| Books on composition, such as Schoenberg's begin with simple motives, figures of a few notes, and discuss techniques of varying them. These are complex transformations that tend to lead in the direction of mathematical transformations and using some terms from the laws of transformation such as inversion and reversal. In music the transformations are of duration and pitch and over time so a sequence of a few notes can be transformed in a rich variety of ways, changing rhythm and scale degrees and harmonic and modal transformations. Such conscious altering of what may start out as a simple idea is the basis for composition and compositional techniques that lend to form and proceedure in music.
| |
