Final Project Continued...
Piece: Fifth Symphony First movement, Allegro con brio; Uploaded by smalin 2009
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Date: early 1800s Melody: regular phrase Tempo: Allegro Harmony: Minor Dynamics: mixed Texture: Homophonic Instrumentation: Full Orchestra Form/Style: Sonata Form Discussion: The first movement is in the traditional sonata form that Beethoven inherited from his classical predecessors, Haydn and Mozart. It starts out with two dramatic fortissimo phrases, commanding the listener's attention. Beethoven uses imitations and sequences to expand the theme, these imitations tumbling over each other with such rhythmic regularity that they appear to form a single, flowing melody. Who hasn’t heard this song before? This song is a great example of Beethoven’s genius. I love how he makes the whole thing seem like a single flowing melody. One thing I can say negatively about this song is that it is fairly repetitive. That may make other people unhappy, but I think that it is very important to the development of the overall theme. |
Fifth Symphony First movement, Allegro con brio by Beethoven
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Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st movement, Allegro by Mozart
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Piece: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st movement, Allegro; Youtube uploaded by Fusculin 2007
Composer: Mozart Date: late 1700's Melody: regular phrases Tempo: Allegro Harmony: Major Dynamics: piano to Forte Texture: Homophonic Instrumentation: String Orchestra Form/Style: Sonata Allegro Discussion: As part of the name of the piece implies it is fast and lively. A straight forward Sonata-Allegro from with the exposition repeated and a short development section. The performance had two dynamics there was a decrescendo to piano and then with the repeat of the exposition went back to forte. In the exposition the violins played very staccato to keep a nice moving beat. The performance was also very light and airy giving you that happy major feeling. I personally enjoyed this piece as well. I was surprised that this was a live video. This goes to tell you how good their performance was. Although I typically don’t like orchestras that are heavy on the violin, I didn’t mind them in this piece. I felt the emotions that the performers were trying to display in their music, a nice happy warm feeling. |
Piece: Lincoln Protrait; uploaded by willworkforwages 2011
Composer: Copland Date: 1942 Melody: melodic fragment Tempo: mixed Harmony: major Dynamics: mixed Texture: homophonic Instrumentation: full orchestra Form/Style: Tone poem Discussion: The work involves a full orchestra, with particular emphasis on the mostly brass section at climactic moments. During the climatic sections they were drawn out by a coda, that was just the perfect length. The work is narrated with the reading of excerpts of Abraham Lincoln's great documents, including the Gettysburg Address. The particular version that I choose to listen was narrated by Katharine Hepburn. It was interesting how they interweaved the dialoged with the music. Personally I didn’t really like it. I prefer my musical pieces to be all instrumental or have constant narration, not a hybrid. The narration was very inspiring, however. I did really like the brass climaxes, it did a great job at emphasizing the importance of the narration. |
Lincoln Protrait by Copland
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Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance by Stravinsky
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Piece: Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance; uploaded by getupmorning 2009
Composer: Stravinsky Date: 1913 Melody: short phrases Tempo: allegro Harmony: minor Dynamics: mixed Texture: homophonic Instrumentation: full orchestra Form/Style: Piece Discussion: Woodwind and muted trumpets are prominent throughout the introduction, which ends with a number of rising cadences on strings and flutes. All the instruments played very staccato and kept with a minor tonality. Most of the piece was forte, however; in some parts to build tension was bumped down to a piano. I thought it was interesting the way the violins at 4:42 would tap their bows to the strings of the violin, it defiantly helped to build the atmosphere of a sacrificial ritual. After going on Wikipedia to find out the story of this song I appreciated it a lot more. At first though I wasn’t very fond of it, it seem to me to chaotic. I’m sure that if you listened to the entire piece, not just this section, it would have been more enjoyable. That leads me to my last critique I didn’t like how the song ended it seemed to me like it was just noise. |