Teacher's Score: 9/10
Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun" is a symphonic poem (tone poem) by Claude Debussy. It is written in 1894. It has a form of loose ternary (ABA'). It is performed by strings (violins, violas, cellos, double basses, harps), woodwinds (flutes, oboes, clarinets, English horns), brass (French horns) and percussion (antique cymbals, which is the only percussion in the piece). It is inspired by a Symbolist poem by Stephane Mallarme. In this poem, a faun (a mythological creature half man, half goat) awakes in the woods and tries to remember if he was visited by by 3 lovely nymphs or is it all a dream, but he falls asleep again before he can remember. It is Debussy's first orchestral work. It sounds relaxed and dreamlike which is a result from a lack of accent and Inpressionism.
A is very moderate (tres modere) and in 9/8 time. The key is four sharps-it suggests E+ but doesn't settle in any key. It opens with a lyrical melody in the flute which is accompanied by muted strings. A glissando (a rapid slide through the notes of a scale) on the harp is followed by a dialogue in the horns.
B is growing lively (en animant) in 3/4 time. The key in this section is 5 flats-suggests D flat major. Clarinets play a more animated leading to a rhythmic figure in the cello. This is followed by another part, which is the same tempo and very sustained (meme mouvement et tres soutenu). A solo oboe introduces an impassioned, contrasting theme in woodwinds and strings with syncopated rhythms that lead to an ff climax. The first section (A) returns, this time altered-antique cymbals are heard, and muted horns and violins play blue chords. The work dissolves into silence, having used under 10 minutes to play.
Teacher's Comments:
- Define symbolic poem
- What era?
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Debussy
Teacher's Score: 8/10
Claude Debussy was born at St. Germain-en-Laye (France) in 1862. His father was a china shop owner and his mother was a seamstress. He began piano lessons at age 7. At age 11, he entered the Paris Conservatory. There, he shocked the professors with bizarre harmonies that went against the rules, though he received many gold medals there. His teachers included Antoine-Francois Marmontel for piano, Emile Durand for harmony and Ernest Guiraud for composition. At age 22, he won Prix de Rome with his cantata L'enfant Prodigue. He went to Villa Medici of Rome, but didn't like it there, so soon, he went back to Paris and was employed as a piano teacher for the family of Nadezhda von Meck. He was also a music critic for Revue Blanche, an artistic journal published in Paris.
1890-1900 was the most productive decade of Debussy's life. In this decade, he produced the opera Pelleas et Melisande. It premiered in Opera-Comique in 1902, but was attacked as decadent, and lacking in melody, form and substance. However, it made an impression, and Debussy was now famous. In 1899, he married his first wife Rosalie ("Lilly") Texier who he later left. Ten years later he married Emma Bardac. The had one daughter, Claude-Emma ("Chou-Chou") and Debussy wrote his "Children's Corner" piano suite for her. But in 1914, World War I struck, and Debussy lost all interest in music. However, in 1915, he realized that music could make the army cheerful and happy, so he had a small burst of music from 1914 to 1918. He died of cancer just prior to the end of World War I.
Debussy is one of the most important French composers of the early 20th century. He was a true Impressionist-he had pieces that evoked images of Impressionist painting (widely spaced melodic lines and light and airy texture). Some individual instruments stand out against the orchestra (ex. in Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"). The Paris World Exhibition in 1889 inspired Debussy's interest in non-Western music and instruments especially Asian music-he used the pentatonic scale, unusual timbres, and textures in several piano preludes. He created a new piano style-it had contrast of high and low registers-it had contrast of high and low registers, a blending sound through the use of pedal, a clash overtones, and a parallel succession of widely spaced chords. He established the French song as the national art form-he based many of his works on Symbolist poems such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Pierre Louys, and Stephane Mallarme. He broke many musical rules-he was one of the first composers to break away from the major-minor system, using instead patterns such as the whole tone scale, the pentatonic scale, modes, parallel 5ths and octaves, "floating" chords (chords from different keys used without modulation) and pedal point (Debussy resolves to a weird note, such as the supertonic).
Teacher's Comments:
- Define Impressionism
- Which era is this composer in?
- Last sentence: do not say weird, say unconventional or unexpected
- Compositional titles and genres?
Claude Debussy was born at St. Germain-en-Laye (France) in 1862. His father was a china shop owner and his mother was a seamstress. He began piano lessons at age 7. At age 11, he entered the Paris Conservatory. There, he shocked the professors with bizarre harmonies that went against the rules, though he received many gold medals there. His teachers included Antoine-Francois Marmontel for piano, Emile Durand for harmony and Ernest Guiraud for composition. At age 22, he won Prix de Rome with his cantata L'enfant Prodigue. He went to Villa Medici of Rome, but didn't like it there, so soon, he went back to Paris and was employed as a piano teacher for the family of Nadezhda von Meck. He was also a music critic for Revue Blanche, an artistic journal published in Paris.
1890-1900 was the most productive decade of Debussy's life. In this decade, he produced the opera Pelleas et Melisande. It premiered in Opera-Comique in 1902, but was attacked as decadent, and lacking in melody, form and substance. However, it made an impression, and Debussy was now famous. In 1899, he married his first wife Rosalie ("Lilly") Texier who he later left. Ten years later he married Emma Bardac. The had one daughter, Claude-Emma ("Chou-Chou") and Debussy wrote his "Children's Corner" piano suite for her. But in 1914, World War I struck, and Debussy lost all interest in music. However, in 1915, he realized that music could make the army cheerful and happy, so he had a small burst of music from 1914 to 1918. He died of cancer just prior to the end of World War I.
Debussy is one of the most important French composers of the early 20th century. He was a true Impressionist-he had pieces that evoked images of Impressionist painting (widely spaced melodic lines and light and airy texture). Some individual instruments stand out against the orchestra (ex. in Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"). The Paris World Exhibition in 1889 inspired Debussy's interest in non-Western music and instruments especially Asian music-he used the pentatonic scale, unusual timbres, and textures in several piano preludes. He created a new piano style-it had contrast of high and low registers-it had contrast of high and low registers, a blending sound through the use of pedal, a clash overtones, and a parallel succession of widely spaced chords. He established the French song as the national art form-he based many of his works on Symbolist poems such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Pierre Louys, and Stephane Mallarme. He broke many musical rules-he was one of the first composers to break away from the major-minor system, using instead patterns such as the whole tone scale, the pentatonic scale, modes, parallel 5ths and octaves, "floating" chords (chords from different keys used without modulation) and pedal point (Debussy resolves to a weird note, such as the supertonic).
Teacher's Comments:
- Define Impressionism
- Which era is this composer in?
- Last sentence: do not say weird, say unconventional or unexpected
- Compositional titles and genres?
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Carmen
Teacher's Score: 7.5/10
Published in 1845, the book Carmen by Prosper Merimee didn't seem like a novel that would become very famous, but Georges Bizet used the novel and Meilhac and Halevy's libretto to create an "opera comique" (lyric exotic opera) in 1875. An orchestra plays while several characters sing. Carmen, mezzo, soprano, is a seductive cigarette factory girl who plays the main character. Don Jose, tenor, is a simple soldier obsessed with Carmen. Escamillo, bass-baritone, is a handsome bullfighter who also desires Carmen. Lieutenant Zuniga, bass, is Don Jose's superior officer. He is another person who likes Carmen. Micaela, soprano, is Don Jose's girlfriend before he met Carmen. Frasquita and Mercedes are Carmen's Gyspy friends. This piece is a very good example of exoticism (for this time, Spain) because of the brilliant orchestration and rhythmic vitality. The music shows strong desire, love and hate.The overall theme is about the disintegration of a personality. Bizet expanded the opera comique with realism, sensuality, and a tragic ending. The action is swift as the characters are carried step by step towards their doom. The libretto has 4 main words: l'amour (love), jamais (never), le sort (fate), and la morte (death).
The Prelude to Act 1, in ABAC form, has a lot of themes that would be sung or played later in the piece. A (Main theme) represents the procession of bullfighters, so it is fortissimo (very loud), a major key (A+), 2/4 time, and Allegro giocoso. B (Toreador theme) plays a more graceful theme which would be sung by Escamillo in some later scenes so it is piano (soft), modulates to contrast A (F+) and is in 2/4 time. An abbreviated A (main theme) returns, followed by C (Fate motive), which has a dark and mysterious mood, which means that it is fortissimo again, in a minor key (d-), 3/4 time, and Andante moderato. This Prelude leads directly into the opening scene of Carmen.
Act I is in Seville, Spain in front of a cigarette factory. A trumpet fanfare playing a staccato march tune announces the arrival of a military guard. A crowd of street boys pretends to be like soldiers, singing a snappy tune in high register- "Ta, ra, ta, ta, ta, ta" in d-, imitating a bugle call. The factory bells ring at noon, and young men come to flirt with the factory girls. The girls enter, smoking cigarettes and blowing smoke tings. The mood suddenly changes with a few agitated measures of dramatic music, preparing the audience for Carmen's entrance - it is an alteration of the Fate motive. "Quand je vous aimerai?" (When shall I Love You?) sung by Carmen introduces her tough, impulsive and dangerous character. She says to men she doesn't know when she will love them "but not today, that's certain". The next scene has Carmen singing her aria the Habanera. A descending chromatic melody shows Carmen's seductive nature. The cellos play a Cuban dance rhythm with the 2nd note shorter than the others. It is sung in verse and chorus form with Carmen singing and the chorus echoing her. At the end of the Habanera, when Carmen stares at Don Jose, the Fate motive reappears in the cellos.
In Act II, Don Jose was planning marry Micaela, but he now wants to marry Carmen. Also in love with him, Carmen tries to lure Don Jose into her band of Gyspy smugglers, but Don Jose cannot abandon the life as a soldier he has known. After learning that Carmen has been entertaining Lieutenant Zuniga, Don Jose attacks him in a fit of jealousy, and now he cannot return to the army.
In Act III, in a deserted mountain pass (the Gyspy smuggler's hideout), Don Jose sadly thinks back on his life - his happiness with Carmen was short-lived. Worse, Carmen is tired of him and likes Escamillo. She suggests to Don Jose that he should return to his village, and they quarrel. Carmen's Gyspy friends Frasquita and Mercedes open a deck of cards to tell their fortunes. Their cards foresee rich lives, but Carmen and Don Jose's cards spell death. Escamillo enters the pass, sees Don Jose and fight, but they are separated. Micaela comes in and tells Don Jose that his mother is dying. Just before he leaves, he warns Carmen "We will meet again!" and the orchestra plays the "Fate motive".
In an outside bullring in Seville, Act IV starts with Escamillo preparing for a bullfight. Don Jose steps out of the crowd preparing for the bullfight. He wants Carmen to marry him, but Carmen doesn't want to give up her freedom. Angrily, Don Jose stabs Carmen as the Toreador theme is played.
Teacher's Comments:
- Include the era.
- Define exoticism.
- Say what type of piece is "Quand je vous amerai".
- Define Habanera.
Published in 1845, the book Carmen by Prosper Merimee didn't seem like a novel that would become very famous, but Georges Bizet used the novel and Meilhac and Halevy's libretto to create an "opera comique" (lyric exotic opera) in 1875. An orchestra plays while several characters sing. Carmen, mezzo, soprano, is a seductive cigarette factory girl who plays the main character. Don Jose, tenor, is a simple soldier obsessed with Carmen. Escamillo, bass-baritone, is a handsome bullfighter who also desires Carmen. Lieutenant Zuniga, bass, is Don Jose's superior officer. He is another person who likes Carmen. Micaela, soprano, is Don Jose's girlfriend before he met Carmen. Frasquita and Mercedes are Carmen's Gyspy friends. This piece is a very good example of exoticism (for this time, Spain) because of the brilliant orchestration and rhythmic vitality. The music shows strong desire, love and hate.The overall theme is about the disintegration of a personality. Bizet expanded the opera comique with realism, sensuality, and a tragic ending. The action is swift as the characters are carried step by step towards their doom. The libretto has 4 main words: l'amour (love), jamais (never), le sort (fate), and la morte (death).
The Prelude to Act 1, in ABAC form, has a lot of themes that would be sung or played later in the piece. A (Main theme) represents the procession of bullfighters, so it is fortissimo (very loud), a major key (A+), 2/4 time, and Allegro giocoso. B (Toreador theme) plays a more graceful theme which would be sung by Escamillo in some later scenes so it is piano (soft), modulates to contrast A (F+) and is in 2/4 time. An abbreviated A (main theme) returns, followed by C (Fate motive), which has a dark and mysterious mood, which means that it is fortissimo again, in a minor key (d-), 3/4 time, and Andante moderato. This Prelude leads directly into the opening scene of Carmen.
Act I is in Seville, Spain in front of a cigarette factory. A trumpet fanfare playing a staccato march tune announces the arrival of a military guard. A crowd of street boys pretends to be like soldiers, singing a snappy tune in high register- "Ta, ra, ta, ta, ta, ta" in d-, imitating a bugle call. The factory bells ring at noon, and young men come to flirt with the factory girls. The girls enter, smoking cigarettes and blowing smoke tings. The mood suddenly changes with a few agitated measures of dramatic music, preparing the audience for Carmen's entrance - it is an alteration of the Fate motive. "Quand je vous aimerai?" (When shall I Love You?) sung by Carmen introduces her tough, impulsive and dangerous character. She says to men she doesn't know when she will love them "but not today, that's certain". The next scene has Carmen singing her aria the Habanera. A descending chromatic melody shows Carmen's seductive nature. The cellos play a Cuban dance rhythm with the 2nd note shorter than the others. It is sung in verse and chorus form with Carmen singing and the chorus echoing her. At the end of the Habanera, when Carmen stares at Don Jose, the Fate motive reappears in the cellos.
In Act II, Don Jose was planning marry Micaela, but he now wants to marry Carmen. Also in love with him, Carmen tries to lure Don Jose into her band of Gyspy smugglers, but Don Jose cannot abandon the life as a soldier he has known. After learning that Carmen has been entertaining Lieutenant Zuniga, Don Jose attacks him in a fit of jealousy, and now he cannot return to the army.
In Act III, in a deserted mountain pass (the Gyspy smuggler's hideout), Don Jose sadly thinks back on his life - his happiness with Carmen was short-lived. Worse, Carmen is tired of him and likes Escamillo. She suggests to Don Jose that he should return to his village, and they quarrel. Carmen's Gyspy friends Frasquita and Mercedes open a deck of cards to tell their fortunes. Their cards foresee rich lives, but Carmen and Don Jose's cards spell death. Escamillo enters the pass, sees Don Jose and fight, but they are separated. Micaela comes in and tells Don Jose that his mother is dying. Just before he leaves, he warns Carmen "We will meet again!" and the orchestra plays the "Fate motive".
In an outside bullring in Seville, Act IV starts with Escamillo preparing for a bullfight. Don Jose steps out of the crowd preparing for the bullfight. He wants Carmen to marry him, but Carmen doesn't want to give up her freedom. Angrily, Don Jose stabs Carmen as the Toreador theme is played.
Teacher's Comments:
- Include the era.
- Define exoticism.
- Say what type of piece is "Quand je vous amerai".
- Define Habanera.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14
Teacher's Score: 7/10
When Hector Berlioz was a little over 25 years old, he fell in love with Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson. They wanted to marry, but both families objected to their marriage. Feeling very depressed, he attempted to suicide by drugging himself with opium, but it was to weak to kill him and they married (though the marriage ended in separation). Later, in 1830, Berlioz wrote a program symphony about what he saw when he was drugged. It was called Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 (Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist). An expanded symphony orchestra is playing this song. Berlioz also wrote a program to go with it. An "Idee fixe" (fixed idea) unifies all 5 movements and appears in varied harmony, rhythm, meter, tempo, dynamics, register, adn instrumental colour. It is written in the Romantic era.
The first movement (Reveries, Passions) is in 4/4, C+, and sonata-allegro form. It is when Berlioz sees and remembers passions, depressions, love and emotions before and after seeing his beloved. It introduces the fixed idea as a soaring melody. The second movement (A Ball) is in 3/4, A+, and ternary form (ABA). Berlioz meets Smithson at a ball. The middle section represents the fixed idea in waltz time. The third movement (Scene in the Fields) is in 6/8, F+ and ternary form (ABA). In a summer evening in the country he hears 2 pipers in a pastoral duet. The calmness is interrupted by the appearance of Smithson (is she deceiving him again?). It establishes a mood of "sorrowful loneliness". The fourth movement (March to the Scaffold) is in 4/4 and G-. He thinks that he had killed Smithson and is now led to execution. The fixed idea appears for an instant at the very end, cut of by a harsh ff chord ("the fall of the blade").
The fifth movement (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath) is in 6/8, C+, and in the middle, turns from Larghetto to Allegro. Berlioz sees himself at a witches' Sabbath where ghosts, sorcerers, and all kinds of other monsters come to bury him. Suddenly the fixed idea appears, but it has become vulgar, trivial and grotesque. Smithson then also joins the dance, and bells toll for the dead... This movement has a nightmarish mood and unusual instrumental effects. It opens on soft muted strings in Allegro, which evoke an infernal atmosphere which sounds like "the unearthly sounds, groans, shrieks of laughter". Then, the fixed idea appears in Allegro. It is altered so it sounds like it is mocking someone. The infernal mood is heightened with the use of bells for the dead and the traditional religious chant "Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath) is introduced first in bassoons, then twice as fast in brass. The climax is when the Dies Irae and the satanic Witches' Dance are combined, which leads to an excitingly dramatic ending with col legno (for stringed instruments, tapping strings with the wooden part of the bow) and loud statements of Dies Irae leading into the final cadence.
Teacher's Comments:
FIRST PARAGRAPH CLEAR AND CONCISE:
- lovesick artist poisoned with opium, not himself poisoned with opium
- Who does the fixed idea represent?
- definition of fixed idea
- other inspirations
Last paragraph:
- define "Dies Irae"
When Hector Berlioz was a little over 25 years old, he fell in love with Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson. They wanted to marry, but both families objected to their marriage. Feeling very depressed, he attempted to suicide by drugging himself with opium, but it was to weak to kill him and they married (though the marriage ended in separation). Later, in 1830, Berlioz wrote a program symphony about what he saw when he was drugged. It was called Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 (Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist). An expanded symphony orchestra is playing this song. Berlioz also wrote a program to go with it. An "Idee fixe" (fixed idea) unifies all 5 movements and appears in varied harmony, rhythm, meter, tempo, dynamics, register, adn instrumental colour. It is written in the Romantic era.
The first movement (Reveries, Passions) is in 4/4, C+, and sonata-allegro form. It is when Berlioz sees and remembers passions, depressions, love and emotions before and after seeing his beloved. It introduces the fixed idea as a soaring melody. The second movement (A Ball) is in 3/4, A+, and ternary form (ABA). Berlioz meets Smithson at a ball. The middle section represents the fixed idea in waltz time. The third movement (Scene in the Fields) is in 6/8, F+ and ternary form (ABA). In a summer evening in the country he hears 2 pipers in a pastoral duet. The calmness is interrupted by the appearance of Smithson (is she deceiving him again?). It establishes a mood of "sorrowful loneliness". The fourth movement (March to the Scaffold) is in 4/4 and G-. He thinks that he had killed Smithson and is now led to execution. The fixed idea appears for an instant at the very end, cut of by a harsh ff chord ("the fall of the blade").
The fifth movement (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath) is in 6/8, C+, and in the middle, turns from Larghetto to Allegro. Berlioz sees himself at a witches' Sabbath where ghosts, sorcerers, and all kinds of other monsters come to bury him. Suddenly the fixed idea appears, but it has become vulgar, trivial and grotesque. Smithson then also joins the dance, and bells toll for the dead... This movement has a nightmarish mood and unusual instrumental effects. It opens on soft muted strings in Allegro, which evoke an infernal atmosphere which sounds like "the unearthly sounds, groans, shrieks of laughter". Then, the fixed idea appears in Allegro. It is altered so it sounds like it is mocking someone. The infernal mood is heightened with the use of bells for the dead and the traditional religious chant "Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath) is introduced first in bassoons, then twice as fast in brass. The climax is when the Dies Irae and the satanic Witches' Dance are combined, which leads to an excitingly dramatic ending with col legno (for stringed instruments, tapping strings with the wooden part of the bow) and loud statements of Dies Irae leading into the final cadence.
Teacher's Comments:
FIRST PARAGRAPH CLEAR AND CONCISE:
- lovesick artist poisoned with opium, not himself poisoned with opium
- Who does the fixed idea represent?
- definition of fixed idea
- other inspirations
Last paragraph:
- define "Dies Irae"
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