Tonight I attended the premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, op. 25. This piece was well- received by most of the audience. Schoenberg is able to mix traditional forms with more modern harmonies, such as atonality and extreme chromaticism. Due to its lack of tonality, Schoenberg’s music can be disorientating at first, but after analyzing the scores, it becomes easier to understand. In order to give the listeners something familiar to grasp on to, he uses ideas and motives from past composers such as developing variation, passacaglia, and impressionist content. The full title of this piece translates as, “three times seven poems from Albert Giraud’s Pierrot lunaire.” This piece is scored for a speaker and five musicians. The use of these varied instruments adds a certain kind of color to the piece. This piece …show more content…
However, there is usually a hint of a “tonic” region through the emphases of certain motives at the beginning of the song with a restatement. This combination of pitches used in the beginning parallels the return to a tonic, imitating tonal music. This piece uses Brahms’ method of developing variation and canons. Although atonal harmonies can be confusing to the untrained ear, Schoenberg uses familiar motives to help guide the listener. No. 8 Nacht (Night) is about Pierrot seeing giant black moths casting gloom over the world and hiding the sun. The motive is a rising minor third followed by a descending major third that continually reappears in various ways. The first three notes are E-G-E flat which then forms a melody in G-B flat-G flat, which then forms a melody with B flat-D flat-A. The first note of each of the groups then builds another statement starting on that same note. In the end, you get six intertwined statements that appear in the first three measures. This three-note motive happens throughout the entire piece through different inversions and
The piece opens with a series of quick, fiery chords spanning almost the entire range of the piano, followed a by light staccato section in a scherzo style. The mood then changes with a long lyrical section, before fragments of the vigorous rhythmic opening section return and bring the music to a darker section that also echoes the theme of Rhapsody No. 2. The second half of the piece re-uses the melody of the lyrical section, only transposed up by a fourth, which provides a bigger contrast to the previous dark section.
A cosmopolitan composer, John Dowland’s music displays elements of his Italian contemporaries madrigal style through his use of chromaticism in the lute songs.
Albertine Zehme, who commissioned the monodrama and was the reciter at its first performance, had been performing twenty-two of Hartleben’s Pierrot poems in her own three-part arrangement – the first part dealing with relatively happy poems, the second with a dark series of “lurid and erotic nightmares,” and the third with images of death. Schoenberg, in crafting his own Pierrot lunaire, “…retained some elements of Zehme’s narrative progression from lightness, to darkness, to death, but he transformed them into a personalized narrative of the plight of the artist in society.” In selecting his twenty-one poems, the composer carefully omitted any that dealt with daylight (except, significantly, the fi...
Poetry is literature in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive form, style, and imagery. The meaning of a poem can be intensified by deliberate use of the different elements of poetry. In this paper, I will use three poems we have discussed in class to explore how the villanelle form, personnification, and ekphrasis each contribue to deepen the meaning of their respective poems. One poetic structure that exhibits how form contributes to meaning is the villanelle.
Although Brahms' Symphony no. 3 is entitled to be in the F major, the first movement opens with a dramatic three-chord motif (F-Ab-F) in the minor. It then transitions to the official F major and following the vigorous opening, this primary motif theme, measure number three to fourteen, continues with an energetic momentum that characterizes much of the symphony. The secondary theme is then introduced in the development in the A major, which sets a lighter tone. The theme is explored and developed throughout with frequent modulati...
Mozart’s use of melodic contour and repetitive rhythmic motives make this piece feel very connected throughout. He begins with a two eighth note followed by two quarter note pattern. This pattern is repeated twice more until finally at measure four a new melodic and rhythmic motive is introduced. At measure four a retardation occurs using a half note to delay the resolution to the quarter note, drawing out the resolution as much as possible to create a sense of relief upon arrival. This pattern of three measures of motive “A” followed by...
At the end of the century, Bloch began to exploring the Franco-Belgian approach to his composition. The Franco-belgian is characterized by elegant and refined melodic contours and harmonic support and cyclical treatment as a means of attaining structural unity in essentially rhapsodic creations. Works of his such as Poème Concertante and Concerto reflect this style. Bloch’s evident preference in these works for frequent instrumental solos as opposed to large blocks of sound indicates a shift to the French...
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
This section will compare the quantity of musical qualities used in Arcadelt, Marenso and Gesialdo’s music to demonstrate how the complexity of word painting grew throughout the sixteenth century. Often times the lyrics of pieces affected the madrigalists’ choice of musical qualities they used to convey the text in a piece. Word painting in Arcadelt’s Il bianco e dolce cigno is demonstrated through his use tonality. In mm. 1-15 the text says,“The white and gentle swan dies singing, and I, weeping, approach the end of my life.” Immediately at the beginning of the piece we experience the major feeling key that portrays the euphemism of the swans death, which signifies climaxed love. This is emphasized even further in measure m. 15 with the strong V-I cadence of the four voices in F major, setting the piece in a happy tone. This compares to Solo e pensoso in that they both use tonality as a musical quality but Marenzo uses the contrast between major and minor
This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
A peer to such keyboard greats - such as Rubenstein, Thalberg, and Liszt - Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a brilliant pianist and composer. Carrying a career which extended over sixty years, Schumann contributed a great deal of repertoire to the world of Lieder. Much like her performing technique, her compositions were famous for carrying a beautiful tone and poetic temperament. In analyzing Clara Schumann’s Liebst du um Schönheit, one can cultivate an understanding of Schumann’s compositional techniques, as they are implemented in the style of German lieder.
The poem uses many literary devices to enhance the meaning the words provide. The poem starts at the beginning of the story as the moon comes to visit the forge. The moon is said to be wearing “her skirt of white, fragrant flowers” (Lorca 2) as its bright light penetrates the scene. The poem states “the young boy watches her, watches. / The young boy is watching her” (3-4). The repetition of the phrase emphasizes the young boy’s infatuation with the moon. The scene is set with intensity by the phrase “electrified air” (5) and a tense feeling is brought into the poem. As “the moon moves her arms” (6), she is given traits of being alive and having her own human qualities. Personification of the moon into a woman exemplifies the desire that the child would have for the woman, and creates a more appealing form for the moon to appear as. The child cries, “flee, moon, moon, moon” (9) with urgency, showing his concern for her. He warns her “they would make with your heart / white necklaces and rings” (11-12). This refers back to the metaphor that the moon is made of hard tin, but still personifies her by giving her a heart. The moon is additionally personified when she says “ young boy, leave me to dance”(13). She has now taken the form of a sensual and erotic gypsy dancer furthering the desire of the young boy. This brings Spanish culture to the poem because gypsies are known to travel throughout Spain. The mo...
“Litany” is a poem inspired by a quote from Jaques Crickillon, this free verse poem describes the feeling of a man to a girl with the use of nouns. This poem has two different tones during its development, a serious tone and a mockery tone, that change from stanza to stanza, for example the first stanza using a metaphor compare the nature with the beauty of the woman, Crickillon express “you are the dew on the morning grass/ and the burning wheel of the sun.”(7-8). Also, the speaker in this poem change the traditional love poem of portray a woman or lover by focused on what the woman is not in the second stanza, in this lines the author is making fun. Nevertheless, the readers shock when the speaker admits that he is he is not like her, in the sixth stanza, the shooting star and paper blowing represent that how unpredictable the men is .
My composer is known as an influential minimalist and has written a variety of works such as opera, musical theater, symphonies, chamber music, and film scores and much more. This composer’s identity is none other than Philip Glass. The major focus in this paper are to give a moderately brief background on Philip Glass, examining his style of music along with how others view it and describe one of Philip Glass’s musical pieces. The background or bio about Philip Glass has information primary associated with events surrounding his career. When we reach examining Philip Glass’s style of music, people’s opinions on his music and who he sounds similar too is discussed. The final part of paper basically discuss one of Philip Glass’s works and how it serves as an example to his other music.
The music accompaniment to this piece comes from one or two pianos which work in almost perfect collaboration with the dance so that neither one overshadows the other. While no other instruments are used, the melody of the piano changes from scene to scene in order to depict Jooss’ emotional responses. During the scenes with the politicians, the air of the piano is light-hearted and almost comedic. The purpose of this was to show the detachment of these men from the war. They are in a safe situation, unexposed to war and death. When the scene changes and we see what’s happening in the lives of citizens, this vaudeville-like tune is transformed into a thunderous and eerie song that haunts the audience. The reason for this change is to reveal Jooss’ feelings about the unnecessary brutality and death that always comes with a war, and how politicians don’t understand the horror of it.