Hi, I'm Dr.

Southall and we're going to be looking at "Approaches to contemporary composition" in this unit.

Let's begin.

In this lesson, we're going to describe some methods for composing for an SATB choir and we'll have created a short contemporary choral composition.

There's four key terms for this lesson.

The first keyword is dissonance, and this is where notes in a chord clash, creating harmonic tension.

The second is consonance, where notes in a chord sound pleasant together without tension.

SATB choir, a vocal ensemble consisting of four voice types, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

And tonal, music that has a tonic note, and this means the opposite of atonal.

There's three parts to this lesson.

The first is composing for multiple voices.

The human voice is a one-of-a-kind instrument, as every voice is unique.

When we combine voices together, this can be hugely powerful.

Composing for multiple voices creates exciting opportunities for harmony and the option to use lyrics to add extra meaning.

Can you think of any examples where group singing has had a powerful effect or songs that use a vocal ensemble or choir for added emotion? Some famous examples that you may have heard of include the John Williams score for "The Phantom Menace," one of the "Star Wars" prequels.

There's some really powerful and well-known choral parts to that soundtrack.

There's a famous director called Tim Burton whose films you may have seen, and he did a lot of work with a composer called Danny Elfman, who certainly in the earlier films of the sort of '80s and '90s and early thousands relied heavily on choral parts.

And even things like "The Lion King." Elton John's songs from that include a lot of choral parts as well.

Vocal ensembles.

Most choral music is written for an SATB choir.

And that means it's got four main voice types, the soprano, the alto, the tenor, and the bass.

Hence, SATB.

And the soprano and the alto are female voices and the tenor and the bass are male voices, and they go from high pitch down to low pitch.

So if you are a bass singer in a choir, it means you have quite a low voice.

This example starts with the higher-pitched voices and then lower voices join in.

So please pause the video and use this file to listen to so you get a good example to reference.

A soprano is a high-pitched female voice.

This is a soprano singer, singing high-pitched notes.

Again, pause the video and source this file from the lesson.

An alto is a low-pitched female voice, and this is a female singer singing much lower notes than the soprano that you've just listened to.

Again, source the file and press pause.

The tenor is a high-pitched male voice.

It's still lower, though, than an alto that we've just heard.

And here is a tenor singing fairly high-pitched notes.

Again, pause the video.

Listen to the file.

And finally, a bass voice is a low-pitched male voice and the lowest in the SATB choir.

Name the four voice types in an SATB choir, in order from the highest pitched to the lowest pitched.

Well, we start with soprano, alto, tenor, and then finally, bass.

Hopefully you got that right.

Well done if you did.

Contemporary music is a broad term often used to describe classical music from the 20th and 21st century.

Pushing the boundaries of harmony is a feature of much contemporary music.

This includes composing atonal music, which has no fixed key.

Composers have also found other ways to create fresh harmonies while continuing to compose tonal music.

In other words, music that has a clear tonic note or tonal center.

Eric Whitacre is an American composer known for tonal choral music.

He uses simple melodies and builds thick textures with rich harmony.

How many different vocal lines create this thick vocal texture? Pause the video and listen to the music file.

Sofia says, "This features six separate vocal lines." The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho used the SATB choir in atonal compositions.

In this example, the music sounds highly chromatic, with no sense of a tonic note.

Can you identify which voice is singing the melodic line? Have a listen to the clip.

Jacob says, "The bass is singing the melody here." Use of chromatic notes and dissonance is another feature used by contemporary composers.

Dissonance creates harmonic tension, where the notes clash.

Tonu Korvits is an Estonian composer who creates lots of chromatic dissonance between voices.

This example uses chromatic notes and moments of dissonance, where the voices and instruments strongly clash with each other.

Pause the video and listen to the clip.

Let's check for understanding.

If music is tonal, which two of these does it definitely have? Dissonance.

A key.

A tonic note.

Or different layers of sound.

The answer is B and C.

If music is tonal, it has a key, and it has a tonic note.

Time for some independent practice.

Listen to each contemporary choral music clip and answer the questions.

For the first clip, which voice sings first? Which voice joins in next? And what happens to the texture in this clip? For the second clip, is it tonal or atonal? What does that mean? And what type of ensemble is performing? Pause the video, listen to the clips, and answer the questions.

Well, I hope you did well.

Here are the answers.

The first voice in Extract A was the soprano voice.

An alto voice joins in second.

And the texture gradually gets thicker.

In the second clip, it was tonal.

It had a tonic note and a key.

And it was an SATB choir performing.

Part two.

Creating a two-part tonal texture.

One distinctive feature of much contemporary choral music is the use of dissonance.

Compare these two chords.

Can you identify which is dissonant? Listen for the notes clashing together.

Here's clip one.

(choral music) And here's clip two.

(choral music) Which one do you think is dissonant? Well, it was the second clip.

The first one, we would call consonant.

And the second one had clashing notes, so it was dissonant.

In that example, the voices used chords like this.

(choral music) This uses notes from within the C major scale, but plays notes next to each other at the same time.

This creates dissonance, but it still sounds effective because it uses the notes from the same key and scale.

The harmony is also effective because the parts move by small intervals.

In the example we're going to listen to, each part moves by step with no big leaps.

Listen carefully.

(choral music) This means that each part sounds melodic itself.

It is also easier and typical for singers to sing stepwise melodies.

The key to using dissonance is to create tension and release.

This is where you create a dissonant chord, then resolve it to a consonant cord.

When doing this, it is important that the parts move by step.

How many moments of tension followed by release are in the following clip? (choral music) Let's just do it one more time and see if you can count on your fingers how many times tension is followed by release.

(choral music) To create tension and release, dissonance should be followed by what? More dissonance.

Consonance.

Or either consonance or dissonance.

Well, the answer is consonance.

The tension is the dissonance.

The release is the consonance.

How should the parts move from dissonance to consonance? Is it by step? By leap? Or leap or step? The answer is A, by step.

When writing for voices, it's important to use notes that each voice can sing.

Each voice type has a range.

The typical ranges for each voice type are soprano, going from middle C up two octaves.

Alto.

Tenor.

And bass.

Create an effective choral texture.

Compose a soprano melody.

Let's watch the clip.

<v Teacher>I've opened up my SATB template,</v> so that's got a soprano, alto, tenor, and bass part in it.

I'm going to start by creating an eight-bar melody, using just semibreves in the soprano part.

So this top, highest pitch of the voices here.

Now when I'm doing this, I'm going to be using the notes of the C major scale, so that's just the white notes, no sharps, no flats for now, and we're going to stick to semibreves so that we can really focus on the tension and release the dissonance and consonance rather than thinking too much about the rhythm.

When I'm doing this as well, I want to move by step or by small intervals mostly.

So no massive leaps.

Trying to do it mostly with small intervals.

So let's start maybe.

With a G I could start with.

Then maybe I'll go to an F.

Maybe do a slight jump up to an A.

And I'm just going to try out some different combinations here.

I might tweak it as I go once I listen to it until I find a pattern that I think sounds nice, one that I'll like.

So maybe jump down to E.

Okay, so I've got eight semibreves.

There are no sharps or flats.

Mostly small intervals.

So there's a couple where it's slightly bigger than a step, but they're all small intervals.

Let's have a listen.

(choral music) I'm quite happy with that as a starting point.

Now, if I was doing this on a DAW, then I would just need to have my four different tracks for my four different voices, and I'd record in eight bars of semibreves in my soprano part.

So I'm making sure that I'm following those same criteria, the C major scale, semibreves, and mostly small intervals.

<v ->Now compose an alto part.

</v> Again, we'll watch the clip.

<v Teacher>Now, let's have a go at the alto part.

</v> Now, the alto is slightly lower pitched as a voice than the soprano, so we need to make sure that every note it sings is lower than the soprano note.

It shouldn't ever go higher pitched than the soprano.

To start off, I'm going to be choosing a note from my C major scale.

Remember, we're just using the white notes.

And I'm going to choose one that is lower than this soprano note.

So that's on G.

Maybe we could start off on a D.

(choral music) Now, what I'm going to try and do with this alto part is create some moments of dissonance.

And to do that, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play two notes that clash really closely with each other.

A good opportunity in mine is going to be bar two.

We've got an F in the soprano part.

So what I might do is add an E in the alto part, and that's because those two notes are right next to each other on the piano.

So they're really going to clash and create dissonance with each other.

Let's have a listen.

(choral music) You can hear that real clash of sounds there.

(choral music) So that's a really effective dissonance.

That creates tension.

Now, when I've got a bar of tension, I then need to release that tension.

Tension and release.

So in order to do that, the next bar needs to be a consonant bar.

So notes that sound pleasant with each other that don't clash.

Now, what I could do here is I could keep that same note (choral music) because the soprano part moves from the F.

So these two notes shouldn't clash with each other.

Let's have a listen.

(choral music) That sounds pleasant.

That sounds consonant.

And that's released that harmonic tension from bar two.

So we've got a bar of tension, a bar of dissonance, and then a bar of release that has our consonant chord there.

One really important thing when you're doing this is to make sure that when you resolve the tension, so when you go from dissonant to consonant, your parts move by step, so you don't have big leaps.

And if we look there, we can see the soprano steps up from F.

Just that one step to G.

So that's absolutely fine.

And the alto part stays on the same note.

So that's fine as well.

There's no big leaps.

Now, I'm going to carry on adding some notes in my alto part.

So maybe I'll go for a D there.

Could go down to, I don't know, B.

Maybe down to A.

And remember, I'm getting towards the lower end of the alto range here, so I need to make sure that I'm still sticking to notes that an alto can sing.

Now, in bar seven, I think I might do another dissonance.

If we look in this soprano part, I've got a D.

So my dissonant note is going to be the C that is just underneath that D.

So I'm going to add that in there.

Let's see what they sound like together.

(choral music) That's a real clash.

Again, we can hear that dissonance, that harmonic tension.

And again, I'm going to resolve it to a consonant chord.

So I'm not going to have another clash in the last bar.

Maybe I will step down to a B.

And there we're moving by step.

The soprano also moves by step.

So they're both moving by step, which is great.

And the last bar should sound consonant.

(choral music) Let's listen to the dissonance, the harmonic tension, and then the consonance, the release.

(choral music) So there, I've got two examples of tension and release.

I've got bar two going into bar three.

I've got dissonance and consonance.

And then bar seven going into bar eight.

Dissonance and then consonance.

Let's listen to all eight bars and see if you can pick out those two moments, in bar two and seven, of dissonance.

Here we go.

(choral music) If you're doing this on a DAW, you're just going to follow that exact same process.

You've got different tracks for your soprano and your alto.

You are going to try and find two or three points of dissonance and make sure you resolve them to consonant chords.

And just remember as well to make sure that your alto notes stay lower than the soprano notes.

So the notes are never higher than what the soprano is singing.

<v ->Next, we're going to create two</v> or three bars with dissonance.

And after each dissonance, choose a note that creates consonance.

So we're resolving the tension.

Use mostly small intervals and only notes in C major.

True or false? The range of different voices overlap with each other.

This is true.

Can you give an example of two voice types that have an overlapping range? Think back to those diagrams that we just looked at.

Bass, tenor.

Or bass and alto.

Bass and soprano.

Tenor and alto.

Tenor and soprano, and alto and soprano.

Okay, let's try another one.

Which pair of notes would create dissonance? Is it those in A? Those in B? Or those in C? It's B, isn't it? Create a two-part, eight-bar texture using a soprano and an alto voice.

You can use either notation software or a DAW for this task.

The success criteria are as follows.

Only use notes from the C major scale.

Compose the soprano part first and then the alto part.

Both parts should use eight semibreves and move mainly by small intervals.

Create two or three moments of dissonance, where the alto note is just below the soprano note.

And then the dissonance will be followed by consonance.

We're also going to move by step from the dissonant to the consonant chord.

Both parts should also fit within the vocal range of each voice type.

This is the range for soprano and alto.

Listen to this two-part texture.

Which bars feature dissonance? And how could this composer create more effective tension and release? (choral music) If you want to listen to it again, please pause the video and rewind.

Well, bars three and seven feature dissonance.

And it could be more effective if each dissonance resolved by moving by step rather than leap.

On to part three.

Creating a four-part SATB texture.

To create a four-part texture for an SATB choir, we need to add the two remaining voices, tenor and bass.

That's the T and the B.

Adding a bass line within the bass range can be seen in this video.

<v Teacher>For the bass part,</v> we're going to follow a similar process.

I'm going to work through each bar, and in each bar, I'm going to be composing by ear.

What I mean by that is, I'm listening to the effect of the chord, of the combination of notes, and deciding if that's the effect that I as a composer want.

So I'm not thinking about what specific chord it is.

I'm not thinking about bass lines and sort of theoretical ideas really.

I'm listening to the combination of notes and deciding, is that what I want? So, I'll start off with a nice low-pitched note.

Remember, I need to use notes that are in the bass range.

Maybe I'll try an E to begin with.

(choral music) And I'm just going to listen to this first bar now and see if those three notes together create an effect that I like.

(choral music) I quite like that combination of notes, so I'm going to stick with that.

And again, with this part as well, I want to move mostly by small intervals or steps.

So maybe I'll step down.

And I'm going to keep following this process, just listening to each bar, seeing if I like the chord.

If I don't, adjusting it a little bit.

Let's have a listen to this second one here.

(choral music) I'm not so sure about that one.

I'll try a different note.

(choral music) Again, I'm not quite sure.

Let's try the D.

(choral music) I prefer that chord there.

I've gone for a B in this third bar.

(choral music) So these all sound good so far.

I'm quite happy with these.

(choral music) Maybe jump up a little bit for this.

Obviously, I need to make sure that each note is well below the alto notes as well.

And I want to leave a bit of space in between them for the tenor.

So I've gone through there, I've put eight notes in, and I've done it a bit faster than you will there because I know what notes I want to use.

But you will spend time on each chord, listening and trying to identify, do I like the effect that creates? Is that the effect I want in this bar? And if not, just adjust it until you find the note that you like.

And exactly the same process if you're doing this on a DAW.

This time, working in your bass track, recording in different notes, and experimenting until you find bass notes that you like.

<v ->When adding the tenor line,</v> consider creating some dissonance with either the bass or alto parts.

Let's watch another video clip to see a demonstration.

<v Teacher>Finally, let's look at the tenor part.

</v> And for this, this is slightly more complicated.

One of the reasons is that I have to make sure that every note I use is higher than the bass note but lower than the alto note.

So I don't want to go above the alto or below the bass.

And secondly, I can also use this track to create some more dissonance as well.

So the tenor could create clashes with alto notes or it could do it with the bass notes.

That's a little bit trickier to do.

But it's got the option of adding some dissonance with either of those parts.

So, let's try a note to start with and see what it sounds like.

(choral music) I'll maybe try this A.

Let's see how that first chord sounds.

(choral music) It's a really interesting chord, that one.

I like that one.

So I'm going to stick with that.

Maybe for this next one, I'll try jumping up a little bit.

See how this chord sounds here.

(choral music) That's a really nice chord.

I like that one as well.

So again, I'm going to stick with that and I'm just going to experiment with each bar, trying different notes until I find one that I like for each bar.

So let's try bar three now.

(choral music) (choral music) And you might hear now, as I do, that when you get these four parts playing different notes together, you get these really rich and interesting chords, and these will be much more complicated harmonically than the simple triad chords you might be used to.

Let's have a listen to the first four bars.

(choral music) I think this is working really well so far.

Now in this bar, I have to be careful because the alto drops down to the B that the tenor is already on.

So I'm going to have to drop the tenor down a little bit to make sure it stays below.

Could try a G.

I could either stay on a G or I could maybe drop down, maybe stay on a G.

Could go up to an A.

And then maybe finish on an E.

So let's see what the second set of four bars sounds like.

(choral music) So now let's listen to the whole eight bars with all four parts.

We've got some dissonance, we've got some tension and release, and I've made sure that each tenor note is higher than the bass note in that bar and lower than the alto note in that bar.

I've also been through and made sure that in every part, all the notes are within the range of that voice.

So there are no notes that I'm asking the tenor to sing that are outside of a tenor range, for example.

Let's listen to the whole lot.

(choral music) I'm really happy with the way that sounds.

Hopefully that demonstrates how this different approach to composition, which is not thinking about chords in terms of C chords, F chords, G chords, but rather is thinking about dissonance and consonance and tension and release.

Hopefully, this illustrates how that can be a really effective and interesting way of creating composition.

<v ->Time for a check for understanding.

</v> Which of these is the comfortable range of a bass voice? Is it the picture in A, B, or C? Well done.

It's the picture in A.

That's the comfortable range of a bass voice.

Time for more practice.

I want you to add a bass and tenor apart to create an eight-bar SATB texture.

And your success criteria is that you use notes from the C major scale, compose the bass part first and then the tenor apart, both parts use eight semibreves, experiment with different notes to find an effective pitch, create dissonance in the tenor part, dissonance will be followed by consonance, and the final texture lasts for eight bars, with four parts throughout.

Here are those vocal ranges if you need a reference.

Here's the bass.

And underneath, we have the tenor.

I want you to reflect now on your SATB composition.

How can you develop it further? Ask yourself these reflective questions.

Does each part consist of eight semibreves? Does each part fit within the range for that voice? Does it use only the notes of C major? How many bars include dissonance? Does the dissonance always resolve to consonance? And when it does, does it move by step? And which bars do you prefer the sound of? And why? We're at the end of today's lesson.

So I just want to summarize those key points as usual.

The SATB choir is a common vocal ensemble, consisting of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices.

Contemporary composers write both tonal and atonal music for choir.

We can create tension and release by creating dissonant chords that resolve to consonant chords.

And when doing so, it's most effective to move by step rather than leap.

And it's important to consider the range of each voice type.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time.

Goodbye.