Unit 4-2: Melody & Motive

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Comprehend the elements of melodic construction, including motif, contour, conjunct and disjunct motion, range, phrase, and melodic cadence.
Provide a motivic analysis of a melody.
Explain the different features of a melody and compare and contrast melodies based on those features.
Compose a melody using a given chord schema that incorporates a melodic or rhythmic motive.

Melodic Grouping and Motive, Repetition, and Rhyme (Temperley, The Musical Language of Rock) - Read Sections 5.1 and 5.2
Writing Melodies (PopGrammar)

Motivic analysis: Watch one of the following videos to learn how to do a motivic analysis. (This is a review from Theory I)

What makes a good melody? What exactly is melody? What is its relationship to harmony? What is its relationship to rhythm, meter, and form?
- - What are some of the different musical features that can be used to describe melody (e.g. shape, cadence, repetition, direction, etc.)?
  - Listen to a few examples of songs that you think exemplify "good melodies." What specific features make these melodies great? Consider some of the musical parameters you discussed above.
  - How does melody relate to phrase models and to overall form? Consider how different features of melody change in a verse vs. a chorus of a song. How is repetition used differently?
Motives: What is a motif? How is it used as a compositional element? Discuss some of the different ways that motives can be varied. How are motives and repetition used in popular music?

Melodic Analysis: Split into groups and pick one of the songs from the handout here to analyze in detail.
- - Identify the Roman numerals and any chord schema you recognize.
  - Circle and label non-chord tones by type.
  - Analyze the phrase structure using lowercase letters (a, a', b) and mark the start of each phrase in the score.
  - Identify examples of melodic and rhythmic motives and variations. Mark those in your score using motivic labels (x, x', y, z). Be prepared to discuss how the artist varied any motives.
  - Discuss the different characteristics of the melody, consider shape, direction, rhythmic and melodic repetition, cadence, range, rhythm, singability, whether it is mostly conjunct or disjunct, and whether the melody uses primarily chord tones or non-chord tones.
  - Do you think it is an example of a good melody? Why or why not?
Melody Composition: Complete the following steps.
- - Select one of the chord schemas from Unit 3.
  - Compose a 4-bar chord progression. Notate both Roman numerals and chord symbols.
  - Compose a melody to go with the chord progression that incorporates at least one melodic and/or rhythmic motive. The melody should use mostly chord tones, but include at least 2 different types of non-chord tones. Sing your melodies and critique them as a class.
  - For extra practice, turn your composition into a parallel period, sentence, or SRDC phrase structure.

Assignment 5-2

Next Lesson: Blues Melody & Scale

Explore the connection between repetition and musicality in melody in this video by cognitive scientist, Elizabeth Margulis (to the right).

Or, check out one of the readings below:

Adams, Kyle. "Harmonic, syntactic, and motivic parameters of phrase in hip-hop." Music Theory Online 26, no. 2 (2020).
Temperley, David, and Trevor de Clercq. "Harmony and Melody in Popular Music." In The Routledge Companion to Music Cognition, pp. 165–177. Routledge, 2017

Elizabeth Margulis, "Repetition & Musicality" (SMT-V, 1.1)

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