Unit 4 · Lesson 2 of 3 — IB MYP: Personal and Cultural Expression · Communication
Repeat It or Change It?
Exact repetition creates unity. Variation keeps an idea recognizable while changing something about it.
In this lesson
Learning Targets
Each section below is labeled with the target it teaches. The questions and your Noteflight task practice every target.
Target 1Explain what stays the same when a motive repeats
Target 2Create variations by changing pitch level, rhythm, contour, or ending while preserving part of the original idea
Target 3Decide whether a variation is still recognizable and cite the musical evidence
IB MYP connection
Command terms: EXPLAIN · CREATE
ExplainCreate
Learner Profile · ATL
Inquirer · Thinker — Thinking: investigate how small musical ideas can grow into something larger through repetition and change.
Task
Use what you're learning to complete the Noteflight task below, then check your own work before moving on.
Inquiry: How much can a motive change before it stops being recognizable as the same idea?
Reflect: What did “Repeat It or Change It?” teach you about your own composing choices?
Key words
Words you will use today
Unity
The sense that a piece is made from one idea. Repetition creates unity: what stays the same connects one passage to another.
Variety
The sense that the music is going somewhere new. Change creates variety.
Variation
A deliberate change to a motive that keeps enough of it that listeners still recognize the original. A near repetition (Lesson 1) is the simplest kind.
Sequence
A variation that changes pitch level: the motive is repeated starting on a different pitch, with its rhythm and its pattern of moves unchanged.
Rhythmic variation
A variation that changes the rhythm of the motive and keeps its pitches.
Contour variation
A variation that changes the directions of the motive’s moves (for example, a leap up becomes a leap down) and keeps its rhythm.
Changed ending
A variation that keeps the start of the motive and changes how it ends.
Repetition and unity
Target 1
What a repetition keeps
When a motive returns, listeners compare it with the original, usually without realizing it. Whatever stays the same connects the two statements and creates unity; whatever changes creates variety. To explain what stays the same, check four features in order: the rhythm, the directions of the moves, the size of each move (step, skip, or leap), and the pitches themselves.
01
Exact repetition: everything stays
In the Mozart theme from Lesson 1, mm. 7–8 keep all four features of mm. 5–6. That is unity at its strongest. It is useful in small doses, but a motive repeated exactly again and again becomes predictable.
Mozart, theme of the Variations, K. 265, mm. 5–8: rhythm, directions, sizes, and pitches all repeat.02
Beethoven: three features stay, one moves
When Beethoven’s motive returns in m. 3, the rhythm stays (short, short, short, long), the directions stay (repeat, repeat, down), and the size of the drop stays (a 3rd). Only the pitch level changes: everything starts one step lower. Keeping three features is why you recognize it instantly.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, mm. 1–5 (transposed to A minor). Both statements drop a 3rd.
Variation techniques
Target 2
Four ways to vary a motive
A variation changes one feature of a motive on purpose and keeps the rest. Each technique below is named for what it changes. Two examples are from real music; the other two apply the technique to the course motive from Lesson 1 (G–G–C–B–A–G) so you can compare directly. Play each one.
01
Sequence: change the pitch level
In the second half of Petzold’s Minuet in G, a one-measure idea (a quarter note, then four eighths stepping down) is stated, then immediately restated one step lower. Rhythm, directions, and step sizes stay; only the starting pitch moves. In m. 7 the pattern breaks: the line turns upward and pauses on a held note, which tells the listener the sequence is over. Sequences are one of the most common ways composers extend a motive.
Petzold, Minuet in G, mm. 5–8, transposed to C. Orange = the start of each statement: m. 6 repeats m. 5 one step lower; m. 7 breaks the pattern.02
Rhythmic variation: change the rhythm
The course motive’s pitches stay exactly the same, but every note value is doubled: eighths become quarters, quarters become halves. The idea now fills two measures and sounds broader and calmer. You could also change only some values; the pitches are what hold it together.
Original example: the course motive (m. 1), then the same pitches with doubled values (orange).03
Contour variation: change the directions
The rhythm and the two repeated Gs stay. After them, every direction flips: the leap up a 4th becomes a leap down a 4th, and the steps down become steps up. The motive’s shape is now reversed, but its rhythm still identifies it.
Original example: the course motive, then its contour flipped after the repeated notes (orange).04
Changed ending: change how it ends
In the third phrase of “Ode to Joy,” Beethoven repeats a one-measure idea and changes only its last note, C to D. A changed ending can redirect a motive: in Unit 3 you used the same technique to turn a question into an answer.
Beethoven, “Ode to Joy,” third phrase, mm. 2–3 (in C). Only the last note (orange) changes.
Recognizable or not?
Target 3
How far can a variation go?
Every variation has to pass one test: will a listener still hear it as the motive? Decide with evidence, not a feeling. Name the features that stayed the same. A reliable guideline: change one feature at a time, and keep either the rhythm or the directions. When both change, the result almost always sounds like a new idea.
01
Still recognizable
The contour variation changes the directions but keeps the rhythm (short, short, long, short, short, long) and the two repeated Gs at the start. Evidence: two of the four features stay, including the rhythm, so the motive is still audible.
Original example: rhythm and opening kept, directions changed.02
No longer recognizable
This version changes the rhythm (quarter, half, quarter), the directions (it starts high and only descends), and every pitch. Nothing of the original survives, so a listener hears it as new material, not a variation.
Original example: rhythm, directions, and pitches all changed (orange).
Worked analysis
Target 1Target 2Target 3
One motive, four variations
Here is the course motive followed by one example of each technique. Read each variation against the original in m. 1 and ask the same two questions every time: what changed, and what stayed?
Original example: the course motive (m. 1), sequence (m. 2), contour variation (m. 3), changed ending (m. 4), rhythmic variation (mm. 5–6). Orange = pitches that differ from the original.
Version
What changed
What stayed
m. 2 (sequence)
Pitch level: every note one step higher
Rhythm, directions, sizes of moves. Yes: only the pitch level moved
m. 3 (contour)
Directions after the repeated Gs
Rhythm, the repeated-G opening, a 4th followed by steps. Yes, though least obviously: the rhythm identifies it
m. 4 (ending)
Last two notes: up to D, then C
Rhythm and the first four notes. Yes: it starts exactly like the motive
mm. 5–6 (rhythm)
Rhythm: every value doubled
Pitches, directions, sizes. Yes: the pitch pattern is intact
Model description: Each variation changes one feature of the motive and keeps the rest. The sequence moves the whole motive up a step, keeping its rhythm and pattern of moves, so it is the most obviously related. The rhythmic variation keeps every pitch but doubles each value, so it sounds broader while the pitch pattern gives it away. The contour variation keeps the rhythm and the repeated Gs but flips the directions after them; it is the least obvious, but the rhythm still identifies it. The changed ending keeps the first four notes exactly and turns up to close on C instead of stepping down to G, so an open ending becomes a closed one.
The description gives the same two-part evidence for every version: what changed and what stayed. That is the evidence you will cite when you decide whether your own variations are recognizable.
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
1When Beethoven’s motive returns in m. 3, what stays the same?
Target 1
2Each excerpt is the course motive followed by a variation. Play both. In which is the variation a sequence?
Target 2
A
B
3Listen only. The course motive plays, then a variation. Which feature did the variation change?
Target 2
4Listen, then choose which excerpt you heard.
Target 2
A
B
5Is the second measure a recognizable variation of the course motive?
Target 3
6Is m. 2 of this Minuet excerpt a recognizable variation of m. 1? Choose the answer with the best evidence.
Target 3Target 1
Take it to Noteflight
One motive, three variations
Write your own motive, then treat it the way the worked example treats the course motive: copy it and change one feature each time. You are building a set of options you will use in Composition 4.
Your Noteflight task
Create a 1–2 measure motive. Copy it three times and make a different type of change each time.
Start on a different pitch; keep the rhythm and every direction and size.
For exampleCourse motive, up a step
RhythmTarget 2
Rhythmic variation
Keep the pitches; change some or all of the note values.
For exampleCourse motive, values doubled
ContourTarget 2
Contour variation
Keep the rhythm; flip the direction of one or more moves.
For exampleCourse motive, directions flipped
EndingTarget 2
Changed ending
Keep the start; change the last note or two.
For exampleCourse motive, new ending
2While you build
=
Target 1
Before you change anything, write down your motive’s identity: its rhythm and its pitch pattern. For each copy, note what you are keeping.
▶
Target 2
Play the original and each variation back to back. Each one should change one feature. If two things changed, decide whether you meant it.
✎
Target 3
For each variation, decide whether it is still recognizable and write one sentence of evidence that names what stayed the same, like the worked-analysis table.
3Noteflight tip
To make each copy, select your motive’s measures and copy (⌘ C on a Mac, Ctrl C on Windows or a Chromebook). Click the measure where the copy should start and paste (⌘ V / Ctrl V), then change only the feature you are varying.
4Check your own work
0 of 6 checked
Finish the Noteflight work above, then mark this lesson done when you finish.