reel
Below is my theme.
Below is a video of the second section leading back into the theme again.
Below are written out all the traditional modal scales (all beginning on the note C).
[Note: in the key my theme is in (G), again you play all the notes from G to the next G. Normally you would play an F# as the second last note of the major scale but if you flatten that to an F Natural, then you have the Mixolydian scale beginning on G]
If, from the outset I have set up a modal character how can I use this feature to create more musical material? Can I create a new modal scale which makes musical sense from the original theme?
Below is the Mixolydian scale on C.
EXAMPLE A
As this is the scale that forms my theme, how can I modify this scale to create a new scale which I can use to generate more material. If I read the scale backwards (i.e. its retrograde), then the descending scale would consist of: a tone, a semi-tone, a tone, a tone, a semi-tone, a tone, and a tone. Below is exactly that (each interval that ascends in the original just descending in the example below:
EXAMPLE B
EXAMPLE C
Below is a video (with the score) showing how I applied this 'transformation' to the second half of my original theme.
Strathspey
Below is an example of a traditional Strathspey.
Below is a video of a piano piece I wrote which acts like a sketchbook of ideas for a more substantial piece.
The 'Slow Movement'
Since my Quintet is basically following "Sonata Form" I need to find a way of producing a slow movement which has a relation to Scottish traditional music. I break from my idea of this being a work made up of dance movements by having a lyrical Scottish Ballad to form my slow movement. As composers have often done with this 'singing style' (cantabile) slow movements.
The following solo piano piece takes it's phrase structure from the famous poem "Auld Lang Syne" and is basically a "song without words" for piano.
The Britannica Encyclopedia says of the form as it is often applied today that: "Generically, the term chorale prelude is often applied to compositions that are not genuinely associated with the chorale but that do preserve the genre’s textural characteristics."
It also describes the compositional features of the form as: "The chorale prelude retained improvisational characteristics even as a fixed compositional type. Typical examples feature the hymn tune as a cantus firmus (fixed tune), which is broken down into its constituent phrases played in long note values and preceded, accompanied, and followed by contrapuntal manipulations of their salient motifs." https://www.britannica.com/art/chorale-prelude