Chopin - Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1

Chopin was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1810, and died in 1849. He is most famous for his piano works. This piece is a Nocturne, and it is written just for piano, and we know that by the Romantic period pieces were being written just for single instruments.

This piece is in C minor, with the addition of accidentals which I think have been used for effect. In bar 9, the tonality to changes, and goes major. This section does not last very long, and quickly returns to the minor key. In bar 21, the tonality is unsure as the melody line is a chromatic scale with lots of accidentals. 

The melody moves mostly in small intervals, and starts right at the beginning of the piece. There are sections with some large intervals used to create drama and tension in various places, but it is mainly made up of small intervals. Pedal is used throughout the whole extract, and is also legato throughout. None of the phrases are balanced or symmetrical, and it is hard to recognise where the phrases start and end. In bars 3 and 4, the intervals are very similar within the right hand section. Bars 5 to 8 are very similar to the start of the piece, but are slightly different. The note values vary from semibreves to crotchets to semiquavers, and this adds a sense of excitement to the piece.

The left hand accompaniment plays chords throughout throughout the piece which maintains a sense of key/tonality. Its chords are mainly based around octaves, and it keeps the beat with a stable crotchet pattern. The steady pattern helps the listener to recognise the time signature as the 4/4 beat is not clear within the melody line. 

The length of the notes get longer as we go through the piece, which causes the rhythm to increase speed. This development improves the level of interest in the piece. 

Music in Brazil: 'Queluzindo'

'Queluzindo' was inspired by and performed on a vintage viola (guitar with five double-coursed strings).


0:00 - Theme A - We hear that the song is in 4/4, and plays a simple rhythm. This rhythm is repeated for 8 beats before it changes chord.
0:27 - Fingers on wood - There is a knock on the 'and', after beat 3. Theme A is still playing. The end of this theme is signalled by three strums of the final chord.             
0:39 - Pause -
0:41 - Theme B - This theme is a lot more adventurous than theme A. It uses techniques such as pulls and hammers, which can be heard very clearly in the audio.
1:00 - Repeat of theme B -
1:23 - Theme A - This is exactly the same as before, along with the knocks on the wood on the 'and' after beat 3. It also ends in the same way with the three strums of the final chord.
2:00 - Pause -
2:02 - Theme C - This theme is completely different to the others, and gives the song a different feel. This theme is still using the plucking 'tradition' which is used throughout this song, but makes a lot more use of strumming the chord.
2:31 - Pause -
2:32 - Theme A - This is exactly the same as before.
3:15 - Final chord - The song ends with the final chord being strummed in a semi-quaver, semi-quaver, quaver rhythm.

This song is solely a solo viola piece which has variation between each of the different themes. The ending of the themes are clearly shown by three strums of the final chord followed by a short pause.

Music in Turkey - Sari Gelin/Sari Gyalin

For this blog post, I used the CD from the book called 'Music in Turkey' by Eliot Bates, and this song was track 32. I also got the background information from the book on page 104.

Sari Gelin in Turkish translates to "yellow bride" or "blonde-haired bride." This song is about impossible love, typically between a Christian and a Muslim.

The song opens with a riff from a lute (I believe), which is repeated many times throughout the song, mainly after the words 'Sari Gelin' have been sung. The introduction is very short, and the male and female lead voices enter very swiftly.

I think that they have used a male and female voice as it represents the two lovers who are not allowed to be together. The male voice is quite low and steady, but the female voice is in a mid-register and seems quite shaky and unsteady. There is also another voice/voices in the song, but this voice(s) is mainly in the background and is not a lead voice in the song. The voice(s) seems to be improvising around a few notes that are used by the two lead voices.

At the end of the song a Ney is heard, and this is a type of woodwind instrument. This plays a short melodic sequence that has been taken from the voice part. This is what finishes the song, and is, perhaps, showing the dismissal of the two lovers who are not allowed to be together.

Chopin - Prelude in D Flat major Op.28

Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer and pianist during the Romantic period who was born in 1810.

Prelude In Db Major was composed in 1839, and was taken from a set of 24 preludes. This prelude is nicknamed the Raindrop Prelude as the use of the persistent repeated notes sound like raindrop falling. However, Chopin disliked descriptive titles and he did not give it this nickname.

The score is very detailed – it includes a lot of markings for the performer to follow. These include pedal markings, fingerings, dynamic markings, and Italian terms. The pedal markings are given under the bass stave. They show the pianist where to depress the pedal (ped.) and release it (a star-shaped sign). The fingerings are given by small numbers on some of the notes. The dynamic markings refer to the loudness or quietness of the notes.

The prelude is in ternary form - where the second A section is the same as, or very similar to, the first A section. The B section provides a contrast to the outer sections. Section A lasts from bars 1-27 and is a long melody repeated several times in a major key. This is follow by section B which lasts from bars 28-75 and is a new melody which is mainly heard in the bass in a minor key. For section A1, it is just a shorter version of section A which lasts from bars 76 - the end of the prelude.

The time signature of the piece is 4/4, and is in the key of Db major -  hence the title. The melody is accompanied by broken chords, which makes the texture homophonic. Most of the opening is based on chords 1 and V (the tonic (Db) and dominant (Ab)). The repetition of the A flat quavers (the raindrops) is used from the beginning, and these notes act as a pedal throughout the piece.

Yiri - Koko

Introduction:

• Starts in a free tempo with a high balafon improvised solo at a soft dynamic level.
• Monophonic texture
• Compromises a melody in Gb major
• Simple and repetitive

Chorus A:

• Voices are in unison
• Melody is shorts, simple and repetitive
• The semiquaver-quaver-semiquaver rhythm is a feature of vocal writing.
• No harmony.

Balafon solo:

• Short instrumental for the balafon
• Drums play continuous ostinato

Chorus A:

• voice in for second verse.

Balafon solo:

• Voices out
• Solo instrumental break on a lower pitched balafon
• Some variation in melody
• semiquavers in Gb major

Vocal solo:

• Dramatic new melody
• Long held notes
• solo voices with choral responses

Balafon solo:

• solo voice with some varied balafon rhythms in solo break

Chorus B:

• Full choirs
• short instrumental interjections to break up the vocal line

Balafon solo

Chorus A

Coda:

• Sense of strong riff
• Heterophonic texture

Fugue - Key terms that you need to know!

What is a fugue?

• A fugue is a piece of music in which a melodic theme (or subject) is introduced in one voice, and the imitated by a second/third/fourth etc. Whilst new material is introduced, the subject returns several times in imitation (it has to return in order for it to be a fuge).

Subject: the theme which is the basis do the whole fugue. It is introduced by one voice before being imitated by the other(s).

Answer: this is the subject in a new voice. There are two types of answer:

• Real: exact (in terms of intervals used) - always has the same intervals, but may start on a different degree of the scale.

• Tonal: some intervals are modified (they are adjusted slightly to fit in the key)

Exposition: this is the first section of a fugue, in which each voice introduces the subject or answer.

Countersubject: This is when melodic material is used in one voice as the subject occurs in another. For the material to be labelled as a countersubject, it must be quoted several times throughout the piece. 

Episode (Development): this often introduces new material whilst quoting gesture from the subject and countersubject. They tend to modulate before the subject returns in a new key. (Like ritornello form)

Stretto: a technique in which musical material is essentially squashed together. In fugue, this is when a subject (or an answer) starts before the previous subject/answer has finished.

Pedal point: when a pitch is usually suspended, it is normally in the lowest register. Fugues often end with a pedal point.

The Moon Over the Ruined Castle - Japanese Folk Music

"Kōjō no Tsuki" (荒城の月), translated to "The Moon over the Ruined Castle", is a Japanese song written in the Meiji period.

Rentarō Taki, a Japanese pianist and composer, composed the music as a song to use in music lessons without instrumental accompaniment in 1901. 

It was inspired by the ruins of Oka Castle, which was built in 1185. The lyrics of the song was inspired by the ruins of the Aoba Castle and the Aizuwakamatsu Castle.

Taki's original version of the song is in B minor. Taki's original version of the song uses E# on the second bar, but the modern version usually uses E. This is probably because the original version did not fit the traditional Japanese music. 

Find the song here: http://youtu.be/7IqryOGvLAE