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J.S.Bach: BADINERIE from Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor
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Composing worksheet 2: MELODYBach’s Badinerie is in the key of B minor. Here are the scales of B minor – get to know them!
B harmonic minor B melodic minor
On an instrument of your choice, improvise using the scale of B harmonic minor. Think about the balance of ideas, and work to create question and answering phrases. Start with the plan below.
You could improvise on your own, or work with a partner. Use the first 5 notes as shown to improvise your musical ‘questions’. Use the last 4 notes in the scale to improvise the musical
‘answers’.
TIP: Two important pitches in melody writing are the tonic and the dominant notes. In the key of B minor:
- the tonic note is B - the dominant note is F#.
It may be a good idea to use these pitches at the beginning and end of your phrases.
Now compose a succession of at least 16 pitches, using just the 4 notes and repeating them as you please [Tip: Start and end on the note of B].
In a time signature of your choice, add rhythms to create at least 8 bars of music. Play your ideas, or record into Sibelius (or similar) to hear what they sound like.
Now write the pitches out again, with different note-values and in a different time signature. You can repeat any of the pitches.
Next, create some different melodic ideas in the same way, using a different combination of notes, with different rhythms [You could start on a B or an F#, and end on a B or an F#].
Let’s examine some of Bach’s melodic ideas a little more closely.
The pitch range of these melodic ideas is mostly high – remember that the melody in this piece is played on a flute. The instrument (or voice) that you are composing for must be taken into consideration.
1st main idea, bars 1-2 2nd main idea, bars 2-4 3rd main idea, bars 6-8
Pedal note idea in phrase extension, bars 12-14
a) b) c) d)
Note that this little fig at the end of the 2nd idea goes from the mediant note to the tonic note in B minor to close the phrase i.e. 3→1.
By adding a passing note here, the outcome is 3→ 2→ 1. The melody falls by step to the tonic note.
This is how the same idea would look in the dominant key of F# minor.
Bach decorates this idea when he modulates to F# minor at the end of Section A (flute part).
The decoration includes a lower auxiliary note, this is known as a mordent.