1.
Vocal music by Franz Schubert:
“Der Muller und der Bach”
a) E minor ✓
b) The chordal accompaniment sets the pace before the
vocalist’s part starts. ✓
c) Bass more baritone/tenor
d) Mostly by step ✓
e) Since that song depicts a dialogue between a miller and a
stream, the composer uses the change of tonality, tempo
and accompaniment✓ to characterize the stream. The tonality
✓
changes to E major, the tempo is a bit faster, the
accompaniment switches from chordal to arpeggiated ✓
(perhaps to imitate the sounds of the stream)
2. Instrumental music by Ludwig Van Beethoven:
5th Symphony, 4th movement
a) The opening of this piece is very solemn; there are all the
groups of instruments – strings, woodwind, brass and
✓
percussion (timpani). The tonality is C major, the
dynamics is fortissimo ✓(ff).
b) Brass ✓
c) Strings ✓
3. Film Music by John Williams:
The theme song from Superman
a) Trumpet ✓
b) The articulation of the theme is staccato (and probably
tenuto) ✓ and the melody is disjunct…
c) To enhance the orchestration Williams uses percussion
instruments (such as cymbals, triangles, drums and etc)
especially on stressed beats.✓ adds colour and excitement too
d) The second theme is played by strings, it’s a bit quieter
and has more legato articulation. ✓
e) The use of brass and percussion gives this piece a heroic
good
character as well as use of perfect consonances (perfect
fifth, octave and plenty of perfect fourths) yes! Fanfare type intervals like for royalty
4. Pop and Jazz by Rolling Stones:
“Paint it black”
a) Guitar, castanets and drums and a sitar!
b) The piece starts with a lyrical melody played by the
guitar in fact the sitar
c) Drum kit instruments are usedgood
throughout the song,
creating a rhythmic, pulsating beats, but during the
refrains the technique changes, more drums are added
and it adds more expression.
it’s actually quite narrow
d) The vocal line has a quite big range (it might be seen in
transitions to the refrains, where the vocalist makes a
leap). The melody moves by step, making leaps before
yes
refrains.
e) Since the black color is a constant for this song (the
main character sees the whole world in the black color)
– the melody also creates an image of a constant in the
form of repeating melody that constantly comes to the
note with which it begins – the first degree of F minor.
yes the tonality really affects the song
5. Fusions by Poncho Sanchez:
“Quindembo”
a) Jazz and Cuban music style (it reminds me a Latin dance
Mambo) yes
b) Jazz: syncopation ✓
Cuban music style: Afro-Cuban themes and rhythms ✓
c) Trombone ✓
d) The rhythms played in the backing group are energized and
bouncy, full of syncopations. ✓
e) The melody from 1 min 35 seconds sounds like a
spontaneous improvisation, it’s very lively and captivating.
yes
6. New Directions by Arnold Schoenberg:
Piano Concerto op.42
a) Piano ✓
b) In this piece Schoenberg used his famous twelve-tone
technique (dodecaphony); in that system there are no
✓
tonality (because all the tones are equal)
c) The orchestral instruments provide the background for
the piano, sometimes as if ‘enveloping’ the solo melody. ✓
Periodically, the orchestra’s replicas are imitating the
piano melody. good point
d) Since this music is atonal and dodecaphonic, it can be
assumed that it was composed after Romantic era, so it
might be early-mid 20th century. yes 1940s
Also the attention might be payed to the content of this
music. If during the era of Romanticism the content of
music was mostly about the personality and their own
emotions, feelings, then the music of the 20th century
mostly full of search for new harmonies and forms.
Lots of good listening points made here. Well done!
