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
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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
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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
Paige's Music History Blog 