World Music week 2- Oceania (sorry about the formatting)

Afterthought 2- 

1)There is a drone accompaniment in this composition. Is it ever silent?

No.

2)The title of this piece is ‘The Parrot’. Which aspect of the music do you think represents the parrot, and why?

I think it is the timbre that the instrument produces, which sounds like a parrot's voice.

3)Compare the rhythmic style of this melody with that of the aruding jaw’s harp

The rhythm is very consistent in the aruding piece, swinging between three beats in a bar to four beats in a bar. It is continuous, with no rests, whereas this melody (the Greek folk dance) stays with the same time signature and thus even though it does not have any rests either, it feels more relentless, because it keeps playing much more similar rhythms repeatedly. 

4)Contrast the texture of this ensemble music with the texture of dance music from Greece.

The texture of the aruding music is homophonic, because the jaw's harp and drums both have the same rhythms throughout. The Greek piece is polyphonic, because the backing instruments play the tonic notes of the chords that are based on the melody, although they have a similar rhythm.

Afterthought 4

Similarities and differences between the Rihe panpipe and the Rope female chorus:

Similarities:

Start on exactly the same note

Polyphonic

Drone

Occasional high notes (head voice/squeaks)

Constant tempo

Three performers/instruments, two with interweaving melodic lines, and one drone

Consistent

Narrow range in melody 

Definite ending

Breaks in the melody lines (rests)

Microtonal Differences: Rihe is staccato throughout,  Rope is legato throughout  In Rihe, drone has a rhythm, not just one long, sustained note

Music in East Asia

Afterthought 1:

1. Compare the tone quality of the Shakuhachi to that of the Turkish Ney.

The tone quality in the piece of Shakuhachi varies, but the piece is played on an aerophone and so there is an overall breathy sound, however this varies from relatively clear notes to much more breathy ones. There is no tonguing used, but rather at 0:47, the note is overblown, and so produces a tone that is very much like wind.
In the piece of Ney, the tone is also from an aerophone, however there are almost no overblown notes and most notes are pure, as opposed to the occasional breathiness in the Shakuhachi. However in places like 1:00, the note is slightly overblown, and so a slightly breathy tone results.


2. Compare this music with the Egyptian Arghul. What similarities/differences are there in terms of a) tempo, b) melodic range, c) use of rests and d) texture?

The piece of Arghul is much livelier than the other two, and has a much more distinct melody to it- whereas the other pieces have long, sustained notes throughout the majority of the piece, in this piece the melody (played on an aerophone seemingly similar to a bagpipe) has notes with much shorter durations, is much faster, and has a more singable tune. 
However the melodic range is quite small, just like the other two pieces, though it is slightly larger than the others. 
The piece uses rests in much the same way as the Shakuhachi, because it has them after every phrase. This is different to the Ney, which does not have rests, insofar as is possible (the performer only takes breaks for breath). 
The texture of the Arghul is more similar to that of the Ney, because they both have a melody accompanied by one single instrument (drums in the Ney and a drone in the Arghul). This is different to the texture of the Shakuhachi, which only has the one instrument which plays the melody.

Afterthought 6:

-Does the vocal tone quality of the male soloist remain similar over his whole range? In what kind of scale does he sing, and which notes of this scale seem the most important?

The vocal tone of the male singer (from 0:56) varies over his range. In the higher register, it sounds more desperate and passionate, and is louder. When he sings lower, the quality is similar, but it is quieter, perhaps because he is struggling to sing so low. 

He seems to be singing in a mode, however the most important notes seem to be the As and the Es (possibly the As are the tonic, or equivalent and the Es are the dominant, or equivalent, which would actually mean that this piece was in the equivalent of A major/minor, and not a mode at all).

-Compare the scale of this music with the scales used in the piece for qin and sizhu ensemble. 

The scale of this music seems to be tonal, however the scale is not obvious, whilst in the qin and sizhu ensembles have much more scale-focused melodies, and in the piece of qin, the melody uses a lot of step-wise movement, making the scale much clearer. In the sizhu this is also the case. The scales of the sizhu and qin seem to be major, whereas with the opera, it seems to be either minor or modal.

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. 

Music in China

Some Info:

• At least 7000 years old
• European music came into Chinese music at the turn of the 20th century and has remained
• Important role in ideology and social ethos- believed to enhance one's spiritual enlightenment and help people to eventually arrive at a harmonious world. This belief is called Confucianism.
• Instruments: 
• Chordophone- bowed or plucked string instruments, two strings, tuned in fifths: erhu or zhongu - lower pitched
• Pipa- four stringed lute
• Sanxian- long necked lute with a small sound box, three strings
• Yuequin- short necked lute, four strings arranged into two pairs, the pairs are tuned an octave apart from each other and within each pair is a fifth
• Yangquin- hammered dulcimer
• And many more...
• 20th century- Chinese orchestra was developed, modelled on the structure of the Western orchestra.
• Many regional traditions- this is the foundation of Chinese music. However, it is important to differentiate between regional music, which has been developed, and 'People's music', which is raw and not written down.

• 

  Music notation (taken from book)

  

  Chinese orchestra setup (taken from book)
  

  
  

Chopin Nocturne - Harmonic Analysis of Bars 1-16

For the purpose of this analysis, I will abbreviate Left Hand to LH and Right Hand to RH.

This piece begins in C minor, with the LH chords playing chords I, V, I, VI (for the first bar). This accompanies the RH which plays V and VI with the LH chords (G, A). In the second bar, the LH moves down to the subdominant note, B, and the RH moves down with it, back to the G (V). Then the LH has a chord V7, before moving back to the chord I that it had before, and an inverted chord I after that. On top of that, the RH plays a short motif that is based on D, the supertonic. This provides tension here, because it goes against the generally I and V pattern in the LH. Then in bar 3, the RH returns to the tonic, which would sound like a resolve, except the LH has chord VI, and so puts us into briefly into Am. Then the LH has chord IV and a chord consisting of F, C, and D. This goes with the RH playing a D, which is a suspension, because the RH then resolves down to C, and with the LH chord V that soon accompanies it, (along with the G that we then get in the RH), we are now back to the tonic in bar 4. Beat two of the bar is a chord of F, G and B, which is an inverted V7 chord in GM, and wants to resolve to CM, which we then get in beat 3 of the bar. In the right hand we get a neighbouring note with the A. This is followed by a chord V (E and G), creating an imperfect cadence for the end of the phrase. In bar 5 we have a 2nd inversion diminished Em chord, which is the mediant. This goes to a root position V7 chord in FM, the subdominant. If we look ahead at the next few chords in the LH, which are octaves of Bb, B, and C respectively, it becomes clear that we are moving chromatically up the keys in this section of the piece. Then in bar 7, the LH moves up a tone to D, providing a change to the chromaticism and reaffirming our interest. It is clear here that we are in D, because the RH plays a motif based on D, and then in the LH we get Ds and then F and A- a Dm chord. However the F# in the RH creates a dissonance which is only resolved when it goes to a G in the 3rd beat of the bar and we get a chord of GM. In bar 9, the LH moves down to Gb and then F, another example of chromaticism. In the next bar the RH flurries around the submediant and the subdominant, and under that the LH chords are VI, VI,  IV (minor- a borrowed chord), and back to I. In the next bar (bar 11), there are passing tones in the RH part between beats 1 and 2 (A and B), and there is an escape tone in beat 4 (C). In the LH we get another semi-chromatic pattern in the chords- leading tone, tonic, supertonic, mediant, with two V7s interspersed between them for interest. Then the LH begins to go back down, through the subdominant and mediant, then down to the tonic and the leading tone in the next bar. In the RH, beat 2 is a retardation, because it is a B, which wants to and then does resolve up to C (I). In the next bar the LH has a V7 chord which then resolves to Ic. In the next bar the LH has octave F's, and then the chord of F. Then it moves up to A, and then the chord of F again, which provides interest, but without changing the key, so that it remains in the subdominant, to remain there for the next bar.

Chopin- Nocturne op.48 no.1 in C minor (extract)

Chopin was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1810, and died in 1849. He is most famous for his piano works. This piece is a Nocturne, meaning that it was written for night-time parties. This can be heard in the slow and tired, but stately feel of the piece. It is also just written for piano, and we know that by the Romantic period pieces were being written just for single instruments (or at least, instrument and accompaniment).
The melody comes in right away, and throughout this extract, it moves mostly in small intervals, with some large intervals used to create drama and tension in various places. It is all legato, with pedal written in throughout the whole extract, to add an even more legato feel. The phrases are not easily distinguishable, as with most music that comes before it, and are not balanced or at all symmetrical. There is not much sequencing in the melody either, but one example is bars 3 and 4 in the right hand, where, although the rhythmic units are not the same, the intervals are very, very similar. In bars 5 to 8, we get a melody that is similar to the beginning, but altered slightly. The note values in the melody are very varied- everything from semibreves to crotchets to semiquavers to sextuplet semiquavers. This adds a great amount of interest to the piece because nothing about it is predictable (except that the left hand always has chords).
The accompaniment (left hand) plays chords throughout, to maintain the sense of key/tonality. Its chords are mainly based around octaves, with every other chord simply being an octave pattern. It keeps the beat, as it has a stable crotchet pattern. This helps the audience because from the melody, we cannot hear a clear four-crotchet-beat pattern (the piece is in 4/4).
As the piece goes along, the note lengths get shorter, meaning that the harmonic rhythm gets faster, thus the piece becomes more and more 'interesting' as it develops.
The texture in this piece is quite thin, because it only has the two hands on the piano in it.
The piece is in C minor, but being from the Romantic period, and being Chopin, there are a lot of accidentals put in for effect. The tonality seems to change in bar 9, when it goes major for a short while; This is because of the Db's that come in. However this does not last very long, and we soon return to the minor feel as the Db's are again naturalised. The tonality comes into question at bar 21, when the melody has a long chromatic section, with lots of accidentals. However then we are again brought into C minor, when the melody has two triplets, on the tonic and the dominant (C and G) and then finishes on C.


An inspiring quote from Chopin:
“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”
(http://www.biography.com/people/frédéric-chopin-9247162#synopsis&awesm=~oFJXxVESjN7bYm)
I think this is heard very clearly in this piece!

I used this recording by the great pianist Ashkenazi. The extract finishes at 2:22.

Trois Nouvelles Etudes- No.2 in AbM by Chopin: a look at Harmony/Tonality

I am currently studying this piece and think that it is wonderfully interesting in its use of harmony and tonality, because it seems to change its tonality (and at the very least, it's different harmonies) a lot. The piece was written in 1839, as part of a collection of pieces written as instruction for playing the piano.
The piece starts in AbM, but in bar 4 Gb's come in, and this lasts for 5 bars, putting it into DbM. It is immediately apparent that the piece has come into the subdominant key. Next however, the G's are again naturalised (middle of bar 8), so we go back to AbM. Then in bars 17 and 18, there are lots of accidentals which appear to change the key about- although many of the accidentals written are simply enharmonic equivalents of notes already in the key. Later, in bars 25-29, we get a passage where the key does change a lot, from Cm to C#m, to Dm, to D#m, and finally to Em. This chromatic section builds tension, up to the release when we arrive at Em- the dominant key. A bar later both the Db and the Ab are naturalised, putting us in BbM. A bar after that, the Eb is also naturalised, putting us in FM. Later we return to the A section of the piece (which starts in AbM and continues on to the aforementioned keys). For the end of the piece (bars 49-60), the piece returns to AbM, and apart from bars 51 and 52 where the Eb is naturalised, briefly giving a bit of interest but not altogether changing the key, we remain in AbM until the end.
As for the structure of the piece, the overall structure (macrostructure) is ABA (binary), and the microstructure is that both hands maintain their jobs throughout, with no overlap in what they do. The right hand has its chords played in a triplet rhythm from bar 1 to the end of the piece, whilst the left hand has quavers that directly go against the right hand rhythm, which have large intervals between each note, and more importantly, each pair of quavers.
There are very few dynamics written into my copy of the music (which is an Urtext edition), which indicates that Chopin did not include very many into the original. The only dynamics that there are are a  p at the very beginning of the piece, so that the beginning of the piece comes in very quietly, paving way for the rest of the piece's drama. The next, and final dynamic marking written in is a [f] in bar 29, this means that it is editorial, and Chopin probably didn't even want it written in. It comes directly after the massive chromatic build that we get in bars 25-28, thus emphasising that this part is the climax of the piece.


This is a performance of the piece by the amazing pianist Anthony Horowitz. (I love his use of voicing!)