Month: May 2017

This particular Interlude, one I would call a valiant attempt, is supposed to be in rondo form.  As I have stated in previous posts, these Interludes were composed with the a teaching element in mind.  The problem with rondo form is that it is usually a larger scale form, one that cannot simply be put on a single page.  From this point on, this and the next two interludes were never presented to any class I taught.  I like these pieces, but didn’t feel they did what I wanted for teaching purposes.

Interestingly, this was my second attempt at writing a single page rondo.  I’m not sure it is entirely successful, but here it is in any case.  Each line in this rondo form has it’s own form marking, ABACACoda (A-B-A1-C-A2-A-coda in reality).  But expressing this form as found in a single page is quite trite.  Most classical rondo forms are lengthier than this particular piece.  Download it here.

The third Interlude in this series is the earliest written.  Just as the other Interludes incorporated elements taught in a theory curriculum for both written and aural theory 3, this one too does as well.  The element prominently used is of course the metric modulation.  There are some harmonic elements typical of later 19th century music too.  It’s also written in a rounded binary form which was a part of the assignment.  That’s all well and good as far as the assignment goes, but what I enjoyed about writing was using the romantic harmonies.  I hadn’t done anything quite deliberate like this before, one were I was explicit in form and harmony.

I also like E Major.  Fits nice in my hands.  Download the score for free here!

This second interlude was more recently written and is a demonstration of rounded binary form.  I also used this for my aural theory class by erasing a number of notes out and having the students fill it in.  Hence, there are no accidentals in the work, making it slightly easier as an aural theory assignment.

That last statement presented me a challenge: how do I get the piece to fit into two different assignments at the same time?  Part of the answer is making the piece somewhat modal.  I also inverted the theme in the return of the A section, leading to a cadence in the key.  That part, I think, tripped up a few people in the assignment.  I’ll discuss the style of these works in the next post, but I was trying to allude a certain style coming in typical written theory 3 curriculums.