This lesson focuses on writing a melody from a very small melodic fragment or cell using Melodic Manipulation techniques. Let’s use the first three-note motif from Morning Mood by Edvard Grieg (From Episode 3 of “Mastering the Craft”) to demonstrate all these techniques.
A Motif (Motive) is a small musical idea. It can be melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic. This small idea can be manipulated using a few different techniques to create a large, cohesive melody.
Here is the 3 note cell that makes up the original motif in Morning Mood. Let’s first go through all the melodic manipulation techniques.
Inversion:
Inversion takes the motif and changes the direction while maintaining the same intervallic relationships. The original motif moves down a minor third, and then down a major second. In this example, I started on the note G# and moved up a minor third and up a major second.
If I had started on the same note “B,” and maintained the diatonic key relationship, I would have moved to D# and E, which would have been up a major third and up a minor second. So the intervals would have changed and therefore wouldn’t be a pure inversion (See Intervallic Augmentation and Diminution below).
Retrograde:
Retrograde takes the motif and reverses it. On paper, it looks like an exact mirror image (Rests included). This is the least common of all the techniques because it is quite difficult for the ear to recognize the motif and be able to relate it to the original, but occasionally it can provide a nice stark surprise. Since our original example ends with a rest our retrograde starts with a rest and moves backward through the motif.
Note: Retrograde works much better with shorter motifs like this one.
Rhythmic Augmentation and Diminution:
Rhythmic augmentation and diminution: Augmentation lengthens the note value and Diminution shortens the note value. Here I augmented the first note by lengthening it to a quarter note and I used a diminution on the second two notes by shortening them to sixteenths.
Intervallic Augmentation and Diminution:
Intervallic augmentation and diminution: Augmentation expands the intervallic distance between two notes and diminution makes the intervals smaller. The original moves downward by a minor third and then by a major second. I used a diminution on the first interval to shorten the distance and move down a major second and then augmented the second interval to move down a minor third.
Changing or Adding Notes:
Changing or adding notes: This technique is quite straightforward. It simply adds or changes a note. In this particular example, I had to use a Rhythmic Diminution so that I had room to add a note.
Change of Mode:
Change of Mode: This technique takes the motif and adjusts notes accordingly to change the modal quality of the passage. In the second example, I changed the G# to G natural and now we are in E minor instead of E Major (Don’t forget to change the harmony accordingly).
Sequence:
Sequence: When a motif is repeated but begins on a different note (this can be over a new chord or in a new key).
A Real Sequence takes the melody and puts it into a new key by moving the motif up or down and maintaining the exact intervallic distance between notes. In this example, I modulated the motif up a major third to the key of G# major (notice that in order to keep the same interval relationships I had to add some sharps to fit the new key).
A Tonal Sequence takes the melody and starts on a different note with a different harmony underneath. Although the harmony has changed, the key, in this case, has not. Notice that the middle of the three notes is now the minor third of the chord instead of the original major third. This is because the harmony has changed from E Major to F# Minor (II chord of the key) and that has a minor third.
Now the question is “how do we apply all this to a musical motif to create a complete phrase of a melody?” Well, if we look at our Grieg example it becomes quite clear.
Here is the full melody from "Morning Mood."
Let’s think of the first 3 eighth notes (B, G#, F#) as the melodic motif. For now, don’t worry about any of the grace notes. The second melodic grouping (E, F#, G#) is a combination of multiple techniques. First, we use an inversion, so instead of 3 eighth notes descending, we have 3 eighth notes ascending. Second, instead of up a minor third and up a major second (the inversion of the first melodic grouping) we use an intervallic diminution on the last interval to create motion up a major second and up another major second. Finally, we start on a different note, in this case, E instead of B (I’ve seen this referred to as simply “starting on a different note,” but you could also think of this as a sequence down a fifth from the original starting note of B). While all this may seem complicated remember that the rhythm of 3 eighth notes that all move in the same direction is the same in both 3-note groupings. So even though we applied quite a few techniques here both motifs sound very similar and therefore very cohesive.
Now let’s look at bar 2. The first 3-note motif is the same as bar 1. The second 3-note motif is almost the same as well. It’s still E, F#, and G# ascending, but this time we’ve applied a Rhythmic Diminution. Instead of 3 eighth notes, we now have only 1 eighth note, the E, and the F# and G# are Sixteenth notes. In addition to the variation of the melodic rhythm, there is also now an extra eighth note to either use a rest or fill in with something else. In this case, we have a repeat of the two sixteenth notes.
In bar 3, the motif starts out the same. We have 3 eighth notes starting with B and G#. The third note, however, goes back up to B instead of down to F# which is first an inversion, and then an intervallic Augmentation from a Major Second to a Minor Third. What happens next is a sequence of this new variation of the motif up a Major Second to C#. The interval in the middle of the grouping also has an intervallic augmentation from a Minor Third to a Perfect Fourth.
In bar 4, we see the first motif again, and this time when we get to the E it is Rhythmically Augmented from the original eighth note to a quarter note. This is the last note of the phrase and finishes on the Tonic note of the key.
Lastly, grace notes are added for a much more expressive melodic phrase. The grace notes in measure 2 are just G# with an upper neighbor tone which moves back to the G# melody note and the grace notes in measure 3 help to pull into the note B with a little more emphasis. Grace notes are excellent for adding a touch more expression and character to your melodies but be careful not to overdo it.
Now you should be able to apply these techniques, either by themselves or in combination, to your own Motif and write your own beautiful melodic phrase.
Remember that a motif can be as many notes as you want and it can also be rhythmic or harmonic.
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