I guess it depends on what you mean by encapsulation. If you're writing music with functional harmony, it's a very useful concept, although you typically work

I guess it depends on what you mean by encapsulation. If you're writing music with functional harmony, it's a very useful concept, although you typically work in reverse. The encapsulated idea might be the dominant part of a V-I cadence, which you can replace with an extended, embellished pattern that has basically the same function but is much more interesting. V->[I-ii-iii-IV-V/V-V] I-vi-ii-V-I I-vi-ii-[I-ii-iii-IV-V/V-V]-I And maybe at the beginning, you can reinforce the tonality with a little pattern instead of just plunking out a I. So I->[I-vii-I]. Then you have a progression like this: [I-vii-I]-vi-ii-[I-ii-iii-IV-V/V-V]-I Then, you can map that pattern onto a rhythmic framework. Maybe with a generalized mapping function that you could use for a number of different patterns. Anyway I'm rambling now. Maybe I'll blog about it at some point. (note that the vii should really be vii-diminished. The forum doesn't appear to support the little circle superscript.)