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When one studies music from a historical and evolutionary point of view, one realizes that most of the apparently new resources are reinventions of older ones. This is the case in well-established romanticism, in which many techniques are the same but with chromatic treatments or take different directions. This is the case of the use of sequence. In baroque and classicism we saw sequences that moved within a tonality and also served to modulate neighboring tonalities. In romanticism a chromatic sequence is applied, especially using dominant chords of all kinds. This chromatic game allows us to “go out” of it towards almost any tonality that we propose. Let's see this small example. The first phrase starts in Am, uses the Neapolitan sixth chord (Bb/D), and repeats the phrase from measure 7. In measure 11, from V/V (B7), a chromatic sequence with dominants begins: E7 + C#dim7 - D7 + Bdim7, C7 + Adim7, ... We note that each diminished 7 chord is linked to the following one with the first one functioning as dominant of the second. The output is made through the augmented sixth chord toward C maj. But we could have prolonged the sequence and modulated to another key. In measure 26 another different chromatic sequence begins, in this case with Dis7 chords with chromatic descent of fundamentals: D - C# - C - B - Bb - A - G# resolving to Am. This is a resource that is frequently seen in Chopin, Brahms, Liszt...

This music is the "remake" of my first ever musical composition, that I made on Christmas Day in 2021. I decided to make it as a "Christmas gift" for my girlfriend, because she likes writing stories and this music is supposed to be a theme for one of her characters. Thanks to that theme I understood for the first time how much I like composing, and exactly one year later, on 25th December 2022, I made a remake of it using all the stuff that I learned through the year. "Flames of Chaos" is a quite strange creation, and I don't really know what to think about it. This composition has a really special meaning to me, and I'm sharing with you both it ("Flames of Chaos") and the original material ("First Creation"), that I made more than a year ago. I don't need feedbacks on First Creation, I know it's really, really terrible, I'm sharing it just to make you know what was the original material I had for this "remake". 😅 I would like to know if in your opinion the "soul" of the two compositions seems the same, even if the chords and the instruments are very different 🙂. Flames of Chaos.mp3 First Creation.mp3

Hi, part of my examples about several ways of modulation, I wrote this little piece using chromatic mediant modulation. I have two new dogs: a Puli called Happy (5 months old) and a Spanish Water Dog called Joy (2 months old)... I have 8 animals here.... But these are newbies. JOY.pdf (with notes) Joy_.pdf

Hi I'm writing a series of short pieces as examples for several entires I'm doing in a blog about all the ways of modulation (as far as I know). And there are many... In this one, I use enharmonic modulation by French augmented sixth, and by augmented triads (bIII+) in minor modes. So, I have to stay tonal for a while I made a video, too. not so happy - SCORE.pdf

Instructor: @Monarcheon Students Allowing: 7 Initial Writing Requirement: use as many bars necessary, piano Initial Writing Requirement Deadline: April 20th Special Writing Requirement: use and label all 3 techniques In the second of these harmonic technique series, it's going to focus a lot on modulation and phrase alteration. These are good for keeping your audience guessing, and can easily grow and come back from a developing arc, at least harmonically. These are: Saturation (chromatic or diatonic) Direct/phrase modulations Reharmonization Saturation is a way of using all the tones in either a chromatic or diatonic scale before moving on with the phrase. A lot of you might refer to Schoenberg's twelve tone rows, but chromatic saturation has been used a lot before that, in pieces by Hugo Wolf. Mozart even attempted this kind of writing in the fourth movement of Symphony No. 40, KV. 550, in G minor, right before the development starts. Chromatic saturation is simply using all of the notes of the 12 tone spectrum within a segment of music. Here's the Mozart example from before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5fqVYXVDwU#t=03m30s It creates a perfect location to start a new phrase in a completely new place (the V/V of the key) from the III. Chromatic saturation doesn't all have to be in a row, though. Connecting strings of chromatic chords can achieve the same goal. Diatonic saturation is the same concept of chromatic saturation, but using a scale (any mode) as the grounds of saturation rather than chromaticism. Especially when combined into chords, this method can sound very cacophonous, but still tonal, as the composer resolves the mass of sound into a new phrase. An example from Rautavaara's "Cauntus Articus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO3YRZWLvQo#t=04m12s Direct modulations are basically modulations that don't really seem to fit within any traditional tonal analysis. The most common type of this is in pop, musical theatre, or rock music where the key moves up a whole or half step without warning to give the sense of harboring more energy in the song, especially with a repeated motif. Phrase modulations, can be direct modulation, but simply happen in the middle of a phrase to jar the audience, but still stay fluid throughout, most often by keeping a melody or inner voice in constant motion throughout the phrase. Phrase modulations are especially useful in recapitulations of sonata format, or when a repeated figure in any form of music is getting to be a little bit too much. Executing these may seem counter-intuitive, but it requires you to think outside of the realm of diatonicism in one key. If you compare the key of the phrase you're in and the key of the phrase you want to end in, the composition of phrase modulation is "how am I going to bridge those gaps?". Common ways, as said before, can be: ...keeping the melody/inner voice moving, and using accidentals to reach the new key. Ending a phrase in the original key, and instead of ending the melody where the the audience expects it diatonically, make the last note an accidental in the old key, but perfectly fine in the new key. Reharmonization is simply a way of taking a melody and changing the chords underneath it to make it sound new and different. An easy way to do this is take your melody, and find chords that it also sounds good with; sometimes these will be diatonic, sometimes they won't. Oftentimes, to make the new progression sound smooth, composers employ extended chords to help, having the melody end on 9th's, 11th's, or 13th's, so the bass line can move without sounding too jarring. This technique is also good in recapitulations or repeated figures. Using it can also be a great pivot for a modulation.

First and foremost; I do not know anything about string playing. As a result of such inadequacy, there are maybe some double stops (don't think triple stops) that are a bit hard to play. I've had a friend look at it, and I've had the string teacher at my school look at it. My friend the string teacher is convinced that it is almost definitively a college piece. I just wanted to write a fugue. P.s. The ending might be a little. inappropriate. it was meant to be funny but now that i look at it after the fact, I think I might implore a different last few bars.

Is it so important to avoid any reference to the 1st key in the 2nd theme of the exposition? I think it's no big deal, but if I ever post the sonata form I'm writing, I guess everybody will point it out and bash the piece. The piece starts in G min and modulates to Eb maj for the 2nd theme group. However, I made a feminine P.A.C. in G min at the end of a phrase of the 2nd theme, even though that key is not "confirmed". Eb maj is still the prevailing key: Start 2nd theme--> Eb [...] Fmi Ab/C D7 Gmi Fmi7 Eb/G [...] Eb/Bb Bb7 Eb <-- End I've tried workarounds (deceptive or inverted cadences...) without success. The melody seems to "call" for that cadence What do you think? Thanks

Hi, I'm new here, so forgive me if I'm doing something wrong. I'm writing a sonata-form movement in Romantic style (Schubert, Brahms...). I've written: 1st theme (8+8 bars), ending on i (G min) transition (G min >> Eb) 8 bars of the 2nd theme (starts at bar 57), ending on V (Bb major chord) However, I'm stuck here. :dunno: I've just moved from a classical to a romantic style, and the proportions are bigger. I know I should write something looser and more lyrical here, and it should be roughly 50-60 bars long for balance. I could use more than 1 theme (?), and perfect cadences should be used sparsely. I tend to write very "marked" self-contained themes, like the 1st one, so my initial idea was to write another 8+8 antecedent/consequent. But I can't do this, I must include more material before the V-I and the codetta. Thus, I've written some "continuations" after the 1st 8 bars ending on V, as well as a climax based on that tune, and a little codetta... I don't know how to assemble all that stuff. I've checked out tons examples, but I'm kinda blocked. Any tips? What is your experience? Thanks!! :D

Hi everyone So I have been attempting modulation and I've started putting secondary dominants to good use. I'm reading about things like picardy 3rds and borrowed chords to try and add more harmonic interest, but I'm not very good at using them without them standing out to much. This piece has some sort of modulation at the beginning and I would like to know what's going on. I couldn't even hear there was any sort of modulation happeneing until I played the melody on keyboard. It uses the notes E and F♯, but sometimes there is an F in there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DggH6CReCNA Melody from 0:07 - 0:35