Analyze what you hear in this extract in terms of relevant:
Musical features: such as (but not limited to), harmony, melody, rhythm, instrumentation
Structural features: such as (but not limited to) form, phrases, motifs, texture
Contextual features: such as (but not limited to) style, time, culture, geography, history.
Be sure to use accurate musical terminology.
Listen to example
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This song contains many important musical elements. The instrumentation includes the following: a piano, a flute, and a violin. These serve as the background for the soprano singing. The piano begins the song, with a drastically disjunct melody. The chords are full of dissonance, creating an eerie feel and developing the minor tonality of the song. The piano also introduces the instrumental theme of the song. It is later repeated by the flute and the violin. The texture is clearly polyphonic, with the voice and instrumentation developing separate melodic lines. The instruments develop the steady rhythm of the song so that the soprano has more rhythmic freedom in this quasi-operatic sounding piece. The harmony is interesting because each instrument seems to overlap the other as well as the voice, giving off a feel of competition among the instruments and the voice.
The structure of this piece can be described as A-B-C--this is especially noticeable when listening to the instrumental parts. The piano introduces the one-measure theme that is repeated exactly for four measures and then varied when the flute is introduced.
***Ah i'm not done! :O I have to go now but I will finish later tonight after the concert.
**And sorry it's under my gmail instead of pvlearners
This piece seems to be of Germanic origin according to my familiarity with the language.
This song also seems to be a folk song of that origin as it is highly dramaticized in its performance.
This piece consists of four parts: a female vocalist, a violin, a piano, and a flute. This piece is composed in a rather high register as all three parts are rather high. The piano and flute play an underlying melody together as the vocalist sings her part. The piano plays an introductory four-note descending, repeating phrase that is continued for a duration of the piece. The flute itself plays a conjunct melody that is wavelike and flowing. The same descending phrase that the piano played is repeated by the flute. The violin plays a separate developing line as well during the piece in correlation with the flute and piano in a polyphonic harmony that accents the vocalist's words. The vocalist sings almost in singspiel or spoken words throughout the songs and her singing is rather choppy as to mimick human speech. This definition of singspiel correlates with the fanatical nature of this piece as singspiel often relates to magical creatures of fantasy and although I do not know what the person is saying, I infer this to be the nature of the work. During the piece there is a shift in the tone as the piano plays heavier and the piece takes on a darker tone accentuated by the vocalist's tone. The piano repeats a chord pattern as the vocalist shouts her singing. This section dies down partially to where the example ends.
A series of descending chords, it serves as the instrumental foundation of the piece. The flute takes over the piano's theme when it is introduced in the song; likewise, this happens with the violin as well. The voice, although accompanied by instruments, is very independent throughout the piece. The soprano clearly develops her own words and story while the instruments play their own melody.
I would suppose that this piece is of German origin--and perhaps from a German opera. With the severe disjunction and dissonance of the song, it is most likely from the late 19th or early 20th century, when such musical styles were popular. The soprano's speaking interwoven with a voice of verbrato is a style conducive to an opera, which I suppose it is.
This song begins with a pleasant collection of piano notes, and at first it seems to have a mysterious and whimsical theme. However, this theme quickly changes as the dynamics increase and the notes become absurd and random. The polyphonic sound is created by the variety of different notes and music lines that can be heard throughout the song. The music itself seems to overpower the voice of the singer, which follows along in the background. Dissonance is created by the chromatic scale, giving the song a scary and unruly sound. It sounds like something that would come out of a tragic and odd scene in a movie. The gradual increase in dynamics plateaus toward the middle of the song, before it dwindles down again at its finish. The use of the distinct piano notes accompanied with the flute also helps to create this strange piece. Added with these two instruments, the violin provides the base of smooth and legato notes that can be heard beneath the disjunct and unpleasant sounds. The rhythm varies slightly with the entrance of the soprano’s voice and the violin. The language of the vocalist is clearly German, making me believe that this is a piece of German folk opera typical of the older era. Overall, this song is a very interesting piece that helps to display the sometimes strange characteristics of German music.
The musical piece that we listened to in this blog is of German origin, maybe Singspiel opera which is German opera that has spoken dialogue. At first, the song creates the mysterious and creepy mood that is supported by the composer's use of dissonance and the chromatic scale. Also, the piece is of polyphonic texture through the use of the flute, the piano, the violin, and the voice part. The piano part at different times within the song play descending scales that create the memorable tessitura. Also, throughout all the different parts, there is conjunct stepping with few disjunct intervals in the voice part. An aspect of this piece that should be noted is that when intense moods are created throughout the song the tempo increases along with the volume in crescendos, but when the mood calms down, you can distinctly hear diminuendos and decrescendos. As a whole, the song is about adagio is tempo with a few times where the tempo becomes andante. Also, the volume is at about a mezzoforte maybe even a little softer. This German piece contributes many characteristic elements of German opera.
This song uses many different musical techniques within its composition and presentation. The tempo of the song is varied. In the beginning, it is slow and progresses to a faster tempo as the feeling of the song is rushed during the introduction of the voice. The texture of the song it polyphonic with the use of the piano, voice, violin, and flute. (There is also a sound of a drum in the background, especially in the beginning.) The different additions of the instruments help develop the minor tone and overall feeling of the song as well as creating a distinctly dissonant sound with not only the chords in the piano, but also with the voice of the soprano and the fluttering flute notes. The tempo of each instrument is different. The piano begins with a steady tempo, but when the soprano voice is at its most dramatic, the piano chords are varied in rhythm that leads to a faster tempo. The flute contains the melody for most of the duration of the song. It has occasional fluttering notes to produce not only a higher pitch to contrast with the lower-noted chords in the piano, but also to develop a fantasy feeling for the audience.
Many notes are staccato, especially in the piano chords, when the voice is more legato and rounded. This pairing allows for a very technical contrast. The different articulation and musical notation contributes to the overall "opera-sounding" musicality of this piece.
I also noticed that throughout this piece, there was a definite repetition of the beginning and ending piano notes. The descending cadences repeated 4 or more times during this piece. This reptition allowed for a similar pattern of melody on which the voice could develop. And, it also created a similar exposition and conclusion to the song.
As for the origin of this piece, the language used leads the listener to believe that it is of the German origin. It also is a dramatic piece, almost of an opera genre. And, the overall feeling grasped from this piece is significant in that it displays not only musical technicality, but also another culture and origin for which an audience can enjoy.
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