how to compose a piano piece in ternary form?

Question

I'm trying to compose a song on my piano for my music GCSE composition. I'm working in E Major with appregios in the left hand and I have loads of ideas but I just don't know how to connect them and how many chords I should use etc.. please help?

Answer 1

For GCSE Music...



I would suggest as a minimum that each section is 16 bars long, which would give you a total of 48 bars. This is plenty for a GCSE Music composition. You should make sure that you melodies in the right hand make use of sequences (repeating the same phrase on a different set of notes). Keep the same type of accompaniment pattern throughout the whole piece to give a sense of consistency - your arpeggios. Although you could alter them slightly in the middle section and/or the end section, but stick with broken chord patterns like Alberti bass rather than switching to block chords. Make sure that you are using question and answer melodies with the appropriate imperfect/perfect cadences at the end of every 4 or 8 bars.



You've got a couple of options about how to handle the overall structure



Option 1: Your B section should be in a different, but related key. This should be either the dominant (fifth) or the relative minor. As you say you are composing in E major this would therefore be either B major or D minor. You final section should return to your original key - a repeat of the first section, but with some obvious difference - this could be in the accompaniment or by adding significant ornamentation. If you do a straight repeat you'll lose marks for development.



Option 2: Section A and B in the same key, but modulating to the dominant for the repeat of the A section.



If you have lots and lots of ideas it can be quite tempting to try and put them all into the same composition, but that doesn't always work. Play some of your ideas to your teacher and ask which ones he/she thinks would work together. Ultimately your own music teacher may have their own opinion about it and may steer you in one direction or another. Most of the time they know what they're talking about! so listen to their advice

Answer 2

For student composers doing model composition it's often helpful to work at several different places at once.



It can be difficulty to compose a transition to a second theme if you don't know what that second theme is yet. Try composing the beginning of each section and leave room for transitions. There are no set rules for how long or how many chords to use, in Beethoven the transitions are often significantly longer than the introductions of themes, in Haydn you sometimes have unusual modulations, etc.



To translate Erik Satie: Music is made up of two elements lines and dots.

Put enough of them on a page and you have music.

Answer 3

Ternary form means that it has three parts. To find examples of such form check out any minuet. They have three sections.....A or the first melody which made consist of 8 or 16 measures which may or may not be repeated, B or the second melody which made consist of 8 or 16 measures which may or may not be repeated. Then C or the third melody often referred to as the Trio section. It usually is in a different key that A and B. In classical minuets the A and B sections are repeated.



Another form that is often in three parts is a typical march such as written by John Philip Sousa. There is a brief introduction followed by the A section which is usually 16 measures long, B section which is usually 16 measures long then the C or Trio section which often is 32 measures long and in a different key followed by a coda. Sometimes Sousa would have a brief D section then repeat the C section



So, you need two melodies of 8 or 16 measures in length followed by a third melody in a different key which may or may not be followed by a repeat of the A and B sections.



Right now I can't remember the key relationship between the AB sections and the C section, but I'm sure it is rather rigid in its structure.



Hope this is helpful.

Answer 4

I'll plead with you to stand still and think beside the wonderful Satie quote I'd half forgotten that my good colleague JC put before you. It's as important as it is very fine.



If, as you mentioned, you have loads of ideas, your worries about 'how to connect them' are matters of form which your understanding of 'ternary' will solve. As to what you fill that ternary form with, JC has provided you with Satie's broadest of broad briefs for. Your assignment in effect is to blend these two together.



All the best,