Composition
The art and craft of creating original music by organising sounds, rhythms, and harmonies into a structured work.
Category
composition
Pronunciation
/ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/
Origin
Latin (componere, to put together)
Length
179 words · 1 min read
About Composition
Composition encompasses everything from writing a simple melody to constructing a multi-movement symphony. The process typically involves generating musical ideas (melodic motifs, harmonic progressions, rhythmic patterns), developing them through techniques such as variation, sequence, and transformation, and organising them into a coherent formal structure.
More composition terms
Polyphony
View all compositionterms →A musical texture featuring two or more independent melodic lines sounding simultaneously.
OrchestrationThe art of assigning musical material to specific instruments within an orchestra to create desired timbres
CanonA contrapuntal composition in which a melody is imitated exactly by one or more voices entering in succession.
SequenceThe repetition of a musical pattern at successively higher or lower pitch levels.
Twelve-Tone TechniqueA method of composition that treats all twelve chromatic pitches as equal, ordering them into a fixed row that governs the entire work.
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v1 · 10/04/2026Browse all terms →