An American in Paris: George Gershwin - Classwork

1) In bar 1 we are presented with the 'first walking theme' - what musical elements help to give this theme a 'march' like character?

• Steady rhythm and the time signature of 2/4. 

• Articulating the pulse.

• Use of acciacatura gives it the 'march' like character. 

2) Comment in the French Horn in bar 10.

• The French Horns have a monophonic texture as they're playing exactly the same rhythm and notes in unison, and at the same dynamic (f). The French Horns are imitating what we have heard before. 

3) How long is this theme (before repetition) - and comment on the cadence.

• The 'first walking theme' is 11 bars long.

• There is a textural and rhythmic cadence. In bar 10, the dynamics are forte, which helps build up to the climax in bar 11. Also, the 1st & 2nd flute, piccolo and 1st & 2nd oboe play a sextuplet rhythm which is rhythmically exciting, and ascending chromatically. It also signifies the end of this theme. 

4) What happens at bar 12 (onwards) - how is it similar/different to what we have done before? 

• Bar 12 onwards is a modified repetition of bars 1-11. For example, the English Horn is playing a slightly different version of what the oboe was playing in bars 1-7. 

5) Could you give a label to bar 24-27? Where has this material come from?

• I would label bars 24-27 as a link. 

6) We are introduced to a new idea at bar 28. What description would you give to it? Comment on the two most striking features of this new idea.

• I would describe this new idea as the 'taxi-cab theme'. The two most striking features of this idea is the use of the Parisian taxi horn, and the 

7) What rhythmical effect do we hear at 32-35?

• There is the use of syncopation by the French Horns, Violins, Viola, Cello and Bass. 

8) How is bar 36 (onwards) different to what we heave heard before? (Extend this thought into bar 44 onwards)

• The feeling of the piece has changed from being upbeat and cheery to being quite bluesy and the note lengths are now longer. For example, there has been a change in the playing technique of the cello. In bars 32-35, the Cello was playing pizzicato, but is now playing arco. Although, there is still the use of the Parisian taxi horns which tells the listener that the character is still walking through the streets of Paris. 

9) How are the musical elements treated at bar 60 to give the impressions of an 'increase in traffic'?

• I think that the tempo marking of 'Vivo' helps to give the impression of an 'increase in traffic' as it means lively, signifying that there is a lot going on. Also, a use of syncopation shows busyness.  

Current Favourites

No analysis here, but thought I would just update you as to what I am listening to at the moment. My music choices recently have been quite relaxed and calming. Obviously I can't list every song that I have been listening to, but these are my most played songs. (Also, the songs highlighted in blue are great songs to listen to whilst doing homework!!)

• Real Love - Tom Odell
• Maps - Maroon 5
• An American in Paris - George Gershwin (religiously for IB Music!)
• Grace - Jeff Buckley
• Take Five - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
• Nocturne No. 2 in Eb Major - Chopin
• Bring Him Home - Alfie Boe
• Addio Sogni Di Gloria - Alfie Boe
• Georgia - Vance Joy
• Every Christmas Song!! (Since it's Christmas season.)

Comment on how Gershwin has structured this piece of music. Where necessary, make reference to contributing factors.

Gershwin composed this piece for a symphony orchestra, plus taxi horns, saxophones and a celesta. For the New York premiere, he bought 4 taxi horns from Paris to use when displaying this work.

The piece is a true tone poem, inspired by extra-musical considerations -- the sights, sounds, and moods of Paris.  The opening section represents an American visitor strolling about Paris and absorbing the French atmosphere, which is followed by a rich blues, representing an episode of homesickness. But the American overcomes his spell of depression and once again revels in the sights and sounds of Paris.

The piece is light and jolly, and (as said above) represents Gershwin walking through the streets of the French capital. The composition is divided into two main parts and a shorter closing section, meaning that it is in a loose rondo (ABA) form:

• A represents Gershwin strolling through the streets of Paris
• B represents Gershwin feeling quite homesick. This is conveyed by a bit of blues/Americana.

The two main parts are approximately equal in duration (about 7 or 8 minutes each), and the shorter closing section is about 2 or 3 minutes in duration. 

There are 5 main melodies that are repeated throughout this work.These melodies are often repeated by other instruments, which causes a change in timbre. This also reinforces the idea of the two main sections of the piece. These main melodies are:

• "The walking theme" - heard at the very beginning.
• "The taxi-cab theme" - played by the Parisian taxi horns in figure 3. 
• "The can-can theme" - played in figure 11 
• " The  second walking theme" - played in figure 13
• "The night-time Blues theme" - played in figure 48.

A Brief Introduction to Expressionism, Impressionism, Serialism and Minimalism

In this blog post, I will outline the key features of Expressionism, Impressionism, Serialism and Minimalism. I will also include an example of each style and briefly analyse it.

Expressionism

The key features of Expressionism are:

• A high level of dissonance
• Extreme contrasts of dynamics
• Constantly changing textures
• ‘Distorted’ melodies and harmonies
• Angular melodies with wide leaps

An example of Expressionism is Arnold Schoenberg's 'Peripetie'.  Peripetie is a very intense and dramatic movement that frequently changes in orchestration, speed and mood.  It is based on a small number of motifs which are first stated and then transformed in different ways. The movement opens explosively, the motifs are played one after the other, loudly and dramatically.Each of the motifs is based on a hexachord (a set of six pitches.)

The movement falls into five sections A B A C A which could be described as a free rondo form. The motifs are developed in the middle three sections. Here are some of the ways in which they are developed:

• Imitation – where a motif in one part is repeated a few notes later in a different part overlapping the motif in the first part
• Diminution – where the note values are made smaller (usually halved)
• Inversion – where the melody is turned upside down

In the final section there is an orchestral tutti (all instruments playing at once). The motifs are piled up on top of each other and are played in counterpoint. Motifs are heard in canon.

Another example of minimalism is Anton Webern's 'Fünf Sätze'. This piece uses most of the characteristics of Expressionism. For example, the piece has a high use of dissonances, and does not have a clear tonal centre. It also uses a wide range of dynamics, and textures.  

Impressionism

Impressionism is a late 19th century and early 20th century artistic movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based painters, whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s. As with most artistic movements, the impressionist movement in music was a reaction to the previous era of music (the Romantic era), in which the music of many composers is heavy and overly dramatic by comparison.

Musical Impressionism formed a transition from late-Romantic music to 20th century Modernist music. Musical impressionism was based in France, and the French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are generally considered to be the two "great" impressionists. Other important impressionist composers include; Ottorino Respighi, Frederick Delius, Igor Stravinsky and Manuel DeFalla.

Some key characteristics of music during the impressionist period:

• Music that conveys atmosphere and subtle emotion in contrast to the strong emotions expressed in music of the Romantic period.
• A departure from tradition major/minor harmonies to include the use of whole tone scales, advanced chromatic harmony and dissonance.
• A departure from traditional musical forms (symphony, concerto, and sonata) and the use of shorter musical forms such as the prelude and nocturne.
• Great emphasis on orchestration (the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra) as a form of art in itself.
• Melodies that lack directed motion
• Ornamentation
• Emphasis on instrumental timbres
• Rhythm

An example of impressionism is Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. This was first performed in 1913 in Paris at the Theatre of the Champs-Elyees by the prestigious ballet company, Ballet Russes. The audience was unaccustomed to the dissonant sounds.

• Harmony; polytonal  (2 tonalities going on at the same time). This means that it is difficult to hear either tonal centre. Each harmony sounds good alone, but when they are played together, they are dissonant.
• Melody; many are pentatonic. This captures a folk-like sound. It is brief and full of repetitions (small fragments are repeated and varied many times). 
• Rhythm; very irregular at times. There are frequent metre changes, and is also offset by frequent ostinato figures.
• Timbre; this is a HUGE ensemble with large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections, as well as a string section.
• Form: through-composed.

Serialism

A technique of composing devised by Schoenberg in 1920 (approx.), created to help bring structure and organisation to atonal music. It involves all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in any order. The whole composition is then based on this. All 12 notes are equally important and can appear only in the correct order. The series can also be used in retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion. It can also be transposed to start of a different note.

An example of Serialism is Stravinksy's Epitaphium. Epitaphium was composed by Stravinsky in 1959 as a clarinet and flute duet. Stravinksy also uses treble and bass instruments. He chose the harp as bass instrument in order to achieve a muffled effect, and because he found the low notes the most beautiful on the instrument. There are four antiphonal strophes (a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy) each in the harp and in the treble instruments.


Minimalism

The key features of Minimalism are:

Layers of ostinati (rhythmic, melodic or harmonic patterns which are repeated many times.)

Constantly repeated patterns that are subjected to gradual changes

Layered textures

Interlocking repeated phrases and rhythms

Diatonic (using notes which belong to the key rather than chromatic notes which are outside the key.) harmony

An example of Minimalism is Steve Reich's 'Electric Counterpoint'. Electric Counterpoint is in three movements, fast-slow-fast. Movement III has a time signature of 3/2. Steve Reich uses this idea throughout the movement, moving the accents and sometimes changing the time signature from 3/2 to 12/8.

Features of minimalist music that can be found in movement III of Electric Counterpoint are:

• a complex contrapuntal texture
• broken chords (where the notes of a chord are played singly rather than together)
• slow harmonic changes
• note addition (where notes are added to a repeated phrase)
• melodic transformation (where a melody gradually changes shape)
• rhythmic transformation (where a rhythm gradually changes shape)
• gradual changes in texture and dynamics

Another example of minimalism is Steve Reich's 'Music in Contrary motion'. In the first line of the piece, the pattern of the top line is as follows: EDCBaBCDE. The composition follows a similar pattern throughout, both on the top and bottom lines of notes. Aurally, the piece mimics the repetition of scales that a pianist would repeat in order to warm up before playing an actual piece of music. With Music in Contrary Motion Glass plays a trick on the listener by using what is traditionally considered the "warm up" as the main composition.

Improved Prokofiev Analysis

Context
This piece written by S Prokofiev who was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. The piece is a movement taken from the symphony, which is a 4-movement work composed for a full orchestra. This piece was composed in the classical period, and has been written for a full symphony orchestra (2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Trumpets, 2 Horns, Timpani, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello and Bass).

Musical elements
This piece is in the key of D major, and uses terraced dynamics without (ranging from pp to ff). The dynamics are made clearer my the use of instruments, creating a thinner texture for quieter dynamics and a thicker texture for louder dynamics.

The piece begins in Dmajor, but changes to Bminor in bar 7, which is the relative minor. It then changes again, this time to C major in bar 11, and the to A minor (relative minor of C) in bar 16. Bar 18 it goes to back to the dominant key of the original (A major - the dominant of D major).

Mainly in 2/2 (simple) time, with the exception of bar 27 and 61 which are in 2/4 (compound) time.
A lot of this piece is in unison (bar 1 and 2 for the woodwind and strings). The piece is mainly composed with quavers, but there are a few moments of longer note values being used.


Musical structure
This piece is written in sonata form (exposition - where ideas/themes are introduced, development - where the ideas/themes are developed, and recapitulation), which a form typically used in the Classical period.


 

Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68, No. 4

Frédéric Chopin’s Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68, No. 4 is a short piece that is full of chromaticism. Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849), was a Polish composer and pianist of the Romantic period.

(For the purpose of this blog, I am going to analyse small sections of the piece, to make the analysis clearer..)

Measure 1-8:

This piece starts off in the key of F minor (i). There is a feeling of sub phrases in this small section, but the flow from one to the other, due to the use of chromaticism and the descending stepwise harmonies. A perfect cadence in the key of i (F minor) is recognisable in measure 8 with an F minor triad.

Measure 9-14:

This second phrase also starts in the key of F minor (i). This second phrase is a variation/development of the first phrase.

Measure 1-14: parallel period - (In a parallel period the two phrases are very similar.)

Measure 15-19:

The third phrase is in the key of A major. Measure 14-15 and 16-17 repeat each other, which creates emphasis on the repeated right hand motif and the key of A major. In measure 19, there is a perfect cadence.


Measure 19-23:

The fourth phrase of this piece is back in the original key of F minor (i). The right hand motifs of this section are exactly the same as the right hand motifs used in measure  15-19, but in the key of F minor. There is a perfect cadence in the key of F minor in measure 23.

Measure 15-23 is a parallel period.

Measure 24-27:

The fifth phrase is in the key of A flat major. This phrase has a sudden key change (Fminor - A major), but it travels to C minor (the dominant of F minor),

Measure 28-31:

The sixth phrase is in the key of C minor (v). The motifs used in this phrase are similar to the motifs used in phrase 5, but this ends in a half cadence in the key of C minor.

Measure 24-31: Parallel period

Overall

This piece has a heavy use of chromaticism (m. 14-15 for melodic and m. 2-4 for harmonic, for example), it uses inverted chords rather than root chords (F6 in m. 1, for example), the use of very dissonant chords (such as E diminished in m. 7), and quick changes in key (from F minor to A major in m. 13-15, A flat major to C minor in m. 26-29).

There is also the use of sequencing, which you can hear in m. 1-5. This excerpt travels harmonically in a descending stepwise motion.. Also, the motifs/melody transposes by descending whole steps (m. 1-6.) A similar sequence can be found in m. 7-11.

Wagner - Erster Aufzug (from 'Tristan and Isolde')

Musical Context Erster Aufzug comes from the opera 'Tristan and Isolde' which was composed by Wagner. Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, who was mainly known for his operas.^[1]   

In the opera there is the use of leitmotifs, which represent different forms of love and doubt. The leitmotifs only last for a couple of bars, but there are a few sections in the piece where they are repeated. 

Musical elements
  The cells open the piece playing the "Grief" motif, which is shortly followed by the oboes playing the "desire" motif. These motifs cause tension in the piece as they have been composed to create a dissonant chord. The cellos repeat the "Grief" motif, and the clarinets enter playing an imitation of the "desire motif". 

There is a not a clear key signature for this piece due to the many accidentals that are used, and also the facts that there is not a specific key signature notated. Having no clear key signature is typical of the romantic period. Although, the time signature of 6/8 remains the same throughout the piece. 

Musical Structure
Erster Aufzug is in a loose sonata form (Exposition, 'Middle section', and Recapitulation). The exposition is made up two themes. Theme 1 (measure 0-17) begins and ends in A minor, finishing with an interrupted cadence. Theme 2 (measure 17-24) starts in A minor, but then modulates through D and B minor to end on A major in bar 24 (first perfect cadence in the tonic).

The 'middle section' also has two parts to it (Section A and Section B). Section A (measure 24-32) begins with a new theme (theme 3), which begins in E major and then ends on the tonic note of A without a cadence. Section A ends with the repetition of bars 17-21 from Theme 2. Section B (measure 36-44) starts with antiphonal (A performance style in which an ensemble is divided into two or more groups, performing alternately as separate groups and in unison^[2]) development of a motif from theme 2. This section ends on a root position chord of A major. Finally, the 'middle section' ends with Section A1. This is a development of section A, and the dominant pedal on E (bars 63-70) helps to link this section to the recapitulation.

The recapitulation (1 and 2) is the final part of sonata form. Recapitulation 1 (measure 66-83) starts in A minor/major, but then modulates to Eb minor. This section ends (measure 77-83) with the contrapuntal (Using counterpoint. Any music that contains two or more voices heard simultaneously^[2]) combination of all three theme and the climactic 'Tristan chord'.




<sup>[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner#Operas

[2]</sup>  http://dictionary.onmusic.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term_search%5Bquery%5D=antiphonal&commit=Search

^{[3]  http://dictionary.onmusic.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term_search%5Bquery%5D=contrapuntal&commit=Submit}