music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush
Motivic Development
I’ll tell you what’s going on: I’m grumpy! I bet archduke rudolph 20 gulden that I could write 500 measures of music this week and so far I’ve only come up with four stinkin’ notes!
we’re going to take a little break from the usual stuff and... hey, it’s ludwig van beethoven! what’s going on, maestro?
& ‰ œ œ œ b˙
original motive
beetho ven
the simplest form of motivic development: repeating a phrase immediately gives you twice as much music!
repetition
repeating a motive at a higher or lower level pitch. as with all of these, the intervals don’t have to match exactly.
sequence
hey, it’s cool, mr. b... we can use these notes as a motive, and create a ton more music based on them. watch!
b &bb ‰
interval contraction interval expansion diminution augmentation rhythmic metamorphosis
any change of the motive’s rhythm (other than just changing the tempo, as described above)
repetition
sequence sequence
inversion of original motive
bb ‰ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ b & motive
. bb ‰ œ œ. œ. œ n œ œ. œ. œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ. ‰ & b augmentation of original motive
metamorphosis of original motive
b &bb Ó
‰ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ Œ
b &bb ‰ œ œ œ ˙
so, heh heh.... that gets us to 253 measures...
uh, yeah... so let’s use 2/4 time instead!
int. expansion
b œ œ œ ˙. &bb Œ
motive
wait... we are in 4/4 time, right?
œ J
œ b œ &b b Œ ‰œœœ Œ
an “echo” effect between different voices (between instruments in an ensemble, for example, or between registers on the piano)
imitation
motive
motive
making the intervals within the motive smaller (contraction) or larger (expansion).
changing the speed of the motive so it is played faster (diminution) or slower (augmentation).
œœ œ œ˙ J
œœœœ nœ œ œ #œ œ œ œ bb b ‰ J œ J & J
flipping the motive upside-down: if the original motive leaps downward, an inversion will leap upward.
inversion
œœœ˙
you sly fox... 506 measures!
imitation
˙.
aw, dang! let’s go double or nothing!
woooot! read it and weep, rudy!
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beetho
ven
Œ