Listening- Anonymous audio file

•First impressions

•What stands out? Any experiential associations?

•Timbre; medium? Type/how many? Aural colour? Classification?

•Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics (form, texture etc…)

•Context?

 My first impressions of this piece were that it is played by some sort of flute (or aerophone), is monophonic, as it only has one voice/part, and that there are different ways in which the flute is played, for example producing a more airy sound in places and clearer notes in others. The piece sounds as though it is from somewhere in the Eastern part of the world, and possibly Japan, due to the calm, zen-like nature of the piece, which I have often experienced in Japanese music. Something that really stands out in the piece is the use of silence between musical ideas, or phrases. This is possibly to emphasise the peaceful nature of the peace, or could be to indicate phrases. The piece seems to follow a microtonality, and it's tonal centre seems to be the Eb, as it keeps returning to it.

The piece begins with a fanfare-like first note, which fades and then comes again, getting faster and faster. Then a new, semitonally higher note comes in, and soon returns to the original note. Next a new, simple melody comes in, which includes the airy playing I mentioned earlier. The melody is based around the Eb, however it does not finish on this note, but rather a note a tone below it. The dynamics of the piece do not seem to vary much; it starts of at about mf and also has moments of pp, mp and p, with the use of crescendos and diminuendos.