1. Making Musical Decisions
Chapter 7
Making Musical Decisions

2. The composer must decide what he or she wants to say and the best musical means to express it. Among the most fundamental decisions are those concerning musical elements like form, melody, timbre, and rhythm.
Composers often begin writing by choosing a work’s form. Form gives shape and direction but it does not control the feeling or message the musical work expresses.

3. Melodies may vary in length and style
Melodies may vary in length and style. Some music is based on a minor scale.
Minor scale is a sequence of eight pitches built on the pattern of one whole step, one half step, two whole steps, one half step, and two whole steps.
Composers achieve variety by changing familiar melodies from major to minor. Composer Gustav Mahler used this technique in his Symphony No. 1 in D Minor.

4. A symphony is an extended work for orchestra with several contrasting movements.
Mahler became known for his expressive melodies. Duke Ellington was celebrated for the same innovations in the field of jazz. *Listen for octave displacement in “I Got It Bad…”

5. Decisions about timbre
Tibetan Dance – by Bright Sheng, blends Chinese traditional sounds with American music
Pipa – traditional Chinese lute

6. Decisions about rhythm
Felt time – an aspect of music that controls the listener’s sense of how much time has passed

7. Arranger – a musician who reworks existing musical material Arranging for instrumental groups include changing a melodic/lyrical line to a particular instrument. Transcriptions are arrangements of music transferred from one medium to another (ex: from vocal with lyrics to piano or another instrument)

8. Theme and Variations
Composers, arrangers, and performers have always delighted in extending a musical idea through subtle or obvious changes. When they do this within a single composition.
Theme and variations is a musical form in which a melodic idea is stated then varied in a succession of statements.
Melodies can be ornamented, tempos altered, harmonies changed, texture transformed, rhythms revamped. Some composers will play their themes backwards or upside-down.

9. John Lewis – “One Diamond” – starts with Bach then transforms to jazz
Harmony is vertical blocks of different tones that simultaneously. Chords are built by adding a third or fifth above any tone.
John Lewis – “One Diamond” – starts with Bach then transforms to jazz
Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” was influenced by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

10. Decisions in Performing with Others
Conductor – the director of an orchestra, choir, or other performing group
1. select the music
2. rehearse the musicians
3. maintain the beat
4. make decisions re: tempo, dynamics, and phrasing
5. give visual cues

11. Rubato – the free treatment of tempo within a musical phrase
Marin Alsop – “Barrier Breaker Award” for women in conducting