Post concert reflection

The time leading up to the concert in my opinion was well spent. We worked together to improve as a group during class, and as far as I know everyone worked on what they personally needed to at home.  I also think that it appeared that way during the concert as for the most part I felt is was a success. Compared to the last concert I feel we did a good job of improving our dynamic contrast, although there's is always room for improvement. The one thing that did stick out to me was that there where times when we where not all together as well as times where we did not blend the sections as well as we could have. Besides that there was a few small issues here and there, but I feel those issues are partly do to lack of space on the stage. Especially towards the back we where very crowded and I feel it harmed a performance a bit because we where unable to move freely and preform to our best ability. Despite this I feel we still did well, and that we can label this concert a success m.

Influenced by impressionist and Stravinski

Impressionist: Steve Reich

Steve Reich is an American minimalist composer who sites Debussy as an influence on his work. Reich was born in New York and had parents that worked as lyricist on Broadway. He took piano lessons as a kid and took more interest in he music when he was a young teen where he began to learn drums so he could play jazz. He studied music at three different colleges Mills, Julliard, and Cornell. He then began composing his own music. He found influence for his music from his trip to Ghana as well as in history. He has composed a lot of music in his time each piece being unique and varying degrees of experimental.

The piece consist of chordiphones being made up with a series of electric guitars. The piece is compound in 3/2 time and moves at a moderator tempo. This is seen in the time signature that appears at the begging. The piece is in G major as indicated by the one sharp marked at the begging as well as the fact that the first three notes of the piece build a G chord in the first guitar. At 0:17 when guitar to joins in it begging playing a two notes behind guitar one creating a sort of round. This together creates a harmony which is added apron with the addition of more guitars. As seen at 0:37 each guitar is playing either the same thing as guitar 1 but several notes behind or the same thing as guitar live but several notes behind to create the layered harmony. At 0:45 the two base guitas join in and each have the same melody with in their repeated measure but they have extra notes before or after it so they are not playing at the sane time, ounce again creating the effect of a round except for the fact that besides the short 4 note rhythm with the two connected 8th notes the entire measure is not the same for the two bass guitars.

Stravinsky:

Igor Stravinsky was a Russian born composer who had a large impact on music in the earlier 20th century. His father was a bass singer in a theater in St. Petersburg. He began to practice piano and study music theory while he was young. Stravinsky was skilled at music but his parents wanted him to study law. When he got into college he only attended a few classes before going to study under the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. After premiering firebird in Paris he gained fame.

The piece is a piano solo played in 3/4 at an allegro tempo. In the beginning it's is written as being in C major, but there are several written accidental including an f# in the top part first measure. The melody is played in the top part with the same repeated ryt being played in the bottom part to make the harmony. There are dynamic changes throughout ranging from piano to forge and including crucendoes and decrecendoes. There are several flat accidental which leads to a key change into A flat.

Post concert

Over all I believe the concert was a success. We had a few small mistakes here and there which is to be expected because it is hard to be perfect but we should still work harder to limit the amount of mistakes we have, so that we have even less at the next concert. The other thing we really need to work on is our dynamic contrast. Although we had some we need to improve to make it better and more apparent. So hopefully at the next concert the dynamic changes will be played and clearly heard.

Pre concert

Playing Test Thing

Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem was born in Richmand Indian and attended school in Chicago, but later attended Julliard. he is famous for his art songs and operas. He is also the author or several books on music.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3B_x2lqHYc

The song is a solo voice with piano accompaniment. The singer is singing in English so it is not sacred. The piece is in 6/8 time and is at a moderate speed as heard in the piano. There is a lot of repartition in the piano but the voice repeats little if anything at all. The voice also has a large degree of dynamic contrast verging from piano and then jumping to forte like at 20-23.

Was a Beethoven Inevitable?

         Was a Beethoven inevitable? the short answer is yes. The changes Beethoven made to music where important, but if he did not do it than some else would have. Music besides being an art is also a business, and like all businesses it depends on the public interest to succeed. Over time if composers kept making the same music the same way people would gradually become less interested. Which means composers would stop making money, and because money is kinda of important to have this would lead to composers finding new ways to gain public interest. So in response to loosing the interest of the people and more importantly there money composers would begin to make music that was far different than what had been previously made. They would begin to make music similar to what Beethoven made. Beethoven made significant changes to music, but with out him the changes would still happen they would just happen a little later in the future. So in the end a Beethoven was inevadable.

In the begging it's clear that the instrumentation of the piece includes mostly chordophones (harpsichord,cello violin) as well as some areophones. The piece is instrumental with no vocal parts. The harpsichord plays the accompaniment while the areophone and other chorophones take turns playing the melody. The piece is major and has an andante tempo. It's duple simple (4/4) and can be herd in the harpsichord. The harpsichord part is made up of mostly repetition as it plays the same thing the whole time only changing a bit in a few places. The cello part also repeats acting as a Basso Ostinato.

The piece is in 4/4 time and has a moderator tempo. The piece is through composed with little repetition in the melody but some in the accompaniment. There is instrumental accompament, and a two melodies made up of two voices. The two different melodies create polyphony that exist throughout the whole piece except for a short part around 2:40 where the voices merge creating one melodie. There are dynamic changes throughout the entire piece especially in the voices.

Concert review

I personally believe the concert was a success because it showed everyone what we need to work to on. One of the first things we need is more practice with the band. During the performance we had trouble with some sections we normally do fine on because the addition of the band instruments made it confusing. The second thing is people need to look up more most people spent the song in there music. The other major issue I noticed was that most people missed the cords as well as the licked e.  So we need more practice with these sections so people know how to quickly move their fingers to hit the cords.

Josquin des prez

No instruments just vocals. Four main voices. All sing the same think but in a round, with the voices overlapping at more than one point. Not English, some other European language. Major and common time with a tempo that is slightly faster than andante. Conjunct motion in each individual voice it does not jump around. The final note is a chord.

Guillaume de Machaut listening journal

The piece is composed of cordophones, membraneaphones, and an aerophone. The membraneaphone is playing accompaniment along while the chordophone and aerophone takes turns playing melody with a voice. The piece has dynamic contrast when the melody switches between instrumental and voice. The instrumental section is forte while the voice is mezzo forte. The meter is 4/4 which you can hear in the membranaphone, and the tempo is moderato. The piece is disjunct in the instrumental section with the instrument jumping up and down in pitch. The voice on the other hand is conjunct building up rather than jumping. Since composer is Machaut we know it id from the middle ages. The piece is also not in Latin so it is likely not a religious piece, this is also supported by the large focus on instrumental melody. Based on the use of words like "douce" and "qu'en" the piece is likly being sung in french mixed with the instrumental and tempo it was likely the piece was made as a song to dance to rather than listen to in a religions gathering.

Medieval istrament analysis

The piece is homophonic with the bagpipes playing main melody throughout and with a ideophone that may be a tambourine as well as some sort of membraneophone playing accompaniment. The bagpipes throughout have a low pitch droning  noise playing underneath its melody. The melody itself does not have a large change in range, but the range it is in it jumps all around in changing pitch throughout. There is also a distinct buzzing to the sound caused by the reed of the instrument. The meter is not distinct at first but when the drum come in it is in 4/4. The song is also disjunct jumping around throughout. The song has dynamic and tempo changes throughout but for the most part the tempo is allegro.

Comparing Eras Part 2

Piece: Marcha Funebre
Composer: Frederic Chopin
Era: Romantic

The piece is a solo chordophone done on the piano. It is mostly homophonic with the top part playing melody and the bottom playing accompaniment. The piece  has dynamic contrast throughout ranging from piano to forte, it is also mostly conjunct building up or down but does contain a few disjunct moments in which it jumps or drops. It also has a distinct meter of 4/4 common time at a relatively slow tempo close to andante but slightly faster.

Comparing Eras Part 1

Piece: Requiem
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Era: Classical

The instrumentation of the piece consist of both male and female voices, as well as chordophones, a membranophone and aerophones. The piece has dynamic contrast changing in volume and tempo throughout. The meter is 4/4 for the most part, and the tempo varies from moderator to allegro. The piece has both conjunct and disjunct sections where it will ever build up than fall down, or jump up and down. The piece also has both polyphonic and monophonic sections.

Step 5: Communicating Your Discoveries

What makes the piece unique is its use of odd chords and lack of use of dominant chords. The piece alternate between tonic and pre-dominant notes throughout with out using any dominant chords. It's something I haven't scene before in the pieces we have studied and I find that it gives the piece a unique sound. The piece also uses some odd or unidentifiable chords, but this doesn't take away it still flows fluidly and sounds just as nice as if had used normal chords. The piece is also very similar to pieces we have studied it has a lot of elements that we have scene before. There are several passing tones between chords, as well as 6/4 chords. The piece also follows the rules we have been studying it avoids voice crossing and parallel movement. So although it does things that make it really unique it still follows the base rules we learned but mange to sound unique. My favorite about the piece is its repetition because it makes it memorable. Both the melody and accompaniment have several sections that it repeats that are easy to him and sound nice. Because it repeats so much it's easy to remember and I find my self humming it, that's my favorite part.

Step 4: Continued

The section I analysed is fairly simple progressing from tonic to predominant back to dominant. The composer also used several passing tones. They are the circled notes in the melody. He also follows what we learned avoiding parallel movement of 5th and 8th as well as voice crossing. the one odd this is some of the chords. Some chords on the piece are odd and don't really fit in they are the circled ones. Although they don't make since they still fit in when played. But the oddest chord is the dark circled one because  after trying to figure it out on my own and doing research it was completely unidentifiable.

Step 4: Harmonic/Cadence/Part writing Analysis

Step 3: Deciphering the score

p: piano, play softly
mp: mezzo piano, play slightly louder than piano
rit: ritardando, slow down
a tempo: return to original speed
mf: mezzo forte, play slightly quite than forte
accel: accelerate
cresc: crescendo, gradually become louder
f: forte, play loudly
dim: diminuedo, gradually soften
Fermanta: hold note
8va: octave, play an octave higher
fff: forteisisimo play even louder
quarter note= 64: 64 beats per minute
quarter note= 108: 108 beats per minute
quarter note= 64: 64 beats per minute

Step 2: Aural Analysis

Aria di Mezzo Carattere Aural Analysis


Aria di Mezzo Carattere was composed and released in 1994 by Nobuo Uematsu and Yoshinori Kitase as the second part of the fictional opera Maria and Draco from the game Final Fantasy VI.  The piece is duple simple time with a meter of 4/4, this can be heard in the main melody. The piece is homo-phonic with the top part of piano playing melody while the bottom acts as accompaniment to make a harmony. Most of the song is conjunct, with no large jumps happening. There are some parts in the middle of the piece where it moves upwards conjunction than becomes disjuncture to drop down and build back up. This also shows the wide range of the melody with it building up and dropping down. The piece has three major cadences one near the begging where it ends and the begins again with the music gains tempo and is played louder with the melody now playing higher up towards E. The piece than comes to a second cadence where it slows down for a bit before speeding up again and continues until the final cadence where the song ends. Lastly there is repetition throughout the song especially in the accompaniment where it plays the same rhythm repeated with slight variations throughout the majority of the piece starting after the first cadence.

Step 1: Selecting the Piece

Aria di Mezzo Carattere

I choose this piece because it's a piano solo that sounds nice and it was in one of my favorite video games. Plus it is not extremely complicated.