The First Piece Of Music In The Twentieth Century

The development and recapitulation section opens with the strings and flute playing antiphonally in a minor key. The melody is very rhythmic and uses accelerando. The strings then play ascending and descending scales, before playing a melody that is accompanied by brass. The French horns and woodwind section then play in imitation. There is a crescendo, with ascending scales played by the woodwind. The strings play an inverted pedal as the French horn and woodwind imitate each other again. The cello then plays the melody, imitated by strings and flute. An ascending and descending string passages follow, with cymbal crashes. The brass and strings play a syncopated rhythm, which is repeated by the orchestra and uses cymbal crashes. The orchestra then repeats the fight melody, using cymbal crashes, suspensions, triplets and descending scales, whilst the trumpets play the Friar Lawrence theme. Following the crescendo, there is a descending string scale, then the woodwind then plays an arpeggio melody whilst the

This composition consists of three movements of which we will further examine movement II, Adagio Cantabile. This movement is placed in high contrast with the other two, particularly in tempo.

During the performance there were many overtones and one fundamental tone, which deals with the timbre and tone quality. “The overtones produce additional sounds that enable us to distinguish between different instruments even when they are sounding the same pitch”(Kaemmer:60). The tone quality of the performance was very good. The music sounded evenly distributed and it was very easy to hear the sounds of the various instruments. The band played two songs and one song had a slow rhythm and the other had a faster rhythm. Rhythm means more than a basic beat (Kaemmer:65). During the performance there was a steady rhythm. Also during the performance there was a section of the song that sounded different and after about ten seconds the song goes back to its previous sound. That sound was a melody. Melodies are combination of pitches and rhythm patterns that produce a distinctive line of sound (Kaemmer:62). When the band first began to play the song started in a low tone and the music began to escalate and it reached a climax where the loudness of the performance was at its peak. Once at its peak the music began to get softer and lower. This is an example of a linear form of the performance. Linear form means a performance having a definite beginning and ending. The overall musical sound of the performance was delightful and pleasing to the ears.

The piece makes use of an allegro tempo (‘moderately fast’), setting the foundations for the relentlessly aggressive nature of the piece. This is supported by the irregular aforementioned 5/4 time signature, which when combined with the allegro tempo, creates an intense, uneasy, and unnatural mood. A 5/4 time signature will almost always ‘place the listener on edge’, as it is an irregular time signature, due to the odd number of beats (5) in each bar. This manipulation of tempo and time signature was an ingenious decision by Holst, as it establishes the foundation of the piece through his portrayal of the unnatural, uneasy atmosphere of war. However, the addition of a time signature change to 4/4 in bars 68-92 (C1 – see figure 2.1) would be extremely effective in assisting the sections’ ‘military’ atmosphere (as the act of military marching is typically rigid, regular, and constant), further supporting Holsts’ theme of unpredictability. The strings ostinato at the opening of the piece is coloured by a mechanical timbre, achieved through the use of ‘col legno battuto’ (Italian for ‘hit with the wood’). ‘Col legno’ is a technique which involves striking the strings with the wood of a bow, as opposed to drawing the hair of the bow across. The obvious manipulation of this technique results in an extremely effective mechanically percussive

​The Roaring Twenties was a decade absorbed with the growth of the music industry thanks to the radio being born in 1920 (Tyle). The excitement of the war being over brought the Roaring Twenties forth. The American people hungered for change, and the new music of the era, jazz, satisfied their great hunger (100 Favourite Songs). Jazz was a brand new type of music drastically different from anything the American people had heard before. Unfortunately, the Great Depression, which occurred in the thirties, brought forth an aroma of sadness and despair in the lives of the American people. Would jazz also cave into the Depression? Or fight back? Although the mood of the American people changed from the Roaring

Throughout the piece, the brass plays the theme in alteration with the timpani and tam-tam. Although the theme is simple, together they create a long musical idea. The overall dynamic of the brass grows throughout creating a sense of power especially when

The introduction opens with a descending minor scale by pizzicato strings, followed by  three sforzandos in the orchestra. Section A begins with strings, woodwind and brass playing a waltz rhythm, which modulates to major. The strings play melody 1, which is then repeated with piccolo countermelody. Brass and string crescendo and cymbal crash before strings play melody 2 which is dotted, and followed by suspensions and an imperfect cadence. The suspensions are repeated with a perfect

The first movement began with a very strong texture as the music reflected a very powerful theme. It began with the heavy instrumentation from the strings including cellos, violins, and basses. The tempo was also relatively fast and generally upbeat. About a minute and half in there was a very noticeable solo by the violins which was a bit softer in terms of the texture. The melody seemed to be very upbeat and cheerful. Lasting the form of the movement was very well structured and the instruments backed each other up smoothly.

The second piece that is discussed is Toccata in F major, by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a solo piece that was performed in a unison and dissonant harmony. Surreal coordination and impressive pedal solo was extremely impressive and gave this particular piece a broad spectrum of dynamic change and tempo. Ascending and descending theme constantly repeated throughout this performance, alternating in crescendo and decrescendo, which brought life and movement to a classical piece.

Instruments I heard during this music piece were violins, violas, and clarinets. The first theme within the music is exposition; the music begins quiet for a short amount of time. However, during the middle, the transition becomes louder. The second subject begins quiet and gets louder towards the end. The second theme, the development is loud within the middle of the music however, the music begins and ends quietly. There is dynamics that contrast within this part of the music. The dynamics in the recapitulation is similar to the exposition, where the first subject is quiet from the middle to where the transition is louder. Then the second subject begins quiet and gets louder towards the end. The first and second theme contrast in nature by there rhythmic composition. The first theme has shorter values, whereas, the second theme has longer.

During a later part of Scene Two when the cast is dancing the movements match the music, they appeared to be doing the Waltz, so the music had abrupt changes. In Scene Three: Cadiz, the orchestra plays some sad and somber music at the beginning. As the scene progresses the music goes from dark and dismal to happy and cheerful. During one of the songs of Scene Four: Paris the Old Lady, Cunegonde and Candide were discussing a flight and the music being played by the orchestra matched the lyrics bringing the idea of a flight to life. The Old Lady has a mezzo soprano voice she executes all of her notes well in the song. At the end of scene three Candide, Cunegonde, and the Old Lady leave to go to a new place and in the song they sing there are rounds, which were well executed. It helped change the mood again which brightened up the audience.

American scene was bubbling with different forms of music in the 1950s. The nation was blanketed by Romantic ballads of vocalists like Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, Patti Page, Kay Starr, Teresa Brewer, Rosemary Clooney and the Andrews Sisters. Rhythm and blues music started early in the 1900s and gained popularity with variety of musicians and a record label called Motown, one of the best known labels in music history. Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James played Mississippi Delta blues. In the south T-Bone Walker and B.B King were pioneers in the style of guitar music that combined jazz and blues. African American song writer Berry Gordy became a record producer in the

The Renaissance period occurred from 1400-1600. It can be separated into third smaller periods. The early, middle, and the late period, but for the sake of this paper, they will be referred to as stages to avoid confusion. This paper will compare two composers one from the early stage and another from the late stage. The early stage composer will be John Dunstable, and the late stage composer will be Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The purpose of this paper is to compare these two composers’ composition style through the analysis of two of their works.

The pattern of the song has a beat that repeats itself at a fixed rate. In addition to the fixed rate, the song has an accent where one beat is emphasized and this can be heard by the increased volume of that specific note. Towards the end of the song, the melodic contour of the song can be described as a descending melodic contour as the pitches descend from high to low. This is done by the artist holding out their voices for a lengthened amount of time. Furthermore, the phonic structure of this piece can be described as a monophonic piece. Monophony means that the performers play the same pitches with the same rhythms. Even though the song incompasses a wide varitey of instruments, the rhythm of the song stays relatively the same Another important aspect of the song is the dynamics. The beginning of the song can be classified as a crescendo because of the increased musical sound from the instruments, however, towards the end there is a decrescendo as the volume falls off and the artists holds on and extends the last note. The crescendo in the beginning of the song is interesting to note because the song starts off acapella and gradually the volume begins to increase when the first musical instrument comes into play. Last but not least, this piece of music contains a lot of repetition. The vocal repetition of the songs title serves as a

The rubato is a common device used by both romantic and classical composers and is used for emotional expression. The rubato is played spontaneously and cannot be calculated. This again highlights the individualism and freedom given to performers in the romantic era. The piece is slow and is sustained. The music slows down in bar 81. The piece slows down with a ritenuto in bar 88 and ends with a