I am currently studying AS level music and my compostition brief is to compose a 3 minute ground bass piece for a string quartet.
I play the violin so do have some limited knowlege of string instruments etc.....

I have decided to do a Baroque style piece but really do not know where to go from there! Does anyone have any tips about the structure of string quartet pieces....as in whether I should include different sections/movements at different speeds?
And also is it a good idea to use a lot of counterpoint to make all 4 parts separate or is it better to have on leading part?

Any help would really be appreciated!

My personal preference would be a contrapuntal approach and if you want to make it sound Baroque you are more or less forced into counterpoint. You won't need to have separate sections to fill 3 minutes, though if you can fit in fast - slow - fast (preferably without a break between the sections) that will add to the variety.

The bass needs to chosen carefully to avoid difficulties. If you make it too short, you will have to be very ingenious to provide enough harmonic variety. If you can find a bass that works in more than one key, you will be able to make a striking contrast in one of your repetitions, but making that work is non-trivial.

The best string quartets give some melodic material to each of the instruments, and you could also put the bass in more than one register. You might start off with it presented on one violin, or on V2 with V1 decorating, then move the bass to the viola and the 'cello in later repetitions.

My advice for anyone wanting to write anything would be to listen to lots and lots of ground basses from this time and you'll get a feel for what others have done.
I suppose a natural structure for a ground bass is to start simple and gradually get more complicated and elaborate. Also if you're doing it in a barouque style the harmony doesn't want to change too much and you should perhaps focus more on melody and, as has already been mentioned, counterpoint.

I agree that the best way to begin is to listen to LOTS of chamber music pieces from the period! Then you can start to pick and choose what kind of style/approach you like the most, and also get a feel for the harmony, structure and textures of the period. Youtube, together with IMSLP (music from that period should be copyright free by now, and accessible on the Internet), should be very helpful here.

If you're with Edexcel, try starting by listening to the Baroque pieces in the Anthology. Purcell's "When I am laid in Earth" uses a ground bass; although it's in a vocal context, it's a good start!

Pachelbel's Canon would seem the obvious place to start, and then various other baroque chaconnes and passacaglias.

My my, pot , kettle and black spring to mind here..


Anyway, lets not feed the trolls, please...

Ground bass as a form was perfected, in my view, by Hernry Purcell, so if you want to learn from the master, have a look at his works for many fine examples, not least of which include-

Dido's Lament -'When I Am Laid In Earth' and 'Oft She Visits This Lone Mountain' both from Dido and Aeneas
'Sound the Trumpet' from Come ye Sons of Art, Away

Good luck

denmark77




Yes, clarinetkitteh - you beat to me one of those suggestions (just noticed, oops).

As for structuring the string quartet composition you've been asked to complete, then try modelling your form on a good example from Purcell: as has already been mentioned by kenm, key changes are possible if the bass line is well chosen., which will help to avoid monotony in the keysense.

hoho

Good old Jerry Springer...

Anyway, ground bass for String Quartet...

I like czerny's suggestion of starting with a detailed study of Pachelbel's Canon, as it is a fine example of instrumental writing, despite it's nauseating ubiquity. The violin parts are all 'leading parts' by the way, in a sense, as all equally share the material, in turns (obviously) besides, it's well constructed and satisfying to play.

Good luck BeckyS, let us know how you get on.

There's a few main types of ground basses most commonly used in the Baroque period; try searching passamezzo antico, passamezzo moderno and ciaconna which are all effectively a short bass line (3-6 bars) over which a solo line plays variations.

It might be an idea to take one of those as a starting point, though to avoid reproducing something that already exists, why not try jazzing it up a bit to make it more unique? I don't know if that goes outside the scope of the brief or not...

Either way, read the mark scheme well and make sure you do what it says. So many people in my year had perfectly good compositions but they didn't stick to what they were told to do which affected their mark drastically.

In terms of existing music, try listening to the Chaconne from Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor for solo violin and Corelli's La Follia sonata Op. 5, No. 12.

Good luck! x

Brilliant suggestions, Sebastiano.

On the theme of your ideas for using a well-known bass-line from earlier ground basses, can I suggest, in addition to your excellent suggestions of Passemezzo and Follia, the bass-lines known as 'Romanesca' and 'Rugggiero'? Both first appeared as bass-lines of 16th century Italian songs, and were then used many times as ground basses, including versions br Ortiz, Monteverdi and Frescobaldi...

denmark

Perhaps even more impressive, and more apposite, are the Sonata No. 6 in G minor from the Sonnatas in Four Parts, score here and the Three Parts Upon A Ground, score here. The latter is simply one of the most joyful pieces of music I know.

Both are very clever in that they use both texture and harmony to blur the boundaries of the unchanging eight-bar bass pattern, as well as containing sublime part-writing and Purcell's wonderfully bitter-sweet harmonic twists. Genius of the first order.

Genius Purcell at his best there, briantrumpet.

Great suggestions for ground bass models to study, scores too !

denmark77

I thought you'd like them.

Purcell can move me in a way that Bach doesn't (don't get me wrong - Bach does move me too!) ... but there's something wonderfully human about Purcell - he can weave humour, pathos, joy, spirituality and tragedy in music ranging from delightfully simple entertainment music (e.g. Lillibulero or the rude catches) to the most movingly densely chromatic & contrapuntal church music (e.g. 'Hear My Prayer' or 'Jehova quam multi sunt hostes'). He rather sums up what it is to be human.