on a life of its own.

and to hear our mini-masterpiece, click HERE

I hope this can help you in even a little way. It should help to at least open doors for you when it's time to compose.

For myself, I find that I use a bit of this method (starting from harmony) and a bit of the opposite (starting from a thematic strand). But it's up to each composer to find the way that is most comfortable for him/her.