Peer edit session

I finally got around to uploading the stuff from mine and Rhiannon’s peer editing session today! It was pretty productive; I got some good feedback but unfortunately she revised my second draft and my paper has definitely gone in a different direction since. Her concerns about my paper were suggestions about including visual musical examples in discussing Geshwin’s themes, as David Schiff does in his book. Since I am taking that section out of my paper, the only way something like this might be relevant is when I am comparing excerpts/chords from Gershwin’s piece to Ellington’s; however, I don’t have sheet music for Ellington and since it was an interlibrary loan, I already had to turn in the score I had been using of Rhapsody in Blue, so unfortunately I think the time in the recordings of these comparisons will have to suffice. She also mentioned some things about the Ellington section feeling out-of-place in the grand scheme of my Gershwin paper, but since I am focusing on the Ellington-Gershwin comparison, I don’t feel this will be an issue either. Otherwise, there were a few wording issues and stuff she pointed out which was helpful, but it was mostly just encouragement that my paper is sounding good so far. Woot!

April 27: Saariaho, Golijov, Adams, and Higdon

Kaija Saariaho: L’amour de loin: Act IV, Scene 3, Tempete (Storm) [NAWM 216]

• French opera
• begins with male, then chorus, then female, then male to close
• avoids tonality
• spectralist: shimmering sonorities and billowing masses of sound
• “all about color and light”
• emphasis on timbre over pitch as a large-scale structure feature

*

Osvaldo Golijov: La Pasion segun San Marcos: Nos. 24-26 [NAWM 217]

• passion

a) No. 24: Escarnio y Negacion [Scorn and Denial]

• upbeat fast paced samba with lots of percussion
• double chorus, then men and women alternate
• animal noises (rooster)

b) No. 25: Desgarro de la Tunica [Tearing of the Garment]

• arpeggiated piano/guitar ostinato
• begins with brass and “oohs” from chorus until end, very little text and very chordal
• very short

c) No. 26: Lua descolorida (Aria de las lagrimas de Pedro) [Colorless Moon (Aria of Peter’s Tears)}

• very slow
• woman’s voice begins with “oohs” but eventually sings text
• muted strings underneath
• sometimes simple, haunting character of a folk song; other times the vocal flourishes and improvisatory freedom of flamenco singing

*

John Adams: Doctor Atomic: Act I, conclusion, Batter my heart [NAWM 219]

• English opera
• orchestra characterized by rapid, continuous motion, ostinatos, gradual accretion of dissonance, and subtle changes of texture
• agitated effect with irregular syncopations embedded in layers of hemiola (2 over 3)
• lots of brass and percussion in instrumental “interludes;” soft accompaniment under voice such as dissonant strings

*

Jennifer Higdon: blue cathedral: Opening excerpt [NAWM 220]

• orchestral work
• begins with percussion bell sounds: vibes, crotales, celesta
• begins softly, evoking “floating through the sky” kind of images, builds gradually
• flute and clarinet solos, also violin and English horn

April 24: Gubaidulina, Schnittke, and Part

Sofia Gubaidulina: Rejoice! Sonata for Violin and Violoncello: First movement, Listen to the still small voice within [NAWM 213]

• sonata
• study in chromaticism, glissandos, tremolos, and harmonics
• introduces a series of gestures, then offers three variations on the same series of ideas, with four principal motives in violin: a leaping and pulsing figure, a neighbor-note figure, a tremolo glissando, and a pizzicato jumping figure
• cello, playing with intense vibrato throughout, traces a slowly moving, mostly chromatic line that gradually winds down two octaves

*

Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No. 1: Second movement, Toccata

• concerto
• for two violins, harpsichord (doubling on piano), and string orchestra
• first section uses Baroque ideas and material, in a fluttering quiet canon of strings which eventually adds more and more violins until a crescendo
• then violas and cellos begin their own canon
• piece is mostly dissonant strings

*

Arvo Part: Seven Magnificat Antiphons: Excerpts [NAWM 215]

• choral antiphons
• German

A) No. 1: O Weisheit

• SATB a capella choir (with each part divided into two parts)
• voices move together in pretty sustained chords

B) No. 6: O Konig aller Volker

• voices do not move together: altos do a chant-like countermelody all on the same note in constant quarter notes as the sopranos sing chords above and basses and tenors sing chords at different times

April 22: Sheng, Reich, and Adams

Bright Sheng: Seven Tunes Heard in China: No. 1, Seasons

• for solo cello
• uses Bach-like features: dancelike rhythms, double stops, motivic repetition, sequences, simulated polyphony
• mixed with the character and style of Chinese music: quick ornamental turns, slides between pitches, long held notes that crescendo with an intense vibrato

*

Steve Reich: Tehillim: Part IV

• for four solo voices and ensemble or chamber orchestra
• main melody has more skips and leaps than steps
• melody and counterpoints are diatonic
• singers doubled by wind instruments and organs, and strings play sustained diatonic but dissonant chords of five to seven notes
• meter is constantly changing in response to natural speech rhythms
• percussion rhythms articulate vocal notes but reflects the groups of two and three (sound like African drums to me)–also includes tambourine, maracas, crotales, vibraphone

*

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine [NAWM 211]

• orchestral fanfare
• almost constant percussion (woodblock) serving as metronome; other instruments play off this such as high brass in the beginning
• syncopations and irregular accents
• rapid ostinatos in clarinets, trumpets play repeated chords, flutes and oboes add quick filigree figures in the upper register, other percussion joins as well
• then brass, winds, and strings move in rhythmic unison at the entrance of strings and bassoons playing against the background of woodblock, clarinets, synthesizers, and percussion
• changes to lower woodblock, pulsing chords and ostinatos change every two measures
• woodblock drops out at end and three-part counterpoint begins with a quickly moving melody in trumpets, a slower line in horns and cellos, and a still slower bass line in trombones, tuba, contrabassoon, and contrabass

April 20: Cage, Varese, and Babbitt

John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata V [NAWM 203]

• suite for prepared piano
• sounds like a mix of African drums and tin cans because of the mutes between the strings
• right hand melody sort of goes up and down a few notes

*

Music of Changes: Book I [NAWM 204]

• chance composition for piano
• honestly just sounds like really random piano playing (notes, chords, etc.)

*

Edgard Varese: Poeme electronique [NAWM 206]

• electro-acoustic tape piece
• no score: piece composed out of sounds recorded on audiotape
• uses pure electronic sounds, nontraditional sounds such as sirens, and traditional sounds such as voice in new sonic environments
• sounds like scary electronic horror movie music

*

Milton Babbitt: Philomel: Section I [NAWM 207]

• monodrama for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound
• begins with an uncomfortable ringing and a woman’s voice singing “ee” along with some futuristic sort of electronic sounds
• then becomes more voice dominated as a woman, along with an eerie recording, sings in a high register (though there is also lots of odd high-low-high-low in the “melody”) about tears and trees and walking through the forest and other poetic stuff

April 17: Britten, Messiaen, Crumb, and Penderecki

Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes: Act III, Scene 2, To hell with all your mercy!

• opera
• English male voice accompanied by an echoing choir and instruments in the beginning, intense and angry; female voice comes in, and male sings again but softer
• generally spare instrumental accompaniment until interlude after dialogue about boat
• becomes a big chorus

*

Oliver Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time: First movement, Liturgie de cristal [NAWM 201]

• quartet for violin, clarinet, violoncello, and piano; translation Crystal Liturgy
• clarinet and violin each play stylized birdcalls–has a pulse but no clear meter
• cello and piano lay out complex patterns of duration and pitch that repeat in cycles: cello constantly repeats a five-note sequence in high harmonics using a pattern of fifteen durations; cycles in piano are a series of twenty-nine chords overlapping a rhythmic pattern of seventeen durations

*

George Crumb: Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land: Images 4 and 5

• electric string quartet
• explores various unique sounds produced by amplified strings
• includes percussion such as maracas, tam-tams, water-tuned crystal glasses, as well as vocal sounds such as clicking, whistling, whispering, and chanting
• in both images, the first three phrases of Dies irae alternate with contrasting material

A) Image 4: Devil-Music

• intense solo cadenza for first violinist: triple-stopped chords, pizzicato notes plucked by the left hand, and harmonics

B) Image 5: Danse macabre

• alternates material played by the second violin and viola with the phrases of the Dies irae in the first violin and cello
• second violin and viola lines rely heavily on pizzicato and other unusual effects, such as tapping on the viola with knuckles

*

Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima [NAWM 208]

• tone poem
• section one is made of high pitched dissonant clusters
• section two is varied texture of multiple sound effects in rapid succession
• section three is sustained tones and quarter-tone clusters linked with glissandos
• section four contains isolated pitches and various sound effects, in canon
• unison sound effects and clusters that lead to the final climactic chord make up section five
• written for 52 strings (24 violins, 10 violas, 10 cellos, and 8 double basses)
• sounds like scary horror movie music

April 15: Parker/Gillespie, Bernstein, and Persichetti

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie: Anthropology [NAWM 197]

• bebop tune and solo
• head in AABA
• Charlie Parker takes first solo, Dizzy Gillespie takes second, Bud Powell takes third, trade fours before head
• blistering pace characteristic of bebop, many syncopations and sudden stops, starts, and silences
• full of chromatic notes

*

Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story, Act I, No. 8, “Cool”

• musical
• jazzy; words in English; one of my most favorite musicals ever so there’s no way I’ll ever miss this one

*

Vincent Persichetti: Symphony for Band (Symphony No. 6), Op. 69: First movement, Adagio–Allegro

• symphony for band
• slow introduction and an Allegro in sonata form
• lots of percussion!
• themes are mostly diatonic, most chords based on thirds or fifths, changes of pitch collection and shades of greater or lesser dissonance create a sense of harmonic motion, tension, and resolution

April 13: Varese, Cowell, Crawford Seeger, Copland, and Still

Edgard Varese: Hyperism [NAWM 192]

• work for winds, brass, and percussion
• lots of percussion color including an instrument that sounds like a siren
• woodwinds and brass do not play themes and rarely melodies; instead they produce sounds that suggest static or moving sound masses… accents, glissandos, crescendos, sforzandos, flutter-tonguing, all constantly changing timbre
• avoids familiar chords/scales–tends to use notes that are next to each other in the chromatic scale but separated by on eor more octaves

*

Henry Cowell: The Banshee [NAWM 193]

• piano piece
• played directly on strings of piano

*

Ruth Crawford Seeger: String Quartet 1931: Fourth movement, Allegro possibile [NAWM 194]

• string quartet
• palindrome: second half is an exact retrograde of the first, transposed up a half-step
• texture: two contrapuntal lines
• begins with violin playing one note, then two, then three, all the way to twenty-one, gradually getting softer; pitches and rhythms chosen freely
• other three instruments begin at twenty notes, then nineteen, then eighteen, etc., gradually getting louder; lower instruments play only eighth notes and pitches generated by permutations of a ten-note series

*

Aaron Copland: Appalachain Spring, Excerpt with Variations on ‘Tis the Gift to Be Simple [NAWM 195]

• ballet suite
• uses dissonance, counterpoint, motivic unity, juxtaposed blocks of modernist sound, but also uses diatonic melodies and harmonies, transparent textures, direct quotations of folk or popular songs: evokes country fiddling, dancing, and singing and captures the spirit of rural America
• beginning section contain shifting meters, offbeat accents, and sudden changes of texture (Stravinsky-like); predominantly diatonic melodies and harmonies, syncopation, and guitarlike chords make the passage sound like American folk music
• well-known Shaker melody used in a later passage

*

William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony (Symphony No. 1): First movement, Moderato assai [NAWM 196]

• symphony
• blues melody (AAB form) and harmonic progression
• syncopations appear in both melody and accompaniment, phrases often end just before rather than on a strong beat
• call-and-response structure is echoed in the frequent interjections by other instruments between the short phrases of melody
• lowered fifth, third, and seventh scale degrees
• instrumental groupings similar to jazz bands: trumpets and trombones (with Harmon mutes), steady taps on the bass drum and dampened strikes on the cymbal, winds and brass used in groups of similar sound, use of a vibraphone
• second theme has pentatonic contours of a spiritual
• becomes swung

Pattern 18

1. The skateboarders’ tricks thrilled me, all of them dangerous and exciting.

2. The lion tamer entered the cage, his demeanor serious and concentrated.

3. Their faces focused, the ice skaters entered the rink to finally live their dream performing in the Olympics.

4. The sounds of the airports–jets humming, people bustling about, the public address system spewing constant ignored announcements–suggest the excitement, frustration, and chaos of the place.

5. The guitarist’s hands moved over the strings, his right hand strumming, his left hand delicately switching chords.

April 10: Prokofiev and Shostakovich

Sergey Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78: Fourth movement, Arise, ye Russian People [NAWM 188]

• cantata (film score)
• brief clamorous orchestral introduction establishes a mood of fervency with conflicting rhythmic pulses, orchestration that suggests trumpet calls and pealing church bells, and a harmonic clash between the winds and brass and strings
• modernism such as implied polytonality, double chromatic neighbors in the trumpets, and glissandos in the xylophone
• homorythmic choral writing with two lines: sopranos and tenors present melody, altos and basses provide a supportive counterpoint; orchestra reinforces accents in chorus; choral melody and harmony are diatonic

*

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Op. 47: Second movement, Allegretto

• symphony
• scherzo
• Mahler’s influence can be heard in the orchestration, the jarring contrasts of mood, the occasionally satirical tone, and the use of counterpoint
• vigorous, rather awkward, and tonally ambiguous melody in the low strings at the beginning of the movement introduces a number of motives that will be incorporated in later thematic ideas, such as the rising scale and the repeated notes
• rowdy fanfare
• trio begins with elegant waltz played by a solo violin and accompanied by a harp and pizzicato cello