How to compose in Mozart’s style
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- This video gives a practical formula for crafting a phrase in the style of a Mozart piano sonata, whether composing or improvising.
0:00 Introduction
2:50 The basic idea
3:48 Sentence structure review
4:31 Writing the response
6:05 The continuation phase
7:43 Expanding to a ompound period
8:40 The Alberti bass texture
10:04 Adding embellishing tones
12:30 Our completed phrase
13:05 Improvising with the formula
15:46 How to improve upon the formula on your own
This lecture is intended for people who already know some Western Classical harmonic theory (ideally having around 2 semesters of college-level music theory).
PDF lesson plan of this (plus much more) is available through / galendegraf
RECOMMENDED/RELATED READING
Robert Gjerdingen, "Music the the Galant Style" amzn.to/4bhJHXC
William Caplin, "Classical Form" amzn.to/3wubYLu
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#mozart #musictheory 
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I made this before learning any animation, so what you‘re watching here is just talking along to a powerpoint. It should give you a sense of what it‘s like to take a class or lesson with me, and I hope some people find it useful!
As a beginning composer, this is great information! I'll try to write something with it
Hope you can continue doing this series with Beethovin, Chopin, Liszt and Bach many others!
I hope so too! The next style guide video will probably be on Arvo Pärt, but I haven't planned who'll be after that.
Keep going bro, we need this content
Oh, Your chanell - golden mine.
Delightful! Plausibly, I am a complete beginner. Barely read music. But have immersed in recorded music from the Middle Ages through the Baroque and into the Classical. Play guitars, mandolins, oud, saz, 5-string bangos, but not piano. Nevertheless, I found your video illuminating and engaging. TY!
Hmmm. First 4 Bars are a good start with a typical Mozart style call and response sequence, but after that it's not like Mozart except in a superficial way. After first 4 bars there would usually be a counter theme or a rhythmic change. Was almost expecting an ascending chromatic notes. Instead it gets too repetitive too much Alberti Bass and melody doesn't have enough rhythmic variety.
One can only do so much in a 20-minute youTube introduction, but my goal was to keep it simple and practical, so viewers can immediately start composing and improvising after watching, even if that means keeping things a bit too simple and superficial. Since you already have more nuanced Mozart knowledge, you probably aren't the intended audience for this video introduction, but you still might enjoy the demonstration video here which isn't nearly so repetitive nor reliant on the Alberti bass: ruclips.net/video/7P4gO6_Qa7A/видео.html
Having studied something, somewhat more specific, this is on the surface something like Mozart but in a deeper level has nothing in common. First you must speak the Galant language; this isn’t the Galant language.
There‘s another thread in the comments here which goes back and forth about exactly this issue. This is not an in-depth attempt at covering Mozart, but just some guidelines to get people going.
Unidiomatic. It sounds like an IA made it after being fed a moderate amount of repertoire. See, since in a keyboard work in late 18th century style everything is so exposed, you MUST have good first species counterpoint between soprano and bass; your foundation must be solid, else the whole structure falls apart. Having good counterpoint does not mean the archaic Fuxian style, rather it means following the rules of musical grammar. Certain contrapuntal bass/discant patterns succeeded each other in a regular fashion. Some as openings, some as riposte, some as pre-cadential, etc.
For a detailed explanation see Music in the Galant Style by Gjerdingen.
I agree about the counterpoint in the outer voices being very important in learning the Classical style with any serious depth beyond a short youTube introduction. I own and have read Gjerdingen's book. In my C major phrase shown at the opening, for example, you can hear measures 1-4, or 9-12, as using the prototype Gjerdingen calls "The Do-Re-Mi" (discussed in Chapter 6) by looking at the counterpoint of outer voices on downbeats. The cadences I wrote are also a formula discussed in Gjerdingen's book. I chose to analyze them using Roman numerals, but the same patterns I use are referenced by Gjerdingen as a "compound" clausula (see Chapter 11, p. 141). The melodic pattern associated with the cadence in my example is what Gjerdingen would analyze as the "Do-si-do" type. You can see examples of the compound clausula combined with the "do-si-do" on p. 146.
If the items you view as unidiomatic are the improvised bits later on, then I completely agree with you, but I don't try to claim that they're great. Rather, they're just a way to get started at improvising something in this style.
@@GalenDeGraf I did spot the 1-7-1(fa-mi-fa) bass at the beginning, and thought for brief moment that it was intentional and not mere coincidence ha. But then I thought the melody had a weird shape, although I could see the often neglected goal oriented motion. So yes, I would say what strikes me as most unidiomatic are the diminutions you added later. For example in the first measure you strongly accent the third scale E-la, both by 6th leap, and by making it double the duration of C-fa. Whilst it's true that the 1-7-1 bass could idiomatically take both 1-2-3 and 3-2-1 as counterpoint, starting from 3 strikes me as a closing gesture, instead of opening... I am going by ear here, so take it with a grain of salt. Now, to truly compose like Mozart would imply being a master at using the schemata, so of course it's not something one can easily do in a short video intended for beginners! My main criticism is that while the basic structure is obviously there, approaching 18th century music with a modern mindset necessarily leads to an unidiomatic sound. I understand that Roman numerals are ubiquitous and that your video is intended as an introduction for beginners, but I personally think that using a "gradual refinement" approach is not only easier and faster, but also leads to a more solid and idiomatic structure.
Case in point, it took me less than 5 minutes to compose this little example using this appoach: ruclips.net/video/C8l4RKz_VAo/видео.htmlsi=GjyfzmVk-cosbFcM
@@Terpsichorean-oj8vc Thanks for your response. In truth, my main goal with this video was to discuss a particular phrase structure and type of embellishment which can sound very Mozartian. I wanted to package these together in a quick formula as a starting point, so I felt it was worth offering some harmonic guideposts for viewers who don't know where to start. If this video were specifically about harmonic and contrapuntal practice, it would be a lot longer, and I would address counterpoint far more. Given what you already know, you probably aren't the intended audience for this video. If you ever put out more content specifically about contrapuntal and harmonic practice in the Classical style, please feel free to link it below. I'd love to see it!