Perpetual Rounds

I have very much enjoyed this exercise whereby I was required to compose some perpetual rounds based on given chord progressions. Turning a basic series of chords into a tuneful melody which then harmonises itself really showed the potential of the western tonal system.

There was a little confusion at first, with regards to repetition of the chord progression. At first, I was creating melodies based on one series of chords, then having a situation where the different voices were playing notes of different chords, causing a clash. I encountered a different problem when I used the chord series twice. This time there wasn't a clash, but it meant that the first voice and third voice were playing the exact same part of the melody, which essentially reduces the texture down to two voices:

In the diagram I created above, each number represents a chord in the progression; the red '1's show the start of the melody. With two repetitions of the chord progression but three voices, you get unison melody in the first and third voices, highlighted by the red boxes.

It took quite some time to get an understanding that chord progression repetition should be equal to, or greater than, the number of voices in the round. This page was particularly helpful in this matter:

http://www.donaldsonworkshop.com/journal/Poesy/music/round/

Perpetual Round #1 for Winds

Ironically, in my first attempt at composing a round, I did use the correct number of progression repetitions. I love the sound of a wind ensemble (influenced by a lot of listening to David Mislanka's Symphony No.4 recently) so decided to write for flute, recorder and clarinet. This first composition has a very basic rhythm, so once it was completed I decided to create further interest by making each pair of quaver notes staccato. This has the added benefit of being a sort of motif for the piece, and allows the listener to get their bearing with regards to each instrument.

Extract from Perpetual Round #1

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Perpetual Round #2 for Strings

This next piece is one of my favourites from the set, written for violin, viola and cello. The rhythm is a little more complicated here, using a dotted crotchet rhythm as its motif. Unlike the first piece, the melody here doesn't end on the tonic note, so sounds unfinished. To create an ending, I resolved the penultimate note D down to C. The violin, which starts and hence finishes first, holds this final C as a tied note above the other, still playing, instruments. This creates a pleasant type of anticipation whilst the viola then finally the cello both also fall to the C.

Extract from Perpetual Round #2

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Perpetual Round #3 for Brass

This piece also uses a dotted quaver rhythm, and is scored for trumpet, horn and trombone. I decided in this piece to have the trumpet state the entire melody in full before the other two instruments joined in. This allows the listener to fully comprehend the melody before it is complicated by the harmonies of the other instruments.

Extract from Perpetual Round #3

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Perpetual Round #4 for Voice & Cello

I scored this round for female voice, male voice, and cello. Even though in a round all voices should be 'equal', I decided to experiment a little with this piece, and gave the cello a slightly louder dynamic. This means that the cello is most prominent, with the voices providing apparent background harmony, even though they are in fact all playing the same melody. I also altered the chord in the last bar to create an ending on a perfect cadence (V-I).

Extract from Perpetual Round #4

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Reflection

This was an immensely enjoyable and rewarding exercise, which presented some initial challenges.Having fully grasped the concept however, I am confident to go ahead and compose any number of rounds in the future.

Any time I complete an exercise or assignment, I try to build on the core task, putting my own ideas and experiments into the mix. In these exercises I used a range of different instrument families and created a variety of different moods. I used basic notes of melodic decoration to add further interest to the melodies, as well as some basic articulations. I was careful however to not add too much complexity, as I felt this would detract from the essential round formula. On a technical note, I did for the most part avoid consecutive intervals of a fifth or octave; a well-known 'rule' in western harmony, especially for this kind of music. Once or twice I discovered 'consecutives' as my ear detected a brief bland patch in the harmony, and I adjusted the melody accordingly.