80.98Mini-composition exercise

Write a 32-bar piece whose form is created by harmonic specificity.

Requirements:

• first 4 bars contain no 3rd of the tonal center
• tonic root must not appear in the bass until at least bar 3
• one sus chord must remain unresolved long enough to become a stable sonority
• one sus→3 resolution must later establish clear function
• one fixed quartal shape must appear over three bass notes
• one slash chord must be reinterpreted by its destination
• one pivot chord must plausibly belong to two keys
• one modal section must avoid leading-tone dominant function
• one single dominant cadence must suddenly establish functional gravity
• one section must become progressively more harmonically specific through note accretion
• another section must defocus by removing defining notes
• final chord must either deliberately reveal or deliberately withhold major/minor identity

The listener should experience harmony as something that is discovered, not merely presented.