Call and response in the melody

[Jean-Michel G]

This month’s challenge is about call and response, so I thought I’d share some theory tips on this topic. (I already posted something similar here).

Call and response is probably as old as music itself. It appears in various forms throughout music history and in all cultures. In the Renaissance period in Venice, call and response used to be called “antiphony” and was done with several choirs singing “against each other” from various parts of the cathedral. The large classical orchestra’s born in the 18th and 19th centuries implement call and response (or, to use a posh name: antecedent and consequent) between various groups of instruments within the orchestra. In this month’s challenge, several members use a pentatonic lick as the call and the blues rhythm shuffle as the response (or vice versa).
There are endless possibilities.

Here we’ll have a look at call & response from a purely melodic standpoint.

For the purpose of this write up, I wrote the following song lyrics:
My love has gone, oh I’m so sad.
She left me alone, she broke my heart.
My love has gone, where has she fled?
I’m sure she’s in my neighbours bed!

…yeah, I know, not very original – but bear with me! The important thing is that we have two statements followed by a question, and a final answer to that question. Ideally, we should translate this very structure in the musical language (the melody) of the song.

Since this is a rather sad story, we’ll use a minor mode – let’s say C minor.
Here is the C (natural) minor scale: C D Eb F G Ab Bb (C)
When you are about to compose (improvise) a melody in a key, it is crucial to always remember the natural tendency of the various scale degrees to remain stable or on the contrary to (eventually) resolve to more stable degrees.
In this case, the stable scale degrees are C and Eb.
The “active” scale degrees are: D->Eb or C, F->Eb, Ab->G, Bb->C.
The note G (the dominant) is somewhat special: as part of the tonic chord (Cm) it is very stable, but as an isolated melody note it has a very strong tendency to go (eventually) to the tonic.

OK. Here is the melody for the first two statements.

I suggest you play these two phrases several times to get them in your ears.
The first phrase is going from C to C and immediately establishes the b3 (Eb) so the listener knows we’re in minor. This phrase is about as plain, factual and stable as it can be.
The second phrase also goes from C to C, but an octave higher. That is also as factual as it gets, but compared to the first phrase, this second phrase seems to have more energy – in a melody, going up is usually associated with more energy/tension. Gong down has the opposite effect. You will also notice that the second phrase is rhythmically very different from the first phrase. That’s a good thing, since this phrase says something different, it isn’t a repetition of the first phrase.

Now come the question and answer phrases; we will use a call and response structure for this:

One very easy and frequent “trick” when composing (improvising) is to reuse previous phrases, or parts of previous phrases. It gives the song a sense of cohesion, something that the listener can recognise and relate to. So, for the call I have recycled the first phrase, but (and this crucial!) I have modified it so it ends on an active scale degree (the dominant note G in this case)! This active scale degree is really the question mark. The listener expects a resolution.
Ending the call on D, F Ab or Bb (other active scale degrees) would also mark the call.

For the response, it is important to somehow refer to the call part. If you ask someone: “where are my keys?”, the answer should be something like “your keys are in your pocket”. In music, one possibility to refer to the call is to reuse a motif of the call; another possibility is to transpose or mirror such a motif. Look at the part that says “I’m sure she is”: it is very similar to the part of the call that says “My love has gone”, except that it goes down instead of going up.
And then (this is also crucial), the response finishes on a stable scale degree.

Conclusion:
In tonal music, it is important to distinguish between active and stable scale degrees, and use them correctly to structure the musical story.
Note that when we say that an active note resolves to a stable note, this resolution is not necessarily immediate. It should be understood as a long range target.
Note also that all the above applies equally to improvisation, but it does take some training to be able to instinctively target active or stable key notes.

I hope you found this useful.

[Martin W]

Hi , thankyou for posting this , it is indeed very useful information, understanding how to really speak the language is very insightful.
Sometimes I get a bit bogged down with theory , but I read your piece through and understood every bit of it .
Thanks again .
Martin

[sunjamr]

I have learned that there are actually lots of different styles and options for doing call and response. On the one extreme, it’s two melodies talking to each other, like you have described. Another way is to have just one melody talking to a repetitive shuffle or chord sequence. Kind of like a two-way conversation vs a preacher at the podium where the audience responds with “Amen”.

Sunjamr Steve

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