Examples
A well-known popular example of a threefold descending diatonic sequence is found in the refrain from the Christmas carol "Angels We Have Heard on High," as illustrated immediately below ("Glo...ria in excelsis Deo"). The one-measure melodic motive is shifted downward at the interval of a second, and the harmonic aspect does so likewise by following the circle of fifths Play:
The following three-fold ascending chromatic (non-diatonic) sequence occurs in the duet of Abubeker and Fatima from Act III of César Cui's opera Prisoner of the Caucasus (compare a similar passage in the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein song "Do-Re-Mi," composed almost exactly 100 years later) Play:
Handel's "For Unto Us a Child is Born" (HWV 56) relies heavily on both melodic and harmonic sequencing, as can be seen in the following excerpt. In this vocal reduction, the soprano and alto lines reiterate a florid two-beat melodic motif for three and a half bars in a series of melodic sequences on the word "born." More subtle, though still present, are the underlying harmonic sequences. Play
Other examples include Handel's "Ev'ry valley shall be exalted" ("exalted") from Messiah, the opening unison ritornello of J.S. Bach's D-minor harpsichord concerto. Another can be found in Arcangelo Corelli's sonata de camera gigue in Em. Here the composer sequences up in pitch after cadencing on a V.
Read more about this topic: Sequence (music)
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