Musica Melopoetica
Musica Melopoetica

Musica Melopoetica

Music theory and composition, music history, (ethno)musicology, aesthetic philosophy, and much much more, presented in a readily accessible manner.


Inchoate Thoughts on the Octatonic "(A)tonal Matrix"

14 Oct 2019 5 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

[For the uninitiated, the octatonic scale refers, in fact, to three symmetrical scales, or rather three transpositions of a single symmetrical scale, consisting of eight notes rather than the "normal" seven of the heptatonic scalar universe (major an...

Chorale Harmonization on "Merton" (Philip Daniel) [Scrolling Score]

18 Sep 2019 1 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

  My motet-like chorale harmonization of Merton from the English Hymnal, with the Hebrew hymn Ma'oz Tzur (Rock of Ages) intermittently appearing in the lower registers in an increasingly ornamented fashion. For SATB choir with flute, oboe, pipe orga...

Prelude on "Ave maris stella" (Philip Daniel)

13 Sep 2019 1 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nRn3jqqvLM A chorale prelude for organ on the Marian plainsong "Ave maris stella" ("Hail, Star of the Sea"), meant as an homage to the post-impressionist organ works of Marcel Dupré, Jehan Alain, and Charles To...

"Canone cromatico primo" (Philip Daniel) [SCROLLING SCORE]

13 Sep 2019 1 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

A two-voice canon by inversion at the fourth (or eleventh) on a chromatic subject that could almost pass for a twelve tone row. The Lutheran hymn "Jesu, meine Freude" intrudes at 2:27. No particular scoring, but here played on a pipe organ usi...

Hello!

12 Sep 2019 1 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

My name is Philip Daniel.  I am a young composer working in a highly personal Late Romantic idiom. As we find ourselves increasingly in a world of stark ugliness and banality, I hope to play a role in the revivification of melody, harmony, counterpoi...

Quartal Locrian Scale (Notation in Thumbnail and Cover Image by Evan Bennet)

12 Sep 2019 1 minute read 0 comments PhilipDaniel

Theory time! "Quartal Locrian" is a synthetic scale consisting of a half step followed by two whole steps followed by a half step and two whole steps again, repeating ad infinitum so that the scale is non-repeating with respect to actual "pitch quar...