Chapter 11 Melodic Analysis
We will divide analysis of melodies into
motives
(which can be broken into
fragments
) and
phrases
(which can be broken into
subphrases
) in order to understand the construction of melodies. We will discuss periods and sentences in another chapter.
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11.1: Motive
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11.2: Melodic Alteration
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While there are more than a dozen ways to alter a melody, we will focus on seven methods of basic melodic alteration at this point of the text.
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11.3: Fragment
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While the motive is usually defined as the smallest identifiable melodic idea in a composition, “compound” motives can be broken into fragments (sometimes called “germs”).
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11.4: Phrase
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Musical form is full of sections, and the phrase is the smallest category of section. Unlike a motive, a phrase gives the sense of completing a formal unit.
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11.5: Subphrase
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Subphrases are smaller than phrases but larger than motives. Most of the subphrases we encounter will be two measures long. Subphrases are called “phrase segments” and “phrase members” in other texts.
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11.6: Practice Exercises
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