Today (105/08/2018) I focused my efforts on to project 5. I had to compose 3 contrasting melodies for vocal solos based around the pentatonic scales.
Vocal Melody 1 in A minor.
My first piece “Vocal Melody 1 in A minor”, is completely based on the A minor pentatonic scale. I instructed “Meno Mosso” or “with movement” as it is important to keep this particular phrase moving. The first part of the phrase up to the minim with the wedge mostly jumps up in intervals this represents a joyous start. The piece dims down in to the second section of the phrase. In a contrast to the first section, the second section is still loud but instead of ascending intervals the intervals mostly descend. The study still has a joyful beat to it but the phrase finishes on the sub-dominant of the A minor scale. This provides the listener an insecure feeling. It leaves ambiguity in the interpretation. The third section of the phrase is a lot more quiet and as the tonic rises from the dominant this provides us a melancholy perfect cadence.
Vocal Melody 2 in E minor.
In my second vocal melody in E minor the phrase is a lot slower moving than my first melody. I instructed this melody to be “expressive.” It is also a lot more quiet than the first movement. It is because of the expressivity and the dynamic that this melody has more of a lament feel to it. The first phrase is transposed up a 3rd which introduces a strange augmented Sub-Dominant A#. This music has a tormented feel to it and the phrase climaxes to it’s top note, a desperate and high tonic E before it descends and before returning back to the leading note before we rallentando and diminuendo until the bitter end.
Vocal Melody 3 in F major
As a complete contrast, my final melody line is in F major. and in itself has a lot to say. The melody starts off allegro (quite quickly) almost like a fanfare with sharp tidy quavers announcing the start of the phrase. The melody mostly ascends to its climactic top noted on the Bb, before a contrasting middle section reduces in rallentando to a pause on the tonic. The rall, is instructed “dolce” or “sweetly” and the notes are marked tenuto as the melody decrescendos to another pause. The third part of the melodic phrase is then picked up again except, this time, marked “quickly, with spirit” and ending on a major perfect cadence with a fortissimo on the tonic.
David Healy-Richards Music 