THE KEY-WORD HERE IN THE 4TH GENERATION DIGITAL MUSIC FOR THE MUSICAL-THEORETIC IDEAS OF THIS POST (AS FAR AS MORDEN SOFTWARE FOR MUSIC MAKING IS ) IS MELODY-SEQUENCERS
THE TERM SEQUENCER MEANS HERE A LOOP OR RHYTHMIC CYCLE OF A MELODIC THEME THAT IS VARIATED INTERACTIVELY BY THE USER IN A MELODIC SEQUENCER.
THERE MANY GOOD SOFTWARE PROGRAMS FOR THIS COMPOSITION AND IMPROVISATION LIKE FUGUE MACHINE, YAMAHA MOBILE SEQUENCER, THUMPJAM ETC
We defined in post 96 the affine or order-topological structure of the melody. Now the order-topological structure is strongly correlated with types of emotions (sadness , joy , serenity etc) therefore it a primary choice in composition or improvisation. . As the order-topological structure is independent of a mode within a scale (see post 100) or a modulation among scales, any alternative or different realization of the same order-topological structure of the melody, generates melodic improvisation.
This method applies either when a chord progressions is predetermined or when a free unaccompanied melody is composed too.
We must use here the classification of the order-topological shapes of melodic themes to cycles, expansion and contraction as in the post 107. Such classification shapes are made from concatenation of up, down and horizontal vector, therefore it is considered a trinary alphabet visual language. It is called Dolphin's language in honor of the whistling communication o dolphins and whales.
We must also study the post 108. Since the translation variations are also homeomorphic variations of a melodic theme. The only two independent variations are the inversions (time and pitch) and the homemorphic variations.
To design and compose such variations we need to write the sequence of the shapes (as with harmony we need to write the sequence of the chords).
We may call such sequences similarly pitch-order shapes of melodic themes progression (POMT progression).
The POMT-progression either over a scale or not can be an alternative composition and improvisation method that starts with the melody and not from the harmony of a give chord progression. But of course determining a scale e.g, a diatonic scale makes things a lot simpler in the composition, and then the chords follow immediately.
As we remarked this method applies either when a chord progressions is predetermined or when a free unaccompanied melody is composed too.
ORDER-TOPOLOGICAL VARIATIONS ON THE ARPEGGIO-SCALE MORE THAN 2/3 OF THE TIME AND ON THE CHORD-LOCAL 7-NOTES SCALE LESS THAN 1/3 OF THE TIME.
If we do not restrict to a scale but we use a predefined chord progression, then we may realize the order-topological shapes of the POMT-progression over the arpeggio-scales during each chord with rare, meaning less than 30% of the times, melodic embellishments with notes outside the arpeggio-scale e.g. full scale by 2nds going up or down that in practice fits all chords of a diatonic scale or realization of the order-topological shape by 2nds in the chord-local 7-notes scale [see post 103] or even on notes of the chord-local 7-note scale that are outside the chord. The order-topological theme may be a musical word or micro-rhythmic melodic theme as in post 92, or concatenations of them so that in total the total time duration of notes of it that are notes also of the chord is longer and preferably >=2/3 of the total time compared to the total duration of the notes of it that are outside the chord and its arpeggio-scale (e.g. inside the chord-local 7-notes scale).
Chopin uses an beautiful technique (but also a technique in Greek folk melodies of Rebetika) where , the notes of the melody are most often pairs of simultaneous notes (harmonic intervals) of the arpeggio-scale, but also the notes outside the arpeggio scale are again pairs of simultaneous notes (in harmonic intervals of 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 8ths etc) that are borrowed from the next or previous (or in general any other) chord of the chord progression (or of the underlying 7-notes scale if there is one). In this way even the chromatic outside the chord parts of teh melody have harmony!
When the chord changes we change also the arpeggio-scale as if in a modulation. We may also have not a pre-determined chord-progression but only a predetermined (non-ordered) set pf chords, and we chose the next chord interactively as we compose the POMT-progression. One of the most common techniques in the melodies of Beethoven and Mozart is the order-topological shape of ascending or descending in a waving way in 2 or 3 octaves the arpeggio-scale of the underlying chord, which is often (<1/3 of the times) embellished with similar waving ascending or descending but this time by 2nds in a full diatonic locally underlying scale.
MELODY-HARMONY INTERACTIVE COMPOSITION. A preliminary design of the placement of the melodic themes based on a sequence of placements of power chords, may correspond to a composition that requires a full chord progression. Nevertheless a power-chord e.g. C4-g4-c5 does not specify if it is minor or major chord,or other type of chord. But a power chord it can be considered as a spacial case of a chord, therefore all the technique with the HSS and CSS in post 109 may apply. If the melody composition is recursive and we determine the next power-chord and melodic theme only after the previous is composed, then it can be considered a melody-harmony interactive method, that neither is predetermined but both are together composed. We may of course predetermine a scale but this is not always necessary.
Since determining a scale determines also a set of chords but not an ordered sequence of the (chord-progression), we may also conceive such a more lose condition in the composition of the melody : Instead of a predetermined chord progression a predetermined set of chords with no pre-decided order. Then as we want to go to the next melodic theme, w just choose a next chord from the predefined set of chords, and apply the method of the post 109.
Once a POMT-progression is determined, and also we have determined the realization of these order-topological melodic shapes with notes, then conversely we may determine the chord progression, so that a chord is accepted as underlying for a melodic shape, if its notes as notes of the melodic theme in total do not sound less (preferably >2/3 of the total time) compared to the total duration of the notes of the melodic theme that do not belong to the chord. This of course may determine more than one chord. And we may chose with criteria of better quality chord progressions relative to the alternatives. Or if one particular chord progression and chord transition is more common in the particular style of music. We may also put a requirement of lest possible number of underlying chords, which means that if for the previous melodic theme , and previous chord, is so that its notes as notes of the melodic theme both current and previous in total do not sound less (preferably >2/3 of the total time) compared to the total duration of the notes of the two melodic themes that do not belong to the previous chord then we extend the duration of the previous chord to the current melodic theme.
This interactive method for reasons of simplicity may compose as correlated harmony a power chord always in various positions, but the harmonic and chromatic simplcial sub-melody need again calculation. The power-chord play only the role of placing the melodic theme, inside the scale, and requiring that the melody passes from harmonic intervals of 8th or 5th. The actual chords that finally would accompany the melody may be different!. The reason that we may prefer to set only power-chord restrictions on the successive melodic themes is because we may want to give priority to the sequence and "logic" or dynamics of the order-topological shapes of the melodic themes, their development, repetitions and balance , compared to a preset harmony by a chord-progression.
The boundaries of the range of the available instruments upper and lower (usually 2 or 3 octaves) serve as reflectors, where the melodic themes may have inversion variations either in pitch or time.
The boundaries of the range of the available instruments upper and lower (usually 2 or 3 octaves) serve as reflectors, where the melodic themes may have inversion variations either in pitch or time.
Example 2: As a practice with this method, we may take for example a sequence of bars of the prices of a financial instrument in the stock-exchanges or inter-bank market, and give simple rules to convert the order-topological shapes of price movements to homeomorphic such melodic themes (possibly in a single scale) of various pitch intervals, and get thus a full melody composition. Of course we may focus only on nice repetitive shapes which are constraint to fit in to successive power-chords and disregard time intervals with relatively chaotic movements. Thus repetitive patterns of collective emotional behavior will be converted to nice single instrument melodies.
We give some examples.
Here is an imagination poem by me about dolphins that actually speak by whistling, and say beautiful poems and philosophical treatises.
The speaking dolphin
My friend said the dolphin
look at the beauty
of the water space
with the golden light
at its top
I have traveled
from continent to continent
But the humans do not
understands us
They hunt and they prison us.
I have saved many
drowning men
and I have carried them
to the sea-shore
I talk to the wales
and you do not
understand them too
The sea knows our songs
with the story of our races
Man oh man!
I do not have hands
I do not have legs
But I think and I whistle
in our trinary language
I think and I whistle
the poems that I compose
for my friends
Man Oh man!
Please learn
to speak with us
for we are
the most sentient
of the animals
(This post has not been written completely yet)
