13923 / 18210 · Workshop 108 — Composing Form: Turning Good Phrases into a Complete Piece Through Repetition, Contrast, Return, Development, and Long-Range Memory← prev⊞ allnext →
108.1The fundamental problem
Suppose you compose a beautiful 8-bar phrase.
What next?
You could:
- repeat it
- vary it
- answer it
- contrast it
- extend it
- modulate
- fragment it
- interrupt it
- return later
The compositional problem is not:
“What comes after bar 8?”
It is:
“What does the listener now know, and what should happen to that knowledge?”