musical composition

Introduction
Societal perspectives
Musical elements
Development of composition in the Middle Ages
Composition in the Renaissance
The Baroque period
The Classical period
The Romantic period
The 20th century

References & Edit History Related Topics

Quizzes

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Petr Il'ich Chaikovskii), Russian composer.

A Study of Composers

Austrian composer, Franz Peter Schubert portrait. (Franz Schubert)

Men of Musical Composition

Composers and Songwriters

American opera singer Rosa Ponselle in "Le Roi d'Ys"; photo dated c. 1920 - 1925.

Singers, Musicians, Composers, and More Quiz

Related Questions

How can a single melody suggest underlying chords and a key?
How did Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone method organize pitches without a traditional key?
How did Beethoven use a short motive to build larger themes?
How did Béla Bartók expand the sounds used in string quartet composition?
How did Western art song influence vocal music in non-Western cultures during the 20th century?
How did folk music and nationalism influence 19th-century chamber compositions?
How did harmony affect melodies in Western music after the Renaissance?
How did quarter-tones and microtonal music expand the pitches available to composers?
How did sonata form use themes and changes of key to create structure?
How do composers use a theme to build a larger musical work?
How do composers use pitch and rhythm to organize a musical composition?
How do jazz and rock arrangers change melodies and harmonies while keeping a song recognizable?
How do melodic contour and range shape the character of a melody?
How do ornaments such as trills and grace notes embellish a melody?
How do performers re-create music in traditions based on improvised frameworks?
How do question-and-answer phrases create musical structure?
How do repetition and variation organize musical phrases?
How do scales influence the sound and character of melodies?
How does a melody create a recognizable musical line?
How does a musical phrase relate to a theme in a larger composition?
How does a musical sequence change a melodic figure?
How does a rhythmic pattern help hold a through-composed melody together?
How does strophic form connect music with the verses of a poem?
How does three-part form use contrast and restatement?
How does through-composed form differ from strophic form?
How is musical composition different from improvisation?
What is the difference between an arrangement and a transcription of a musical composition?
What is the difference between conjunct motion and disjunct motion in a melody?
Which musical details can composers communicate through notation?
Why can no system of musical notation record every detail of a performance exactly?
Why did chamber music become more difficult for amateur performers during the 19th century?
Why did harmony become less able to define musical form during the 19th century?
Why have many non-Western vocal traditions from before sound recordings been lost?
Why is melodic ornamentation especially important in Indian and Arabic music?
Why is rhythm important even in music sometimes called rhythmless?

Entertainment & Pop Culture Music Theory & Compositions

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External Websites

The Canadian Encyclopedia - Music Composition

musical composition

Written by

Alexander L. Ringer

Emeritus Professor of Musicology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Author of Arnold Schoenberg: The Composer as Jew and others.

Alexander L. RingerAll

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

musical composition, the act of conceiving a piece of music, the art of creating music, or the finished product. These meanings are interdependent and presume a tradition in which musical works exist as repeatable entities. In this sense, composition is necessarily distinct from improvisation. Whether referring to the process or to the completed work, composition implies the creation of a unique musical event that may or may not be based on original musical materials. At...

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