David W asked 7 years ago
Hi Jon: I’ve been playing around with chromatic inversions, not only of the melody but of the harmony as well I’m thinking that they might work well in the development section of a sonata, and possibly even the contrasting middle or subordinate theme of a small ternary form Do you have any advice about this? Same principles as usual, or are there any special considerations?
Jon Brantingham Staff answered 7 years ago
I think it is a great way to go about creating more variations for the development section. I’ve been recently reading a book theorizing about how Bach would have worked out his ideas and one aspect is creating effectively a basic idea, and then testing it by seeing how it works in different harmonic context (major, minor, harmonic goal, etc) and using other techniques like inversion, voice exchange, etc.
Only considerations are how far away from traditional common practice you want to get. With chromatic inversion, you can easily lose the diatonic sound and so it has to be controlled.
David W answered 7 years ago
Thanks Jon: By the way, interesting analysis of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. He makes extensive use of inversions, both literal and nonliteral. David
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTxYykhQZbI
Jon BrantinghamThanks