Unit 3 · Lesson 4 of 4 — IB MYP: Personal and Cultural Expression · Communication
Composition 3: Musical Conversation
Create two related phrases that clearly sound like a question and an answer.
Your composition
Composition Checklist
Every section below is labeled with the checklist item it helps you meet. Your finished composition must meet all of them.
Item 18 measures total
Item 24-measure question + 4-measure answer
Item 3Question and answer must sound related
Item 4Change the answer enough to create resolution
Item 5Use playback and revise
Item 6Explain what you changed in the answer
IB MYP connection
Command terms: CREATE · EXPLAIN
CreateExplain
Learner Profile · ATL
Communicator · Thinker — Thinking: shape musical ideas that create tension and resolution, like a conversation in sound.
Task
Compose, listen, and revise before you consider this composition finished.
Inquiry: What did you change in your answer phrase to make it sound like a response instead of a repeat?
Reflect: Which revision improved “Composition 3: Musical Conversation” the most, and how do you know?
Key words
Words you will use today
Musical conversation
A question phrase and an answer phrase heard as a pair: the question leaves tension, and the answer resolves it.
Unity
The sense that two phrases belong together. In a question and answer, unity comes from the shared (repeated) material the answer takes from the question.
Contrast
The difference that gives each phrase its own role. In a question and answer, the main contrast is the changed ending: open, then closed.
Revision note
One or two sentences naming what you heard on playback, what you changed, and why (as in Composition 1).
Before you compose
Item 1Item 2Item 3Item 4
Plan three decisions first
This composition uses everything from Lessons 1–3. Before writing notes, make three decisions: how the question ends, what the answer shares with it, and how the answer resolves. Once these are made, the eight measures are much easier to write.
01
Decision 1: the question’s ending
Choose where the question stops: a pitch other than C (G or D work well), held long enough to be heard as a pause. Decide how it arrives. Rising into the ending sounds more lifted and unfinished.
Mozart, theme, mm. 3–4: an open ending on a held G.02
Decision 2: what the answer shares
Choose how much of the question the answer reuses. Reusing the first two measures, as in Lesson 3, is a reliable plan: enough shared material for unity, with two measures left to change.
Beethoven, “Ode to Joy,” mm. 1–2: shared by both phrases.03
Decision 3: how the answer resolves
Plan the answer’s last two measures with the three tools from Lesson 3: head toward C, step down into it, and hold it as the longest note.
Mozart, theme, mm. 7–8: a closed ending on a held C.
Model composition
Item 1Item 2Item 3Item 4Item 6
A model that meets every checklist item
Here is a short original piece written for this course, titled “Signal and Reply.” Study how it meets each item on the checklist. Yours should meet the same items with different musical choices.
“Signal and Reply” (course model). Question = mm. 1–4; answer = mm. 5–8. Orange = the question’s ending and the answer’s changed measures.
Checklist item
How “Signal and Reply” meets it
1. 8 measures total
Eight measures in 4/4; each adds up to 4 beats
2. Question + answer
Question in mm. 1–4; answer in mm. 5–8
3. Sound related
Mm. 5–6 repeat mm. 1–2 exactly: same pitches, same rhythm, same apex on high C
4. Resolution
The question rises E–F–G to a held G (open); the answer falls A–F–G–E–F–D to a held C (closed)
5. Playback and revision
See the revision below
6. Explain the change
See “What changed in the answer” below
Model description: “Signal and Reply” opens on the home tone and rises to a held G. In measure 2 it steps to A and back, then leaps up a 4th from G to its apex, high C. The question then winds down and climbs E–F–G to end on a held G, an open ending that leaves tension. The answer begins with the same two measures, so the listener recognizes it as a reply. In measures 7–8 it changes course: it falls in a zigzag, A–F, G–E, F–D, and steps down to C, held for two beats. The shared opening creates unity; the changed ending creates the contrast between question and resolution.
What changed in the answer: I kept measures 1–2 of the question so the answer would sound related, and rewrote measures 3–4. Instead of rising to G, the answer falls step by step and skip by skip to C and holds it, so it resolves the tension the question leaves.
The second paragraph is the kind of explanation Item 6 asks for: it names which measures were kept and changed, what the change was, and why it makes the answer resolve.
Listen and revise
Item 5Item 3
What one revision looks like
The first draft of the answer in “Signal and Reply” already ended on C, but on playback it did not sound like a reply. Here is the change and the reasoning behind it.
BeforeDraft answer (mm. 5–8): resolves on C, but opens with new material.
AfterRevision: mm. 5–6 now reuse the question’s opening (orange).
Revision note: On playback, my answer sounded like the start of a different song: it resolved on C, but nothing in it pointed back to the question. I replaced its first two measures with the question’s first two measures, so the listener recognizes the reply before it turns toward home.
A good revision note names what you heard, what you changed, and why. You will write one for your own piece.
Check your understanding
Try it before you compose
Pick an answer for each question. You will see right away whether you are correct and why.
0 of 6 correct
1Count the measures in this draft. Which checklist items does it not meet yet?
Item 1Item 2
2Here is a question. Play both answers. Which one sounds related to the question?
Item 3
A
B
3The question of “Signal and Reply” ends on a held G. Which final measure would give its answer the most resolution?
Item 4
4Listen, then choose which conversation you heard.
Item 2Item 4
A
B
5Which revision note is strongest?
Item 5
6Which explanation of what changed in the answer is strongest?
Item 6
Take it to Noteflight
Compose “Musical Conversation”
This is your third graded composition. Plan the three decisions, write the question, build the answer from it, then listen, revise, and explain what you changed.
Your Noteflight task
Compose an 8-measure musical conversation in 4/4: a 4-measure question (mm. 1–4) and a 4-measure answer (mm. 5–8) that meets every item on the Composition Checklist. Use playback, make at least one revision, write a one- or two-sentence revision note, and write 2–3 sentences explaining what you changed in the answer and why it resolves the question.
Write the question and end it open: away from C, on a held note.
Model“Signal and Reply,” m. 4
mm. 5–6Item 3
Reuse
Start the answer with the question’s opening so the phrases sound related.
Model“Signal and Reply,” mm. 5–6 = mm. 1–2
mm. 7–8Item 4
Resolve
Change the ending: step down to C and hold it.
Model“Signal and Reply,” mm. 7–8
FinishItem 6
Revise and explain
Revise after playback, then explain what you changed in the answer and why.
ModelQuestion ending (m. 4), answer ending (m. 8)
2While you build
8
Item 1
Count: four measures of question, four of answer, and every measure adding up to exactly 4 beats.
▶
Item 5
Play it back at least twice. Find the spot that sounds least like a conversation, revise it, and write your revision note.
✎
Item 6
Write 2–3 sentences, modeled on “What changed in the answer,” naming the measures you kept, the measures you changed, and why the change resolves the question.
3Noteflight tip
To build your answer, select mm. 1–4 and copy (⌘ C on a Mac, Ctrl C on Windows or a Chromebook). Click m. 5 and paste (⌘ V / Ctrl V). Then rewrite the measures you want to change.
4Check your own work
0 of 6 checked
Finish the Noteflight work above, then mark this lesson done when you finish.