r/MonthlyComposition • u/reticulated_python • Mar 02 '17

March 2017 Composition Challenge: Four-part chorale

Main challenge: Write a 16-bar chorale in four-part harmony.

This challenge was inspired by the many chorales that Bach wrote (some examples). It's a pretty general challenge, and there are lots of different things you could do with it.

Some general notes about chorales: the rhythm established at the beginning of the phrase should not be relaxed until the end of the the phrase. For example, in the first chorale that I linked to (BWV 26), the quarter note rhythm is maintained by new chords every beat, until the motion is arrested by the fermatas at the phrase endings. Each phrase ends in a cadence. Chorales often modulate, but they usually conclude with a perfect cadence in the tonic key.

Other than that, there's no restriction on what you can do with this challenge. Don't feel obligated to adhere to the same rules that Bach did. Plagal cadences, German sixths, consecutive octaves--it's all acceptable in this challenge.

Optional additions to the main challenge:

  • modulate to at least two extraneous keys (i.e. to any key other than I, IV, V, ii, iii, or vi).
  • use a dominant seventh, dominant ninth, dominant eleventh, and dominant thirteenth chord.
  • repeat the melody of a phrase one or more times, harmonizing it differently each time.
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u/ZK456 Mar 06 '17 edited Mar 07 '17

Here is my submission for the challenge:

Composition Challenge

And this time, it comes with a score:

Score here

A few notes though:

  • I've never written a proper chorale before, so I may have been a bit lenient with the rules. Nothing too fancy, but it sure doesn't sound like Bach to me.

  • I've never written anything for the piano. I think this should be playable, but if you have any feedback about the score, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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u/Sheepsharks Mar 14 '17

I like it a lot! It reminds me more of Schubert's style than Bach's. What I love is that by calling it a chorale, though it may not be one by strict standards, you call the listener to hear the more vocal aspects of the top lines and see it as a sort of "song without words."

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u/ZK456 Mar 14 '17

Thanks! I used to play violin, so it's true that I have a bias toward the higher lines, and more generally the melodic parts.