So week 1 of learning to write like Mozart was really interesting but the music I produced at the end was a bit boring. That’s because everything for week 1 had to be in a major key, use homorhythmic homophony and the chords had to be in root position. This week the tables have turned, everything was in a minor key, chord inversions were introduced, as well as some rhythms.
This week there were two assignments instead of just one. The first was very similar to last week as I was given the melody and the chord sequence and then simply had to write in the parts for the other 3 voices. However, with the introduction of chord inversions it definitely made it a bit trickier, as there were lots of new guidelines to remember, such as when using a 2nd inversion chord you must double the 5th of the chord, instead of the root.
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The second assignment introduced some rhythms into the mix. This one was less of a composition though, as I simply had to re-voice the parts for keyboard instead of SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass) but I did then have to apply the given rhythm to it.
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So far I’ve been encouraged to double the root of the chord, however that made the melody of the second piece very difficult to craft due to a few 1st inverted chords and it ended up all over the place, so I started again and ended up doubling the fifth on these inverted chords which made for a smoother melody.
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So as you can hear, the assignments for the course are slowly progressing towards more complex music. I’m looking forward to the weeks to come.