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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Precomposition</span></span>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about music. For other uses, see <a href="Pullback" title="Pullback">Pullback</a> and <a href="Hom_functor" title="Hom functor">Hom functor</a>.</div>
<p>In <a href="Music" title="Music">music</a>, <b>precomposition</b> are decisions which a <a href="Composer" title="Composer">composer</a> decides upon before or while beginning to create a <a href="Musical_composition" title="Musical composition">composition</a>. These limits may be given to the composer, such as the length or style needed, or entirely decided by the composer.
</p><p>Precompositional decisions may also include which <a href="Key_(music)" title="Key (music)">key</a>, <a href="Scale_(music)" title="Scale (music)">scale</a>, <a href="Musical_form" title="Musical form">musical form</a>, style, <a href="Music_genre" title="Music genre">genre</a>, or idiom in which to write, to use techniques such as the <a href="Twelve_tone_technique" class="mw-redirect" title="Twelve tone technique">twelve tone technique</a>, <a href="Serialism" title="Serialism">serialism</a>, or not to (consciously) use a system at all. Other examples may include <a href="Isorhythm" title="Isorhythm">isorhythm</a>, <a href="Ostinato" title="Ostinato">ostinato</a>, <a href="Passacaglia" title="Passacaglia">passacaglia</a>, <a href="Chaconne" title="Chaconne">chaconne</a>, <a href="Rhythm" title="Rhythm">rhythms</a>, or <a href="Chord_progression" title="Chord progression">chord progression</a>.
</p><p>Precompositional decisions do not necessarily, and almost always do not, preclude compositional decisions, and may actually allow the initial consideration of the choices to be made. One might say that, "thus, while it liberates imagination as to what the world <i>may</i> be, it refuses to legislate as to what the world <i>is</i>" (<a href="Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a>, <i>Our Knowledge of the External World</i>). Thus precompositional decisions do not necessarily ease the compositional choices.
</p><p>On the other hand, the concept of precompositional decisions is unclear as it is often impossible to determine which decisions occur before or during a composition.
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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-07-22" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Precomposition&oldid=1302002656">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
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