Alphonse Nguyen

Now I don’t mean “How to start writing a piece and how to know when to stop writing”, I’m talking about how to write the actual introduction and coda. These two components of a composition are very important elements to consider, as they can set up the mood and tone. The beginning in particular entices the audience to continue listening to your work (if you ask someone you know to sing/hum the tune of a familiar piece, almost always the melody will be from the beginning), while the ending leaves the audience satisfied with the feeling that the piece was worthwhile to listen to in the first place (you don’t want your listener to hear the ending and ask, “That was it?”).

In addition, many people only remember the beginning and end of a piece but forget what the middle sounds like, so you should consider all these points when you’re composing (but don’t slack off in the middle!).

How to start: You can’t really go wrong here as you have a large degree of freedom. You can take your time with the notes or just get on with it. Either way, once the piece has started, it’s already started.

1) You can ease in.

• Haydn – Sunrise Quartet, 1st movement
• Mendelssohn – Piano Concerto No. 1, 1st movement
• Mozart – Serenade No. 10, 4th movement

2) Or you can just announce it.

• Chopin – Polonaise in A flat
• Mendelssohn – Italian Symphony, 4th movement

3) Jumping right in is also fine.

• Chopin – Etude Op. 10 No. 4
• Saint-Saens – Piano Concerto No. 2, 3rd movement

4) Doing something unexpected is fun.

• Chopin – Etude Op. 25 No. 11
• Chopin – Piano Concerto No 1, 3rd movement

How to finish: I prefer to make it very obvious that the piece is coming to an end, because how else would you know? But I’ve found that many beginners have trouble with this.

1) You can make your ending apparent by simplifying your chord progression (e.g. I-V-I-V-I or I-I-I-I-I).

• Mozart – Sonata in D major for two pianos
• Saint-Saens – Piano Concerto No. 5, 3rd movement

2) You could also do this by building up the energy and excitement.

• Liszt – La Campanella
• Robert Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor, 3rd movement

3) Fading away and slowing down are also good options.

• Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23, 2nd movement
• Clara Schumann – Piano Trio, 3rd movement

4) And again you can do something that’s unexpected.

• T.-Y. Ho – Danse Funebre

Other examples:

1) You can use motives throughout the beginning, middle, and end.

• Beethoven – Symphony No. 5, 1st movement

2) On the other hand, you could have an intro and a coda that are very similar to each other but have nothing to do with the rest of the piece.

• Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor, 1st movement

3) You can also connect the end of one movement to the beginning of the next movement, as in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

• 1st movement (part 1) 1st movement (part 2)
• 2nd movement
• 3rd movement