Essay on Twentienth Century Musical Pieces

Of the many great composers during this era, Wagner stood out to me because of the intensity of his composition from 1851 in “The Ride.” The song pulls at my emotions in a theatrical telling of a battle scene from which warrior maidens emerge. These women are attendants to Odin, who sought out the souls of those heroes lost in battle. The Norse myths story is told through the feelings I experience when I hear this composition. The tempo is fast and amped. It pulls me into the sounds and I want to hear what happens next. I feel the announcement of these heroic soldiers and the challenges they fought through. It starts fast, lightens up, and then comes back with stronger build up. I feel the drama in the battle as if it’s happening in front of me. There are moments while listening where I caught myself holding my breath. This draws out feelings of enthusiastic anticipation which reminds me of the music written for a screenplay. The song finishes with a final, proud, horn blast and then leave me with some tension in the fast-paced ending of thrills. I’m drawn in and

1. How is the history of European and Arabic cultural contact reveal through musical characteristics in places such as Spain and Bulgaria?

The musical work that I am going to use in this essay is “Non avra ma’ pieta” by Francesco Landini. Classical Archives (2008) have noted that Francesco Landini was the most celebrated musician in the first school of polyphonic music in Italy. They also say that Landini was born in Fiesole on the outskirts of Florence and that he was the son of Jacopo Del Casentino, a painter and student of Giotto. It also states that when Francesco Landini was a child, he suffered from smallpox and as a result of this, left him blind for the rest of his life. He dealt with this by taking refuge in music. One way in how Landini done this was by playing a wide range of instruments. One in particular that he mastered was the organ. Landini was famed for his

A great interest in hearing only instrumental music tell the story without text arise. The development of the concerto grosso which is a small unit of soloists against a full orchestra (Wright, 7-4) brought about one of the most popular and recognized concerto pieces, Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in E Major (the “Spring). As one of

In Alban Berg’s Traumgekrönt and Liebesode, one may observe these Wagnerian innovations at work: both the atonal approach developed further by Debussy and the Impressionists in the wake of Wagner and grand-scale composition by Mahler and Bruckner. Berg’s songs—like Mahler’s—simultaneously contain characteristics of music’s Romantic past and its post-Wagnerian future.

This proposal is for the composition of a piece for organ solo to be premiered at the Ronald G. Pogorzelski-Lester D. Yankee Memorial Organ. The proposed title of the piece is “Flowing Streams”. The title is a word game with the name of the composer and organ master J. S. Bach (which translation means creek). The mainstream of the proposed piece is to give a contemporary voice to the immortal work of the baroque composer through quotation of elements of his own music. Bach’s original elements will not be used in their own traditional baroque-tonal approach, but they will be a vehicle to tell a story under a contemporary polystylistic approach. These elements will be combined, compared, and opposed sometimes in a very converging way, another

Wozzeck, a tragic story about a soldier who suffered from cruelties portrayed by society, has music that expresses many feeling and emotions. For example, at opening the music gives a sensation of fear, anger, and suspense portrayed by the captain. As it continues, when Marie is reading the Bible, the music turns softer, holistic, and become slower paced to give an impression of worries and desperation. At the same time, when Marie is alone with Wozzeck, the music changes to express tension and a visualization of what could happen to Marie. Towards the end, the orchestra’s performance by itself gives a feeling of climax.

He began to write preludes for organs but did not cover large- scale organization, when two melodies interact at the same time. A few years after playing for the church, Bach made a visit to Dieterich Buxtehude in Lubeck. This visit reinforced Bach’s style in music with the works he has made.

In the subsequent scherzo, David Berry explained some of the influences of Beethoven, my favorite composer, had on Bruckner’s piece. Although I didn’t really understand much, the second movement’s numerous reiterations of the bold principal theme left me feeling as if I were caught in a powerful thunderstorm of divine glory, a contrast of loving compassion for the

As stated by Burkholder, Grout and Palisca, Weber’s Der Freischutz’s “rustic choruses, marches, dances and airs”; multisectional aria form (influence from Rossini) and florid vocal lines were all common characteristics of the Italian Opera. Meanwhile in Verdi’s Otello, Wagnerian influence could be seen. Verdi used melodic motives to show the characters’ emotions. In Act 4 scene 3, the orchestra was used to heighten the dramatic moment instead of the voice, which was a breakthrough in the history of Italian Opera. It is apparent that both Italians and Germans knew how to blend the musical elements and text well to demonstrate the Romantic traits in their opera.

“Wozzeck−perhaps the most frequently performed theatrical work in the atonal idom-represents Berg’s first attempt to deal within the framework of opera” (“Alban Berg” 1). He gained “recognition as a composer of international standing but also a degree of financial stability” (Jarman 319). A well-known work for the violin was the Kammerkonzert. This song “demonstrates Berg’s love for intricate formal designs and his interest in using apparently abstract, mathematical schemes as structural determinants” (Jarman 319). The Lyrische Suite for the string quartet was also one of Berg’s compositions.

I would say the HAIR is not a golden age musical. I don't think is a golden age musical because it didn't really seem to have a strong plot, there really wasn't that much character development, and the music didn't really seem to further the plot. My understanding is that golden age musicals have all of those characteristics that HAIR lacked. To me, there really wasn't a clear plot or message to the musical which would not characterize it as a golden age

Antonio Vivaldi, a Baroque composer conceived in Venice in 1678, is extremely outstanding for his sonatas, musical dramas, and vocal music, yet especially for his 500 or more concertos. Among these works is potentially Vivaldi's most prestigious concerto, "The Four Seasons". This piece is to a great degree expressive, particularly as it is joined by an individual poem for each season, which gives the entertainers a manual for deciphering the nuances that are ever-present in Vivaldi's works.[1] Vivaldi is additionally the most illustrative European author of a kind that he advanced in the 1710s, the twofold violin concerto, and these works are known to have impacted future writers, notwithstanding including Bach.[2] Vivaldi is likewise said to have either imagined or if nothing else to have promoted ritornello in his concertos, notwithstanding numerous different ideas, for example, little motivic units that he utilized as topics, and his utilization of mood to fabricate strain as his creations escalated.[3] Vivaldi was a critical arranger in his chance and even right up 'til today as a result of his various synthesis, the new melodic structures he presented, and the numerous melodic ideas that he promoted through his pieces. This paper will initially talk about the foundation paving the way to Vivaldi's profession and different life effects on his music, trailed by the different melodic structures and ideas that he utilized, a standout amongst the most surely understood

The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.

They say what’s old is new again. There is nothing new under the sun. What goes around comes around. History repeats itself. These may be just a few banal sayings, but they might hold true for classical music as well. Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is one such example. Written during the neo-classical and neo-baroque movements of the early 1900s, this clever piece ties together French musical traditions, baroque styles, and World War I in just six short pieces. This essay will detail the origins of the suite form and the neo-classical neo-baroque movement, and compare Le Tombeau de Couperin with Bach’s French Suite no. 5 in G Major, BWV 816.