# Melodies with certain intervals



## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

For music theory purposes, which I am busy with at the moment, I find it useful to, as a last resort, have melodies I can always remember with a certain interval in them.

For example:
Perfect 5th = beginning of Shostakovich's Fugue no.1 in C major
Minor 7th = the spread chord the violin plays (solo) in the intro to the 1st movement of the Kreutzer Sonata
Octave = beginning of Beethoven op.131 2nd movement
(I know I should need them for perfect 5th and octave, but sometimes in my head I have trouble differentiating between the two).
Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd and Major 3rd are all easy. I was wondering if someone could suggest some for the remaining intervls - perfect 4th, diminished 5th, minor 6th, major 6th and major 7th. Thanks


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Perfect fourth is easy. Just imagine an upbeat like a timpani (5-1). Failing that, think of the opening of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

For Diminished 5th/Augmented 4th many would suggest Maria from West Side Story or the Simpsons theme...I think of Messiaen's Trois Petites Liturgies...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wlbMt2ppBRQ#t=230s

The phrase here ends with a descending tritone. If there is a composer who used the tritone melodically more often, I'd like to hear him.


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

Thanks! Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is perfect for the perfect fourth. I know I shouldn't need it, but when I'm in a pressured audition situation or in an exam room, I need something I won't forget, and the Mozart is perfect for it.
The Messiaen is very beautiful, but sounds like something that my mind could distort. The Simpsons theme is one I hadn't considered and seems to work very well.


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## Guest (May 17, 2013)

Well, here are my suggestions off the top of my (deranged) head :
Perfect 4th : The opening of the French national anthem ( *La Marseillaise*);
Diminished 5th : That "_*Maria*_" song from *Lenny Bernstein's* _West Side Story_ (ascending interval) / *Giacinto Scelsi*, "_Aion_" (opening passage, descending interval);
Minor 6th : The opening of the Allegretto movement from *Beethoven's* Sonata No. 17;
Major 6th : That famous folk song "*My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean*";
Major 7th : The opening of *Satie's* _Gymnopédie No.1_.

Hope that helps.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Perfect fourth -- opening interval of the Flying Dutchman overture.


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

All great suggestions. Thanks. The Tempest Sonata movement opening is particularly useful


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## Guest (May 18, 2013)

The OP got me thinking about 'melodies with certain intervals'. I gave an example of a *Major 7th* to Schuberkovich that evoked the opening of Satie's _Gymnopédie_ No.1. I'm sure most of you know this piece. The left hand plays a sustained G and a beat later the right hand plays a triad B-D-F#. The next chord is a sustained D in the left hand against an A-C#-F# in the right. What I find attractive about this opening is how bare major 7ths are 'softened' (or 'cushioned' or even 'hidden') by their neighbouring notes. Though you would be right to say to me that the very opening of this Satie piece is not melodic. Whatever, it is one of the true 'great magical moments' in music.


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## Guest (May 18, 2013)

schuberkovich said:


> All great suggestions. Thanks. The Tempest Sonata movement opening is particularly useful


You're welcome. What is strange is that in my head I heard it as A minor. I only now realize (after checking it on one of the CDs I have) that it is in D minor. Time for an ear-wash I think, or maybe I should listen to it at a lower altitude.


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## niv (Apr 9, 2013)

When I first attended a classical-oriented course of music, they taught all the intervals with associated songs for easier reference. Tritone was the simpsons theme, perfect 5th was the superman theme. Minor second was "Se Dice De Mi". Major 3rd was the happy birthday song. That's what I remember anyway.


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## Joris (Jan 13, 2013)

Major seventh: take on (me) by a-ha
Minor sixth: In My Life by the Beatles (first two note)


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Minor Sixth - My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean (first two notes - My >> Bon)
Perfect 5th - The Last Post


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## dstring (May 14, 2013)

MagneticGhost said:


> Minor Sixth - My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean (first two notes - My >> Bon)


My Bonnie's first two notes = Major Sixth.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

For diminshed 5th (or augmented 4th), I always remember the four first notes in the Bach's choral "Es ist genug", from the Cantata BWV 60:


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

*Minor 7th*: _West Side Story_ (again): Some-where.....


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Major 6th:
The first two notes in Chopin's E flat major & B major nocturnes (op 9 no 2 & 3)

And major 7th is pretty easy - you can easily hear the two tones, and the dissonance.


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## Ostinato (Jun 24, 2009)

Augmented 4th: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No 4 (first two notes)

Diminished 4th: Weber Konzertstück for Piano & Orchestra (first two notes)


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## Marisol (May 25, 2013)

Not a melodic interval but a very characteristic opening on a diminished chord:


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Perfect 5th: Bach, Little fugue in G Minor,



 Wagner, Siegfrieds horn call. 



Minor 6th. Wagner: first two notes in the prelude to Tristan und Isolde 



Major 6th: Verdi, La traviata "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" 



Perfect Octave: Tara's theme from Gone with the Wind.



 "Over the Rainbow" from "The Wizard of Oz" 



Major 7th Bernstein: "Somewhere" (There's a place for us)



Major Triad: Beethoven, symphony#5, 4th movement opening theme.


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## Marisol (May 25, 2013)

An octave: contrapunctus 9 from "The Art of Fugue" by Bach.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

Good perfect 4th openings are Auld Lang Syne, or the big tune in the last movement of Brahms 1.
An easy perfect 5th is the main title of Star Wars.
GG


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

All great suggestions. I'll add one which I somehow didn't realise earlier - major sixth is the 2nd theme in the 1st movement of Dvorak's Cello Concerto, the one which starts on the horn.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

A list I came across while looking for stuff on aural training:Songs with intervalsl. The nice thing is that it has separate sections for ascending and decending.


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