KS55

KS Composing for voices

Hugh Benham is a
By Hugh Benham
chair of examiners
for GCE Music,
organist, writer
and composer. He
formerly taught
music in a sixth-form
Introduction
college.
Many students compose for voice(s) in their GCSE and GCE Music coursework. This article is designed to
help, especially with the:

Handling of voices and textures for choirs and vocal ensembles

Notating of vocal music
Basic principles of word setting

Plenty of analysis of other composers music should underlie every students work (this is the rationale behind
the sleeve note for Edexcels GCE Music Unit 2, for instance). The examples below are also intended to sup-
port general historical and analytical work for listening and written papers.

Selecting and handling voices and vocal

textures

Much vocal music is for a single (solo) singer with accompaniment for piano, band or orchestra. Any group
of voices may be used subject to specific examination requirements, with or without accompaniment, but the
following ensembles are particularly common:

Four-part choir of mixed voices with sopranos and altos (women), tenors and basses (men)
Four-part choir of boys and/or girls and men usually for church music. Traditionally the alto part is sung
by men
Choir of womens or childrens voices only (perhaps in three parts, the upper two of soprano range, the low-
est of alto range)
Male-voice choir: typically with first and second tenors, baritones and basses
Barbershop quartet: commonly all for men, with lead (the melody), tenor (above this), baritone and bass. The
music is generally homophonic with characteristic close harmony
Solo vocal with backing vocals (male or female)

For any unfamiliar terms, consult Rhinegold Dictionary of Music in Sound (2002) or the glossary of any
Rhinegold workbook or study guide. For more extended discussion see The New Grove (2001) which
is available in some libraries or by subscription online.

Vocal ranges

Provide singers with notes that are comfortable in pitch except perhaps for occasional demanding effects.

The following ranges are useful guidelines, especially in choral music:

It is best to avoid the extremes of these ranges unless you are sure that the singers can cope. Parts for profes-
sional soloists are often more ambitious and wide-ranging than those for amateur choral singers.

1 Music Teacher December 2011

The top few notes of the range are generally best reserved for moments of special drama or climax. For ex-
ample, in the chorus And the glory of the Lord from Handels Messiah, there is just one climactic top A for
sopranos near the end. The immediate approach is carefully prepared, with several Es and then a stepwise
ascent from F#.

However, do not be over-cautious. Examiners like to see some enterprise and will not be impressed by con-
stant use of very restricted ranges.

Brief use of narrow ranges (or of repeated notes) can be effective. For instance, at the start of Faurs Requiem
(Introit Kyrie) the choir sings pianissimo on a monotone. This is to achieve a sense of deep stillness and
solemnity for the words Requiem aeternam (Rest eternal).

Music Teacher December 2011 2

 The movement ends with repeated calls to Christ for mercy (eleison), separated by short instrumental inter-
ludes; these four-note phrases, all but the first in unison, progressively contract until the last is on a monotone.

All parts (not just soprano) must be carefully controlled. For instance, high tenor and bass parts do not always
work in quiet passages, and they may overshadow low soprano and alto parts elsewhere.

The part writing and spacing rules learned for simple four-part harmony exercises or Bach chorale harmoni-
sation are still useful in present-day choral writing. There is no point in crossing parts, overlapping them, or
having wide gaps between upper voices unless its for a carefully calculated special effect.

Setting out your score

Music for choir can be presented in open (full) score or in short (close) score. In open score you have one
stave for each voice part (as above in the first quotation from Faur). The tenor part has a treble clef, usually
with an 8 underneath, to show that it actually sounds an octave lower. A divided part can still occupy a single
stave, like the divided tenors (and basses) in our Faur quotation, unless the part-division is long-lasting and/
or there is rhythmic complexity.

Tenor parts often Where the voice parts move often in the same rhythm (as in Harms Our Delight by Purcell, below) it is usual
work best if they to write in short score, with two staves, one for sopranos and altos, the other for tenors and basses. In short
are fairly high so score, tenors share a bass clef with the basses.
notes in short score
with one or two
leger lines are quite In short score, the stems of soprano notes go up, while those of alto notes go down: everyone can then see
normal. immediately which voice is which even if parts should briefly cross. Similarly tenors have stems up and basses
have stems down.

Especially in some In the majority of choral scores, melismas are shown by slurs. Incidentally there is no universal agreement
older scores, about the smallest number of notes that makes a melisma. Where a syllable has just two notes, it is probably
quavers and shorter best to speak of slurred notes, because in modern scores notes sharing the same syllable are usually slurred.
notes may be
unbeamed (each
having a separate
tail) where word set-
ting is syllabic, but To confirm full understanding of short and open score formats,
beamed where there copy out one or two short passages of short score in four-stave
is melisma. See open score, and reduce some passages of open score to two-
the quotation from stave short score.
Elgars part song
Love Below.

3 Music Teacher December 2011

 Variety of texture

In all but the shortest and simplest pieces for choir, some variety of texture and timbre is essential.
But avoid using all the forces all the time.

If you write for voices and instrument(s):

Begin with an instrumental introduction, and have instrumental interludes and/or longer passages
(compare the instrumental verses of some popular songs)

Include some writing for unaccompanied voices, but provide optional instrumental part(s) and
a keyboard part for rehearsals

Varying number of vocal parts

Varying the number of vocal parts can be very effective, for example:

In the first movement of Faurs Requiem, most writing is in four parts, but the opening chords (see quotation
above) are in six parts with divided tenors and basses divide (to give special depth and weight)
There are reduced textures elsewhere in this movement, including passages for sopranos only and for
tenors only, and brief three-part writing without basses
The second movement (Offertorium) has just altos and tenors at O Domine Jesu Christe, an unusual
concentration on mid-range timbres which matches the use of divided violas and the silence of the violins
Additional depth and weight is then provided by the entry of the basses (after absorbeat tartarus). Not until
the final section do sopranos come in: their top F#s loudly at poenis inferni (pains of hell) and softly at
Amen are all the more telling as a result
Changes in numbers of parts can help to articulate structure, as well as provide variety of timbre, as in
Bruckners motet Locus Iste where the middle section (Irreprehensibilis) is for three parts, without the bass-
es who were so prominent previously
Sections for full choir and for solo voice(s) are contrasted in much 16th and 17th century English music, as
in the masses and antiphons of John Taverner (c.1495-1545) and the verse anthems of Gibbons and Purcell
(e.g. The Bell Anthem)

Antiphony
This is generally where two different groups of voices are heard in succession, the second with an exact or
modified repeat of the original music. Many students will know the device from Gabrielis In ecclesiis (at adju-
tor noster) and from Taverners O Wilhelme, pastor bone (Edexcel Anthology of Music).

Homophony
This is very widely used in choral pieces and is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony,
the relationship between them creating chords. Commonly the main melodic interest is in the highest part, with
the other voices providing harmonic support.

As at the beginning of the example below, homophonic textures may involve the same rhythm in all parts. Such
writing is sometimes referred to as homorhythmic or chordal.

Music Teacher December 2011 4

 Unison writing
This is where everyone sings the same melody but using different octaves.

In choral music unison does not mean that everyone sings the
same melody at the same octave. As a rule sopranos and altos
sing in one octave, tenors and basses an octave lower. Occasion-
ally choral unison involves three octaves, as in the Stravinsky
example referred to below.

It can be used throughout an item, as in Vaughan Williamss Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (a piece dis-
cussed further below). In addition to this unison passages sometimes work well in works with mostly four-part
harmony. Mendelssohn, for instance, has unison for Hear, and answer, Baal! as the false god is shouted at
derisively in the oratorio Elijah (Part 1, no. 13)

Stravinsky uses unison, for tenors and basses, then for all four parts, to emphasise Laudate DOMINUM
(Praise the Lord!) in the third movement of Symphony of Psalms.

With unison writing, be realistic in your demands on altos and basses who find the highest notes available to
sopranos and tenors beyond their comfortable reach. The following would have been impractical, for example:

5 Music Teacher December 2011

Two-part writing
Two-part writing doubled at the octave is a kind of halfway house between unison and ordinary four-part writ-
ing. Soprano and tenor in octaves take one part, altos and basses the other.

Tavener uses this type of texture in the second bar of verse 2 from The Lamb (whereas at the same point in
verse 1 the two-part writing had been just for soprano and alto). Charles Wood (18661926) in his Magnificat
in D has the same type of two-part writing at For behold, from henceforth, whereas Taveners texture is ho-
morhythmic, Wood writes contrapuntally, with imitation between sopranos and tenors (leading) and altos and
basses (following).

Contrapuntal textures
These are found in much four-part choral writing. The various voice parts are rhythmically independent so
unity and coherence could be compromised; to avoid this, limitation is frequently used (with voices sharing
melodic ideas, but entering at different moments). In And The Glory Of The Lord from Messiah, Part 1 Handel
employs imitation as one textural device among many (see especially shall be revealed). On the other hand in
the chorus And with his stripes from Part 2 he uses imitation persistently and systematically to create a fugue.

Imitation and fugue are far from easy to use, and most students are well advised to avoid them. A discriminat-
ing use of passing notes and other forms of harmonic decoration can ensure plenty of rhythmic independence
and movement.

The best training in writing such decorated homophony is likely to come from practising chorale harmonisation
in the style of J.S. Bach.

Find additional examples of the textural types described above

and compose short examples (e.g. to a line or two of verse, and
lasting 48 bars).

Setting words to music

When setting words to music the aim is to:

Match musical structure to text structure

Match the music to the meaning and emotional content of the text
Match notes and syllables appropriately
A strophic song
submitted for a GCE
Matching the structure of music and text examination may
not show sufficient
enterprise to score
When setting a poem with two or more stanzas, you can use the same music for each provided that each
highly in terms of
stanza has the same number of lines and similar numbers of syllables per line. Such strophic setting is used structure.
for most folk songs and hymns, and for many items from the classical song repertoire, such as Haydns song
My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair (Edexcel set work in 2012). This is the advantage of simplicity in composition In examination
submissions, as
and performance but music that fits one stanza perfectly may fit others less well.
elsewhere, it is often
the deviations from
Modified forms of strophic setting allow the composer to be more responsive to a developing text, yet retain the regular repetition
unifying effect of repeated material. Several items found in the Edexcel Anthology of Music demonstrate this. that create the great-
est interest.

In Taveners The Lamb, the essential musical content is the same for both verses, but there are important
Compare the more
textural differences (for example, stanza 1 begins with a monophonic bar for soprano where stanza 2 has all complex textures in
four parts in unison). stanza 2 of Gersh-
wins Summertime
from Porgy and
Faurs song Aprs Un Rve departs much further from straightforward strophic structure. Verse two begins Bess.
by repeating verse one, until the phrase splendeurs inconnues(unknown splendours) in line three suggests
a change to new material. The dramatic Helas! Hlas (Alas! Alas) at the start of stanza three again requires
a very different treatment from the more placid opening words of stanza one. Schuberts Der Doppelgnger,

Music Teacher December 2011 6

 again with three stanzas, has the same four-chord ostinato at the start of stanzas one and two, and there is
further shared harmonic content, although the vocal melodies have relatively little in common. Many popular
songs employ a type of strophic form featuring a verse-chorus alternation.

See the online article Structuring Compositions for A Level Music (Music Teacher, October 2011).

See Structuring Ternary-style structures are widely used in vocal music for example the da capo form of many Baroque arias
Compositions (Oc- and the 32-bar popular song.
tober, 2011).
Any other standard form can of course be used if the structure of the text should suggest this. Where the text
is not in regular stanzas, or is in prose, the music can be shaped independently of standard forms, with main
sections corresponding with the structure and sense of the words. Such a piece may often rely for unity and
coherence on the repetition of prominent musical ideas.

For example, see Vaughan Williamss canticle for unison voices Let us now praise famous men. See Songs of
Praise (OUP, 1931), no. 432. The first two sections of text (Let us now praise and Such as did bear rule)
are broadly similar in sense and character. They have similar melodies (rather differently harmonised), the first
of which ends on G in the key of C, while the second ends on A, coinciding with the shift to A major at power.

Undergirding Vaughan Williamss piece is a largely stepwise crotchet marching bass; this continues even
when the mood, key and dynamics change markedly at And some there be which have no memorial). At
Their bodies are buried in peace (sung pianissimo) the crotchet tread ceases, but the four-note descent from
Eb to Bb (with dotted minim and crotchet twice) is still a clear echo of bars such as two, four and six. Musical
structures work in terms of short-term phrase structures as well as overall.

A four-line stanza is typically set to four musical phrases. Sometimes these phrases together resemble a stan-
dard musical form notably binary, with a central modulation to a related key. This happens in folk songs such
as Sweet Polly Oliver and in some hymn tunes. With Sweet Polly Oliver, the melody of the first line recurs at the
end so that the binary form is rounded.

Notice also how excellently shaped the melody is, with its climax on E in line 3 coinciding with more rhythmic
activity and variety than usual (six quavers in succession, and a dotted pattern). The descending triad is a
strong unifying force it occurs in three out of four lines.

The Polly Oliver tune has four four-bar phrases which balance very effectively after all, the lines of the text
are all of the same length. But we may achieve greater musical interest and sophistication by introducing one
or two calculated irregularities. For example, in the hymn tune Magda (Songs of Praise, no. 53) Vaughan Wil-
liams wrote in five-bar phrases, with the last of these beginning with an anacrusis, a beat earlier than expected.

7 Music Teacher December 2011

Irregularities, which may be prompted by the text, can be extensions of a phrase (for example with longer
notes than expected) or contractions (e.g. with the kind of added urgency seen in Magda).The following A Triumph Song by
example of extension concludes a verse which has previously had three four-bar phrases, each for two lines Hugh Benham, as
of text. In line eight (On his) the two extra beats emphasise the accented syllable of ascending after the recorded by Con-
vivium Records
climb to the climactic Eb.

Find additional examples of forms and devices described above,

and try to incorporate some of them in your own work.

Matching music to meaning of text

When there is a bright text, the music normally shows some or all of these characteristics:

Major key
Diatonic harmony and/or limited dissonance
Quick tempo
Lively rhythm
Prominent use ascending melodic movement and/or relatively high pitches
Loud or fairly loud dynamics

Music with a dark text normally shows some or all of the opposite characteristics:

Minor key
Chromaticism and/or prominent dissonance
Slow(ish) tempo
Sedate rhythm
Prominent use of descending movement and/or relatively low pitches
Quiet dynamics

This two-way split is an over-simplification of course. Music with the theme is rest may have some bright char-
acteristics (e.g. major key) but a slow tempo. Angry music may be both fast and minor.

Music Teacher December 2011 8

 Here are some examples from mainstream choral literature.

Character of words Title Musical characteristics

Praise and rejoicing
Anguish, and approaching
death
Prayer for eternal rest
Anger, thirst for murder and
revenge
Hallelujah chorus from
Handels Messiah
Thy hand, Belinda
and When I am laid
in earth from Purcells
Dido and Aeneas
In Paradisum from Faurs
Requiem
Der hlle Rache kocht in
meinem Herzen (Hells
vengeance boils in my heart)
from Mozarts The Magic
Flute (sung by the Queen of
the Night)
Major almost throughout; diatonic with limited
dissonance; quick, expect for grand slow ending;
lively rhythm, particularly through repeated use of
the figure with two semiquavers and two quavers;
much is quite high and/or ascending, especially at
Kings of Kings and Lord and Lords; mostly loud
Minor throughout; chromaticism (in ground bass)
and dissonance (notably suspensions); slow;
rhythms often sedate, but a few jagged moments
provide tension at Death is now; low tessitura
at Death is now and then descending ground
bass, but the height of Didos anguish (remember
me) is matched by some top Gs; dynamics not
indicated, but likely to be soft except in Didos
more impassioned utterances
Mostly major; much is diatonic, but with
some chromaticism; slowish tempo but
gentle semiquaver movement in accompaniment;
mostly quiet or very quiet
Minor, but still with the relative-major
modulation that was almost obligatory in
minor-key works in Mozarts day;
striking chromatic chords include
diminished sevenths; quick, with lively
rhythm; some very high coloratura
writing for soloist intended to sound
overbearing and menacing; pronounced
and sudden dynamic contrasts

Sometimes the match between text and music operates in a more precise, almost pictorial way. For example,
Handels aria The People That Walked In Darkness from Messiah represents walking by continuous quavers
at medium pace. These are in bare octaves, without any harmony to shed light (so to speak) on the many dark
chromatic twists and turns. Needless to say, the main key is minor. It is no accident that the words have seen
a great light in bars 11-17 are set in a major key.

Especially where there are just passing correspondences between text and musical character, we speak of
word painting. For instance, rising figures are used in line with convention to represent et ascendit (and he
ascended) in the Credo of Mozarts Mass in C major, K. 167. The instrumental scalic patterns (part (b) below)
are alternately up and down possibly to show that Christ had to descend to earth before he was able to as-
cend to glory. Notice how Mozart then uses nearly static melodies in soprano and violin I (part (c)) for sedet
(is seated).

9 Music Teacher December 2011

 Matching notes and syllables: clear setting of text

Text should be clearly heard and its sense understood. Homorhythmic (chordal) writing is ideal for clear word
setting, but if there is clarity within each line even complex contrapuntal textures can successfully deliver a
text by: This helps the
listener hear and
understand the text
Syllabic setting every syllable has one note only. (Further see next section: Syllabic and Melismatic) especially when
Matching the rhythm of the text in the rhythm of the music (See sections Rhythm and Demonstration) the music is fairly
Verbal repetition (repeating words and phrases). complex and can
emphasise key
words and ideas.
Also helps the com-
Until about 1530 text repetition was scarcely used with long melismas providing the necessary extension. poser write a more
For example, the Sanctus of Taverners mass Corona Spinea has a 25-word Latin text but lasts for nearly extended piece than
possible where the
ten minutes. Its words were too familiar to require projection.
text is stated once
only without repeti-
tion.
The celebrated Lament from Purcells Dido and Aeneas is based on the following brief text: When I am laid in
earth, may my wrongs create no trouble in thy breast. Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate. Verbal repetition
assists comprehension, as someone dictating a sentence might restate phrases to help the person writing or
typing. It is also emphatic most strikingly and poignantly at Remember me! remember me!.

Erbarme Dich, an aria from Bachs St Matthew Passion, extends for well over five minutes at a slow pace and
with fairly extended instrumental prelude and postlude, but the much-repeated text (in English translation) is
simply this: Have mercy, Lord, on me, Regard my bitter weeping. Look on me, Heart and eyes both weep to
Thee bitterly.

Music Teacher December 2011 10

 Syllabic and melismatic
Syllabic setting corresponds much more closely to ordinary speech than does melismatic, and is very widely
used in most vocal pieces. The various musical quotations in this article provide examples of good practice.
The following tips help you to show clearly how you intend syllables and notes to fit together:

Write out the notes and then add text. Text usually goes below the voice part to which it belongs, but if there
are two parts on a stave you may have to provide text both above the higher part and under the lower. If this
happens often, you clearly need to change to open or full score
Words with more than one syllable must be divided into separate syllables separated by hyphens. If the word
music has two notes, it is written as mu - sic
How to divide words is largely a matter of what sings best. Mu - sic is a more natural division than mus -
ic. Vowels can easily be prolonged however many notes are placed on them, whereas consonants cannot
A double consonant is often split e.g. pillar as pil - lar, not as pill - ar or pi - llar. But grammatical func-
tion is important: keep the suffixes ing and ed separate from their root words. Thus singing is divided as
sing - ing (not as sin - ging), trusted as trust - ed (not trus - ted)
Where the final syllable of a word has two notes, it must be followed by an extension line (e.g. love__ or
re - mem - ber__)

No division is needed when there is a melisma on a monosyllable. Do not write ta - ke or on - ce, for example.
Instead write take__ or once__ even though the terminal k and ce are not pronounced until the last note.

Melisma can help emphasise important syllables. Groups of four or five notes are usually sufficient. Anything
longer must be very carefully shaped. See for example the extended melisma for solo soprano on glo-(ry) in
The Lord is great from Haydns The Creation; this recurs as word-painting for lasts (for ever).

Rapid and/or extended melisma can be used for show, notably in opera where it is usually called coloratura.
Very striking examples occur in the Queen of the Nights two arias from The Magic Flute. Here Mozart wrote
for a specific singer who he knew to be capable of carrying off the most elaborate display and extremely high
notes. Dont try to match such vocal gymnastics, but occasionally consider stretching the technique of par-
ticular singers in less extreme ways.

Rhythm
Word setting succeeds or fails above all in terms of the rhythmic match between syllables and notes within
the phrase.

English verse texts usually have clear repetitive rhythm patterns based on regular recurrence of accented (or
strong) and unaccented (or weak) syllables. These patterns can be matched in the musical rhythm with
strong syllables set to notes that have a strong position in the bar, weak ones tucked away on weaker beats
and parts of beats.

11 Music Teacher December 2011

 Prose texts do not consist of regular successions of strong and
weak syllables, and for this reason can be more difficult to set
than verse texts, but the principle of setting strong syllables to
strong notes still holds.

Read the first two lines from Elgars part-song Love (Op. 18 No. 2, 1907).

Like the rosy northern glow

Flushing on a moonless night

Mark the strong syllables with forward slashes and the weak ones with horizontal dashes. You will find
that strong and weak syllables alternate in each line, beginning with a strong one (trochaic metre). At
the start of his soprano part (below), Elgar goes much further in his search for a really telling setting
than merely placing strong syllables on strong beats or strong parts of beats:

The two least important syllables the and a fall just on weak semiquavers
See the entire
For emphasis, longer notes are used for northern glow than the obvious two quavers and a texture of bars one
crotchet seven to appreciate
Elgars word setting
Northern is given additional prominence by the high notes fully. The lower parts
colour the melody
Moonless is emphasised by the short melisma, and night is extended even longer than glow harmonically, but
also maintain move-
The result of this sensitive word-setting is an unexpected phrase structure. The eight bars below are
ment when the so-
made up of three bars plus five, even though both lines have seven syllables. prano has its longest
notes. The score is
available here.

Demonstration: Setting two lines to music

John Keatss poem La Belle Dame Dans Merci begins with these lines:
Many songwriters
conceive words and
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
music together in
Alone and palely loitering examination terms
this is excellent if a
The compositional process described below may be useful to those students for whom composition is not (or composition brief
allows use of original
not yet) second nature in real life most songwriters work more instinctively. texts and if you can
write successful lyr-
Metre and rhythm ics as well as good
music.
Keatss lines are in iambic metre (more common metre in English verse than trochaic). Syllables come in the
order weak, strong. Just say the word Alone and youll get the point.

However whereas each pair of syllables (or foot) begins with a weak one, each bar in a piece of music be-
gins with a strong beat. In other words, we cannot start a bar with the first syllable of an iambic line. So, to the
composer, Keatss first line could suggest this basic pattern (the vertical strokes representing the beginnings
of bars, and/or at preceding strong beats):

| | |
O what can ail thee, knight-at- arms, |

Music Teacher December 2011 12

 The simplest musical rhythm for Keatss lines would be this:

As you can hear, this sounds extremely dull. Read out the verse and it is very clear that some strong syllables
are stronger than others. The following two versions are therefore much more natural.

Use of 4/4 in place of 2/4 is rather lighter in effect with fewer really strong beats. The slurred quavers in version
(b) provide just a little more movement and interest. The speech rhythm of loitering is reflected in the music
this is a word over which we do not loiter when we read it.

Triple time could be used instead of duple or quadruple. But if lilting minim-crotchet pairs are used repeatedly
for strong-weak syllables, this is no better than the string of crotchets in one of our examples above.

Variation can come from the occasional reversal of minim and crotchet, as in bar seven below where the tenuto
mark on the crotchet reminds singers that the syllable pale is still accented. Bars starting with two slurred
crotchets (or with slurred dotted crotchet and quaver) help to provide additional interest. Line two bears an
unusually long note to emphasise the desolation felt by the lonely knight-at-arms:

Melody
Often a text will suggest pitches to the composer along with rhythms, but let us imagine that the rhythm la-
belled (b) above is our starting point and that we have to supply pitches. We need to decide on:

If the melody is to Type(s) of voice(s) for example, a single solo voice (with or without accompaniment) or a four-part choir?
be accompanied Tonality for example, major or minor, modal (e.g. Dorian or Aeolian), pentatonic, atonal
by other voice(s) or General shape and character for example, largely scalic, or with plenty of leaps, lively or gentle, etc.
instrument(s), we
must think right from
the start about its
harmonic implica-
tions, even if only at
cadence points.

13 Music Teacher December 2011

For our melody (which will eventually have a simple piano accompaniment) we will write for soprano, in a mi-
nor key (which suits the text) and in a fairly simple style (the text itself is somewhat stark) with a fair amount of
stepwise movement and a few leaps for contrast.

Here we note:

The clear (G) minor shape (with passing note A) at the beginning: DGABbG
The fairly large leap (minor 6th) that helps to emphasise the second syllable of the key word Alone
The ending, which implies chord V (with an imperfect cadence). Our two lines are only half of the opening stanza

The F# and E belong to the ascending melodic minor scale, although they are part of a descending passage.
This, which is not unusual, allows use of the normal (major) version of chord V (DF#A) valuable if we decide
to write in a simple fairly traditional harmonic style. The descending melodic minor (FEbD) would work, and
might help to underline the bleakness of the poets vision if chord V with unsharpened third were used with it.
The FED used in our final version with piano accompaniment below is more ambiguous (Dorian mode, or an
interrupted cadence in the F major that was briefly hinted at in the introduction?).

Accompaniment
A keyboard accompaniment may, but need not, double the vocal melody in the right hand.
Incidentally, the
first full bar of the
The simple piano part in the music example below supports the singer by touching on crucial notes (the open-
vocal part has been
ing D and G and the G at the end of bar three). There are occasional rests to allow the singer greater promi- slightly revised, with
nence, and when the right hand part is independent of the voice it is kept quite low so as not to overshadow it. slurred quavers, to
provide just a little
The brief doubling at the end helps steady the singer, who may be expecting the F# rather than F.
more activity here
while the piano
The brief introduction is derived from the melody for the second line of the poem. This builds coherence in a rests.
way that an unrelated introduction may not have done, while lacking the obviousness of a literal anticipation
of the first phrase.

Music Teacher December 2011 14

 What next?
Experiment as much as time allows, sometimes with fragments (e.g. beginnings and endings) as well as with
longer passages. Above all, dont let the pieces submitted for AS or A2 Music be the only music composed
during Years 12 and 13.

It can help to build on what has already been done why not adapt and re-arrange the music above?

The Pop Composers Handbook by Bruce Cole (Schott, 2006) will help those whose main interest in
songwriting is in popular styles. See the same writers The Composers Handbook (Schott, 1996) and
The Composers Handbook, 2 (Schott, 2010).

Replace the accompaniment with one of your own either for piano, with changes of harmony and texture,
or for a small instrumental group (e.g. clarinet and bassoon, or string quartet)
Cut out the accompaniment and add vocal parts for alto, tenor and bass in mainly homophonic style
Compose an entirely new setting of the given words
Extend this (or a version based on the melody above) by setting also the third and fourth lines of Keatss
poem. Will the music now composed fit the second stanza?

15 Music Teacher December 2011