Lesson 5 Beethoven Copycat

Learning from the Master Listen to the first two lines of this melody by Beethoven.  How are these two phrases the same? How are they different? The last measures in each line are different. One ends with the notes B A A while the other ends with the notes A G G/. We would say that the first line was a and the second line was a’ (a prime).

Listen to the next two lines of music. Are they the same or different than the first two lines? That’s right – the third line is different than the rest and so we call it b. The last line is the same as the second so we call it a’. We say that the form of the whole piece is… a a’ b a’

a a’ b ODE TO JOY Listen to the sound file and track the notes with your finger as you listen to the melody.

Playing Copycat Using the rhythmic pattern of this piece and the form – aa’ba’, you are now going to write an original composition using the notes G, A, B, C and D. Notice that line 2 and line 4 finish on the home tone “G”. Line 1 and 3 finish on a note other than “G”. Notice that the melody moves mostly by step up and down. There are only a few skips in line 3. Beethoven created melodic contrast between the a and b sections by the way in which he used steps and skips. You have one new rhythm which is a dotted quarter note, followed by an eighth note. This rhythmic figure gets two beats.

Uploading Assignment Upload the final composition to Blackboard using the appropriate assignment drop box - Composition Assignment 5. Include a three sentence description of what you were trying to communicate as a composer. What mood were you trying to create? What were some of the challenges that you faced as a composer? How did you solve these problems? Include any questions that you might have for the instructor with this assignment. The instructor will provide feedback which will be useful in completing Composition 6. Please note that this assignment will be graded.