Music Theory

Variation Variation -  technique where material is repeated in an altered form .  There are two types of variations called "sectional" and "continuous" The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these. variations are very common especially in classical music.  composers will change the original melody in a number of different ways. e.g. of this are adding notes, taking notes away (and inverting the melody (if the melody went up in pitch in the theme it is played going down in pitch in the variation). Another common technique is to add ornamentation such as trills. Variation example #1 Variation example #2 In this video I look at the musical technique of Variation as a way of turning your initial idea into a larger piece. Here is an example of a piece that accompanies today's topic well. Composer: Bach Here is a lesson by a music theory teacher, breaking down the various elements of a piece and it...

  an invention is a contrapuntal work most usually written for two or three voices. A fugue uses a bridge to connect entries of the subject and answer in the exposition and  the points of limitation are at the level of the dominant or at the octave, depending on whether the entrance is the answer or the subject. Fortspinning is passages characterized by by continuous motion, unequal phrase lengths, sequences, and elided phrases A real answer is the 2nd entry in a fugue when the subject is transposed exactly, without changing interval size. Image explaining a piece of Bach's Invention 1-credit: Bach's Invention 1: Step-by-Step Analysis- School of Composition Image carefully explaining this fugue- credit: fugue-Music Theory Academy Video explaining what a fugue is Video explaining g=how to listen to fugues

"form" is the  structure of a piece of music   Binary form-  a composition organized into two sections Simple binary form- (A and B sections)  Divided into two musical sections only Ternary form- 3 sections (first section is repeated with no changes). A B A. Ternary Form Example Simple Binary Form Example Below are Videos that I have found to aid with this Topic 1 2 3 Below is one of my assigned pieces for the year. This piece is in ternary form.