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This chapter examines the musical composition of the album The Sorcerer by the Miles Davis Quintet. It considers the group's practice of placing complete or partial statements of the head's melody between or within solos. It discusses the singles “Vonetta”, “Prince of Darkness”, “Masqualero”, “Pee Wee”, and “Limbo”, analyzing their use of a syncopated harmonic progression which typically appears near the end of the composition's form. It considers how the feature operates as a compositional release, one that operates in the absence of standard bridge sections or harmonic turnarounds at the end of the repeating form. It also highlights Wayne Shorter's improvisation on “Vonetta”, and Miles Davis's and Herbie Hancock's improvisations to “Prince of Darkness.”

Chapter 4 explores the combination of the poetic forms and rhythmic types with the harmonic language of early blues, country, and gospel music. The main harmonic building blocks of these genres are the major tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and dominant (V) chords, and these are the chords that make up the harmonic progressions in most realizations of the “Sweet Thing” scheme. The harmonic element of the “Sweet Thing” scheme is highly flexible, but this chapter demonstrates that its progressions nonetheless divide into broad comprehensible categories—namely blues-like progressions, periodic progressions, fragmented progressions, and amalgamated progressions—and that the harmony is always closely intertwined with text and rhythm.

This chapter outlines the studio recording of the album E.S.P., the first album where the members of the Davis quintet steered away from their hard bop roots. It first provides a brief overview of the innovations made during the studio recording, mainly emphasizing the reliance on slow harmonic rhythm, softer dynamic range, and a heightened use of space. It examines the singles “Iris”, “Little One”, “E.S.P.”, and “Agitation”, and analyzes their harmonic progressions and chorus structure. It also examines the individual harmonies from the standpoint of underlying modal/scalar collections, showing how some of the harmonic progressions reflect modal changes that shift by a single pitch.

The earliest levels of the undergraduate music theory core might be some of the more challenging courses to teach. Because students enter the undergraduate theory core with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge, instructors face the challenge of inspiring some students with new material while keeping the more experienced students involved. How can educators make this material both relevant and engaging for all students? Teaching the lower levels of written theory is more than just memorization of patterns and rules; it is an opportunity to engage students in creative music making from the very first day with an introduction that helps them understand why a certain element of music works. By participating in engaging and creative methods of learning scales, key signatures, intervals, triads, harmonic function, and voice leading, students are immersed in a music experience that is more than just printed notes on the page.

The chapter focuses on examining musical creativity in middle school general music by the use of digital technology, from the perspective of a middle school music teacher who is working with digital natives. It provides practical lesson plans concerning the use of digital audio workstation (DAW) apps and Chrome Music Lab apps to compose music, music notation apps for notating compositions, and ScratchJr for creating music tutorials. Tablets and hand-held devices are morphed into tools for adolescents to express their creative musicianship, leading to a transformation of a middle school general music class.

This chapter looks into the earliest efforts of the musical composition of George Frideric Handel in order to determine his starting genre and style. It begins with an examination of Almira, which provides the basis for stylistic judgments about his early music. According to the complementing libretto, Almira is classified as a ‘Sing-Spiel’. The score shows Handel applying the style he learned during his time at Halle: contrapuntal and over-ornate but generally characterized by a strong harmonic progression. The chapter then discusses Dixit Dominus, where the elements of his grand style can all be seen — the chordal outbursts, and a variety of choral textures: straightforward imitation; counterpoint on two subjects; the interplay of answering and combining voices; closely overlapping vocal entries; and one voice versus the rest. Some of these elements are also found on his other works composed in Italy, where Handel emerged as a true composer of concerted music for choir and orchestra.