Assignment 5: Reflections

Get your Waltz on!

My first thought when presented with this assignment was to write a waltz, as it would be easy to create a chord sequence with one chord per bar. I then decided to create a walking bass motif from the notes on the first beat of each bar; this motif follows a 16 bar sequence. I then added chords on top of this bass line, though this proved harder than I first imagined and there is a heavy reliance on inversions of chords IV, V and VI. The first section, Presto, uses this 16 bar sequence 4 times; each note in the bass sequence is accented. The melodic line is then constructed to try and disguise the sequence that follows underneath; the melodic phrases are of different lengths and I try to avoid ending a line at the end of a 4 bar group. Each melody passage works up to a fortissimo, accented crochet, dotted crochet, quaver motif but with no cadence underneath. The first section eventually winds up and leads to an anticipated perfect cadence, but instead the middle section is immediately introduced on a VIb chord.

The middle section uses the melodic ideas of the first section, but in 6/8 time with a broken chord motif underneath using the same 16 bar harmonic pattern. I got this idea listening to the Schumann Piano Concerto, where in the first movement he echoes melodic ideas he introduces in a simple time passage later in a compound time passage. I like this effect, as it creates a sleepy, lilting feel to the opening music; the legato style nicely contrasts the upbeat, detached first section. The left hand is written in an attempt to create a three in a bar feel below the definite two in a bar melodic line; an attempt to echo the waltz feel of the first section. Again, like at the end of the first section, the music winds up to the anticipated perfect cadence, but instead the opening music returns on a VIb chord.

The short reprise of the opening section sees the melodic line embellished while extra notes are added to the bass chords to add more colour. Unlike the 1^st passage, the 16 bar chord sequence is only heard once, with the last bar creating the perfect cadence which, after the previous interrupted cadences, comes as a bit of a surprise.