Bela Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances

Bartok was a 20th century composer who collected Folk music from around Hungary, his home country. He used this folk music as influence to much of his work, and we can hear this in this piece. One way in which we can hear this influence is in the lively, charismatic mood of the movements. Even in the third movement, which is much slower and quieter, we still hear a strong accompaniment that is comprised of intervals of a 5th and the occasional augmented fourth (D and G#, for example). The interval of a fifth is considered the strongest interval in music, and dates back to medieval organum (for the Western Classical tradition). We get a very similar thing in the next movement, whereby it is another slow, quiet movement, but the accompaniment is comprised of strong intervals (major 6ths, minor 6ths, and many perfect 4ths). The fifth movement is lively again, with more chordal perfect 4ths and major and minor 6ths in the accompanying part. The final movement also has a chordal accompaniment, with yet more perfect fourths and some perfect fifths. The piece ends with a chord of a perfect fifth in the melody and octave C#s in the accompaniment- the tonic note. We can see therefore that Bartok uses chordal accompaniment for all the movements of this piece, which gives a bold character to them, a feature that is very much in line with the tradition of Hungarian folk music.

Video

'Masterpiece'- Information on the musical periods through an analysis of this piece

Features of the Renaissance Period

• Mass/Motet + Secular songs
• Lute songs
• Modal
• Polyphonic textures
• Decorated suspensions

Features of the Baroque Period

• Fugal
• Melismatic melodies
• Beginning of diatonic harmony
• Imitation
• Conter-melodies
• Stretto
• Augmentation/diminution
• Pedal notes
• Decorated suspensions
• Fanfares
• Homophonic/polyphonic textures
• Terraced dynamics

Features of the Classical Period

• Appoggiatura
• Alberti bass
• Regular/periodic phrasing
• Conjunct/stepwise melodies
• Melody dominated homophony
• Chromaticism
• Contrasts
• Dotted rhythms
• Tonality
• Emergence of rubato
• Expressive melodies
• Huge dynamic contrasts
• Accents

Features of the Romantic Period

• Cantabile
• Triplet motion
• Hemiola effect
• Greater use of dissonance
• Waltz emerges

Features of the 20th Century

• Wagner- 'total art'- very dramatic, huge orchestra
• Modality returning
• Impressionism
• Use of the whole tone scale
• Parallel harmonies
• Influence of popular music on Classical music - crossover
• Experimental electronic music

Charpentier Section B Style Response Attempt #2

Charpentier was a French composer from the Baroque period. We know this because of the figured bass ("Basso"), played on the lute, that underpins the work. This was used a lot in the Baroque period. There is also the fact that the accompaniment of the piece is string-dominated, not only by the usual violins, but also includes the use of a lute. This prominence given to stringed instruments was introduced in the Baroque period. We can also hear the use of diatonic harmony (the piece is in F# minor, which is emphasised by the Basso playing an octave leap of two F#s in the very first bar, which it continues to do throughout the piece, for example in bars 5, 9 and 13, and also the fact that the violins' melodies land on A, the mediant note of the key, in bars 5 (1st violin) and 9 (2nd violin), which pulls to the tonic). This is probably a Motet, as it is religious (which we can hear in the Latin text, that refers a lot to 'dominum', the master), and it does not include the Mass text, so cannot be from a Mass. It also puts emphasis on the text as it is very syllabic, and so we can hear the words clearly, a common feature of a Motet.
In the opening part of the piece, we get strict imitation by the 2nd violin of the 1st violin. This creates a canon in these first 12 bars. If we look at the melody itself, it is comprised of 4 bars of sequencing, followed by 2 bars of conjunct quaver movement with a wave contour, then a bar where the tonal centre of the piece (F#) is emphasised, because the instrument plays only octave F#s. This is then followed by one bar consisting of the F#, which sustains the clear tonal centre, then a G that is the diminished supertonic of the key, and pulls into the perfect cadence that is comprised of the E# (the leading tone) and finally the F#, the tonic. At bar 13, the 1st violin plays another sequence that starts on A (the mediant note), and thus pulls down to the F# that we get in the third bar of the sequence (bar 15). This sequence is slightly syncopated by the violins (they put emphasis on and hold the quavers that fall on strong beats of the bar (2 and 3)), which is a stylistic feature of the Baroque period.