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.